Expedia is getting a major makeover. After a year of no travel when nearly all brands in the sector got walloped, the online travel agency is banking on a fresh new website, new product features, and a big-budget marketing campaign starring Rashida Jones to drive its rebound. The strategy puts design and digital user experience at the forefront, as the Seattle-based company tries to differentiate itself from a slew of competitors all vying for the same travel-keen customer.

“COVID was a reset in many ways in that it made us fully and truly appreciate travel—we had always taken it for granted,” says Shiv Singh, who joined Expedia as senior VP and general manager of brand four months ago after stints at hearing aid startup Eargo, Visa and PepsiCo. “Travel has become much more personal now and that served as a big impetus for us to think hard about what we want the Expedia brand to be and represent in the future.”

The need for change is dire. In the three-month period ending in December—typically a busy time for holiday travel—Expedia Group reported a 67% decline in revenue to $920 million, which included its namesake Expedia brand as well as others such as Orbitz and HomeAway. The company lost $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter alone.

While few consumers were spending on travel during COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantine restrictions, travel brands still tried to remain top of mind. In ad campaigns in recent months, brands like Hotels.com, which is also owned by Expedia Group, asked consumers to remember destinations.

“No one was traveling, but the engagement rates of travel content have been high for a year,” says Clayton Reid, CEO of MMGY Global, a marketing agency focused on travel and tourism. “Though we could not travel in those cases we were still envisioning travel, researching, shopping this entire time.”

That’s resulted in a lot of pent-up demand , as experts expect bookings to resume and even outpace prior, pre-pandemic years. Reid notes that during previous times of economic upheaval such as the recessions in 2002 and 2008, few travelers had money to spend and they were shopping for the best rates and deals, typically offered by OTAs like Expedia. Now, with leisure travel on an upswing, would-be travelers, after a year of saving, have excess funds and aren’t looking for discounts. That puts a strain on Expedia, whose brand is built on helping travelers find the lowest rates via its website and app.

Online travel agency brands have already been under pressure in recent years from their own suppliers—hotels and airlines, which encourage consumers to book direct through loyalty programs and strategic marketing—as well as Airbnb and Google, which has aggressively rolled out its own travel business.

“OTAs over time have lost some traction with travelers because the brand suppliers have taken some of that control back and third parties, especially Google, have become very aggressive in trying to own organic traffic,” says Reid. “That’s hurt the OTAs.”

New strategy

To reclaim market share, Expedia is rebranding itself with a slick user experience designed to support customers at every turn.

“We want to be that ultimate traveler’s companion, with them every step of the way from the point of imagining travel, to purchasing, to being on that trip and at a car rental or hotel, to when they come back,” says Singh. “That’s a big shift in the brand promise—historically, people think about Expedia as the purchasing engine and leave it at that.”

Changes include a new layout on the brand’s website and app, along with features like a virtual agent, easy cancelations and a “keep planning” itinerary experience. The brand is also trying to help with things like travel insurance, an area that is typically confusing for customers, by offering a translation of policy language into more easy-to-understand wording. Expedia, which plans to continue to roll out enhancements in the next two years, is also streamlining its loyalty program, a chief strategy in fostering better connections with its customers.

To promote the new branding, Expedia is rolling out a new marketing campaign that represents its biggest annual spend on brand marketing in the last five years, according to Singh. The push, which was done with agency partner Saatchi & Saatchi, includes the tagline “It Matters Who You Travel With.” Jones stars in an anthem spot in which she represents the physical embodiment of Expedia. While “All By Myself” plays in the background, a young woman  experiences snafu after snafu on her trip, until Jones (as Expedia) shows up to give her encouragement, support and rescue. Actress Naomie Harris stars in a U.K. version of the commercial.

Such brand storytelling, along with new website functions and a better digital experience, is a strategy travel experts expect to see continue to play out for OTA brands.

“An Expedia still needs to have a lot of content on its site around rates and fares, because they can monetize that traffic in ways they always have traditionally, but OTAs recognize the market is becoming more fragmented,” says Reid. “So they are trying to become more of these brand umbrellas—these travel brand storytellers, merchandising travelers and trying to draw people into their brand that way.”