As consumers return to travel, travel brands are using the Super Bowl to tout their wares. The latest is Turkish Airlines, which confirmed today that it will return with a national spot in the Feb. 13 game after last appearing in 2020.
Turkish Airlines is latest travel brand to announce Super Bowl commercial
Turkish is the latest brand in the travel sector to announce a spot. Last week, Booking.com said it will air its first commercial in the game as it tries to capture growing interest for trip-taking from consumers. Expedia will also air a spot in the game for its namesake brand, as well as a spot for its Vrbo brand in the pre-game.
The time may be right, experts say. A recent Tripadvisor survey found that planned travel in 2022 will exceed actual travel from 2019, following the nearly-two-year downturn from the pandemic.
“This is a sign that’s travel is recovering,” said Clayton Reid, CEO of travel marketing firm MMGY Global, in a recent interview with Ad Age about travel brands betting big on the Super Bowl. He notes that the travel resurgence started in the summer of last year and that as leisure has grown, so will corporate travel this year. “Despite omicron, 2022 is going to be huge year,” he said.
Turkish Airlines ran Super Bowl spots in 2020 and 2019. The 2019 commercial, created with Anomaly and cut down from a longer video directed by filmmaker Ridley Scott, was a celebration of Istanbul and its new airport. In 2018, Turkish ran an ad with Dr. Oz and in 2017, its spot starred Morgan Freeman.
Correction: Turkish Airlines last had a Super Bowl spot in 2020. That information was misstated in an earlier version of this article.