Hotels.com deliver UK’s biggest ever April Fools’ DOOH activation with Clear Channel UK

In the UK’s biggest April Fools’ digital out of home campaign to date, Hotels.com™ cult character Captain Obvious™ will unveil the brand’s avant-garde range of hotel-scented perfumes – Obviousl’eau.

Creatives at Crispin Porter + Bogusky London have worked with their Hotels.com client to concoct four exquisite fragrances, which embody the perks that Hotels.com – the traveller’s obvious choice – offers its guest. Four executions parodying run-of-the-mill perfume ads – “Touche de Fresh Sheets”, “Essence de Breakfast Buffet”, “Whiff of Free Wifi” and “Eau de Free Toiletries” – will run in both subtle and full motion digital format for 24 hours across the UK, from Aberdeen to Southampton.

Olivia Adda, CP+B creative commented, “It’s brilliant being in a hotel. You’re uplifted and refreshed. And there are great aromas associated with those feelings: freshly starched linen, a full-English sizzling away, posh shampoo. Imagine you could bottle those smells, so you can feel like you’re in a hotel wherever you are…”

In a deal negotiated and brokered by media agency m/Six that leverages Clear Channel’s entire UK digital estate – close to 6,000 DOOH screens – this is the biggest April Fools’ DOOH activation in the UK. The campaign will generate over 7 million impacts in the single day it will be live. It is also the second time Clear Channel’s entire DOOH estate has been taken over by a single brand, following Camelot’s New Year’s Day campaign for The National Lottery this year.

The April 1st DOOH take-over is the latest in a list of digital plays for Hotels.com, including the award-winning ‘Skip Ad’ spots, and Christmas 2016’s ‘Obvious Charades’ played via a Facebook chatbot.

Vincenzo Bruno, Brand Manager EMEA for Hotels.com brand said, “The Captain Obvious character allows us to deliver on a basic message – we’re the obvious choice for online bookings – whilst also entertaining the public with a bit of tongue-in-cheek digital kookiness.”

Captain Obvious has for decades been a pop culture reference in the US, brought to life by Hotels.com in 2014 in the US market in the guise of a super fan – the Captain. Captain Obvious made his first appearance for the brand in the UK in 2016.