Skyscanner going old media?

By Greig Cameron on Jan 5, 10 04:32 PM in Innovation

Interesting one this as flight search engine Skyscanner has launched its first ever old-media advertising campaign.

Ok so strictly speaking a television ad campaign might not be completely old media.

Still from an internet company which has never done any traditional advertising it marks an interesting development.

It's much like the billboards for Google and its Chrome browser which have been appearing in UK city centre's for the past few weeks.

I'm not suggesting online businesses are going to save old media advertising but it shows there is still a lot of value placed in printed and television products.

In Skyscanner's case there is no DIY ethos involved in the production of the ad.

Comedian Danny Wallace provides the voiceover, the Newhaven Agency came up with concept and it was developed by Bert & Bertie of The Gate Films.

Certainly a far cry from grabbing a Flip HD camera and posting something on YouTube.

Frank Skivington, Skyscanner's commercial VP, said: "This is the first time we've used TV advertising to target potential customers, with traffic to the site previously being driven by online marketing, PR and word-of-mouth recommendations.

"It's our aim to create a truly global travel brand and the ad campaign forms part of the process. It seems right to trial it in the country of Skyscanner's inception. We'll evaluate the success of the campaign before we roll it out elsewhere."

The campaign will initially air in Scotland during January with the possibility of it being rolled out further.

I had actually used Skyscanner to book a few flights before I interviewed chief executive Gareth Williams at the company's office in Edinburgh.

There is little doubt it is really stepping things up with revenue predicted to be up to around £9m (from £3.5m) by the end of May.

It is a clear case of showing how leading internet companies can be based in Scotland.

The founders, Williams, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, identified a niche and have exploited it as well as anyone else in their market.

The great thing is they all recognise there is much more room for expansion.