Thomas Cook TV ads to link to 360° virtual tours of hotels

Viewers watching Thomas Cook’s new turn-of-year TV adverts can skip to a virtual 360° tour of its own-brand hotels at the tap of a smart phone button. Both of its two new adverts have been activated through the Shazam app, which is usually used to research the names of songs by recording the music. Now … Continue reading Thomas Cook TV ads to link to 360° virtual tours of hotels

Viewers watching Thomas Cook’s new turn-of-year TV adverts can skip to a virtual 360° tour of its own-brand hotels at the tap of a smart phone button.

Both of its two new adverts have been activated through the Shazam app, which is usually used to research the names of songs by recording the music.

Now if a user ‘shazams’ one of the two adverts, which are both set to different music and promote different Thomas Cook branded hotels, they can check out the rooms they could stay in if they book.

Chris Chalmers, Thomas Cook’s UK marketing director, said: “Everyone’s on their mobile watching TV – multi-screening – and this gives us the opportunity to have the customer unlock a deeper, rich, more immersive content experience which, in effect, will be a 360° virtual tour.

“The intent is very much to showcase our branded hotels. It’s a really important part of our strategy, to drive our branded hotels concepts, and this is a really good opportunity to do that.

“Shazam has been used in advertising before but I think it’s a first for the UK travel industry.”

Thomas Cook’s first advert, named The Man, is set to I Am The Cool by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and features a young girl confidently strutting round the pool before jumping in the water – and links to Cook’s Sunwing family focused hotels.

A second advert, The Chase, follows a couple running around enjoying a holiday while Jim Copperthwaite’s The Dancers from his Ballroom Ghosts album. When Shazam is used on the advert, it links to a 360° tour of one of Cook’s adult-only Sunprime hotels.