The Negotiator is scoring more than just great travel deals for priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) customers. For the second month in a row, Adweek Magazine has singled out a priceline.com commercial featuring William Shatner as one of the best new spots on TV.
“(William) Shatner has been a spokesperson for Priceline for years. Put him in an eye patch and give him a ‘falcon of truth’ and the comedy is ridiculously hilarious,” wrote Adweek’s Eleftheria Parpis about one of the new spots that were created for priceline.com by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners.
The multi-media advertising campaign, which kicked off in January, is gaining momentum in other ways as well. Late last month, priceline.com launched a private Web site that gave thousands of bloggers, journalists and other visitors a behind-the-scenes tour of the production of “Falcon of Truth,” the new spot in which Mr. Shatner teams up with a real falcon to save customers money on their rental cars.
That Web site, http://www.falconoftruth.com is now open to the general public. Visitors to the site can:
- View the new Falcon of Truth spot, post it to their own Web site or share it with friends.
- Check out the Falcon out-takes. See kung fu moves that never made it to TV. Listen to Mr. Shatner “riff” in-character as The Negotiator.
- Download ring-tones, including the Falcon of Truth screech and the unique beep of the Price Line.
- Download Negotiator screensavers and wallpaper.
Fans of Mr. Shatner and The Priceline Negotiator campaign also can go to http://www.priceline.com/promo/shatner_pcln_negotiator.asp, where they’ll find all of the Negotiator videos, along with selected behind-the-scenes clips, screensavers, wallpaper and campaign images.
In print, Negotiator fans can see their hero promoting priceline.com in ads on USA Today’s weather page. “Online and offline, people are connecting with The Negotiator because he embodies what’s so special about the priceline.com brand, and that is our ability to go the extra mile to get customers the best possible travel deals,” said priceline.com Chief Marketing Officer Brett Keller. “William Shatner deftly conveys that message through humorously aggressive negotiating tactics that resonate across a broad cross-section of consumers.”
Mr. Shatner agreed. In an interview with Adweek’s Joan Voight, he explained, “You need a good concept, which is usually something funny. (You shouldn’t) depend just on the important selling message, you need to make the message stand out with a laugh line, something that people stand around the water-cooler the next day and talk about.”
About Priceline.com® Incorporated
Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) operates priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Priceline Europe, a leading European online hotel reservation service.
In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting all the best published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com’s TripFilter™ advanced search technology, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com’s famous Name-Your-Own-Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.
Priceline Europe operates one of Europe’s fastest growing hotel reservation services through its Booking.com network of hotel reservation services, Activehotels.com and priceline.co.uk. Priceline Europe operates in 40 countries in 12 languages and offers its customers in Europe and the U.S. access to approximately 25,000 participating European hotels.
Priceline.com also operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.
For more information about priceline.com:
To book flights http://www.priceline.com/flights/
To book hotels http://www.priceline.com/hotels/
To book rental cars http://www.priceline.com/rentalcars/
To book a vacation package http://www.priceline.com/vacationpackages/
To book a cruise http://www.pricelinecruiseoutlet.com
To see our PriceBreakers deals: http://www.priceline.com/pricebreakers
For check our travel guides: http://travela.priceline.com/travelguides/
To watch our TV ads: http://www.priceline.com/promo/shatner_pcln_negotiator.asp
Other priceline.com affiliated sites include:
General travel information and trip planning http://www.mytravelguide.com
Travel reservations http://www.lowestfare.com
Rental cars http://www.RentalCars.com
European hotels http://www.booking.com
