Inside Kayak’s absurdist new ads from Supernatural

In an advertising world that’s strayed from comedy in recent years, Kayak has stayed the course. The travel site made humor central to its marketing strategy practically from its launch in 2004, an approach it continues today. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here This week, it launches three new spots from agency Supernatural that run the gamut of comic absurdism while staying true to its longtime proposition—that Kayak, with its “metasearch” engine, is the only site you need to find the best travel deals. The creative idea behind the new spots is “Don’t do it yourself”—i.e., don’t search dozens of sites when Kayak is all you need. This idea is then translated to other characters and situations, such as the farmer in the first spot below, who prefers to handle scarecrowing herself. “We have a very clear consumer benefit. So, the challenge becomes, how weird and funny and extreme can we be to earn the attention of the traveler?” Matt Clarke, VP of North American marketing at Kayak, told Ad Age. “Kayak, as a product, is very rational. Bringing humor into the rational is a way to get people to pay attention. And it’s always a good thing when you leave people with a smile on their face after interacting with your brand.” Paul Caiozzo, co-founder of Supernatural, said Kayak’s message has been so consistent over the years because the behavior change they’re seeking also remains largely the same. “When all these travel sites launched, decades ago now, people were searching something like 17 sites before they booked, looking for a better deal. Fast forward to the present day and they’re still doing that,” he said. “Metasearch has been a difficult thing to explain. This gets at the notion that people are still doing it themselves and it makes less sense than ever.” In the second spot below, a man takes an unorthodox approach to vacuuming his living room floor—an approach that certainly doesn’t seem healthy. This kind of physical comedy hearkens back to Kayak’s ads of yore, said Clarke. A famous example is the 2012 brain surgeon spot created by agency Barton F. Graf. Recent Kayak ads have embraced other kinds of humor—such as last year’s “Deniers” spots, which satirized the politicization of travel during the pandemic. “It was a lot of fun going through 50 different scenarios to get down to the three we ultimately executed,” Clarke said. “We feel there’s enough of a through-line that the consumer can walk away having understood the nitty-gritty of the business point we’re trying to make while still being entertained.” Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Caiozzo said the three spots have quite different comedic tones, so the campaign can appeal to the most people. “‘Farmer’ is meant to be readily enjoyable, easy to love, the most mainstream. ‘Vacuum’ is your weird ad comedy,” he said. “And ‘Fish’ is the most adventurous, the most out there, the one that pushes the creativity the hardest.” See “Fish” below, in which a man insists on making a real connection with his dinner. The spots were directed by MJZ’s Perlorian Brothers, aka Michael Gelfand and Ian Letts, who are known for their work in absurdist comedy. They told Ad Age in an email that casting was everything on these spots. “The campaign is about Luddites. Skeptics. Individuals who are more than just suspicious of the idea of progress—they are incredulous,” the directors said. “So, our approach from the beginning was to find actors who would completely adopt this mindset. Actors with a kind of blind arrogance. Actors doing very foolish things but never aware of how foolish they look.” Since the characters are really anti-spokespeople, “instead of looking for aspirational or heroic types, we wanted people on the edge of buffoonery,” the directors said. “It doesn’t get much more fun for a director than that!” The biggest challenge, they added, was “finding an actor with enough respiratory capacity to suck up multiple takes of human vacuuming. Do not attempt! Also, the animatronic chicken was excellent but kept breaking down in the heat.” The spots break on TV in the U.S. and Canada this week, along with paid social and digital. In Caiozzo and Clarke’s view, they should bring some welcome levity in what can often feel like dark times. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here “I hope this means more clients will come looking for this kind of work, which has not been the case,” Caiozzo said. I don’t understand how humor ever diminished [in advertising]. All the data points to it being more effective and more loved and easier to make a connection. I understand it’s not right for every brand, but for Kayak, humor is such a strong part of who they are and how consumers relate to them.” “When people are flipping on a screen or looking at their phone, it’s easy to have a lot of negative brought into your life. We prefer the smile route,” said Clarke.

Inside Kayak’s absurdist new ads from Supernatural

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