Kayak.com is a travel search engine that allows users to search across 100 travel sites to find the best deals on flights, hotels and rental cars. It was created to simplify the travel search process and avoid hidden fees. Kayak uses targeted marketing to generate higher click-through rates and made $85 million in revenue as of December 2007. While it does not sell travel products directly, it aims to be the #1 website for online travel search through a marketing strategy focused on word-of-mouth, press releases and optimizing the user experience.

1. Nerissa Marbury, PMP
for Ben Alter, J.D. Humphries and Tristan Smith

2. The Travel Industry
Heightened Need For Information
Financial & Emotional Investment
Time: Scarce Commodity
Simplest Trip = Array of Options
Bridge Gap between Expectations & Experience

3. Advertising Landscape

4. The Travel Product
No
Diverse Pre-Test
Intangible

5. Kayak.com
quot;We created the site to meet the needs of today's consumers
who are frustrated by having to search multiple sites to find
the best deal.”
www.kayak.com

7. Search Engine No Hidden Agenda
No Selling 100 Travel Sites
Real Time Availability Real Time Prices

8. Avoid
Service Fees
Incentive
Benefit

10. The C-Suite
Terry Jones
Chairman of the Board, Kayak.com
Travelocity
Steve Hafner Paul English
Co-Founder & CEO, Kayak.com Co-Founder & CTO, Kayak.com
Orbitz, Inc. Intuit
Gregory E. Slyngstad
Board Director, Kayak.com
Expedia, Inc.

11. How Kayak Makes Money
12% - 17% 8%
10%

12. How Kayak Makes Money
Targeted Marketing
City
Dates
Length of Stay
Airline or Hotel Brand

13. How Kayak Makes Money
Click-Through Rates
6X Higher
than untargeted placements

14. How Kayak Makes Money
Revenue*
$85 Million
* December 2007

15. Affiliates

16. Competitors
Travel Search Engines

17. Competitive Comparison
Unique Visitors YOY%
Kayak 4.1M Kayak 9%
Mobissimo 294K Mobissimo 41%
www.compete.com

18. Search Engine
Online Travel Agencies
Competitors
Travel Search Engines

19. Competitive Comparison
YOY%
Unique Visitors
Kayak 9%
Expedia 11.2M
Kayak 4.1M Others -9 to -21%
www.compete.com

20. Competitive Comparison
YOY
# 297 Kayak 13
Others -26 to -40 www.compete.com

21. Competitive Comparison
Avg. Stay
Kayak 4:49
Others 8:08 avg
www.compete.com

22. The Bottom Line
Not Selling Anything
Objective, Comprehensive Information
You Decide Which Products
You Decide Where to Buy

23. Freedom of Choice, Freedom of Voice
Brand Positioning

24. Freedom of Choice, Freedom of Voice
Philosophy #1:
Give Consumers the option
Philosophy #2:
Kayak Listens

25. Brand Value
Best Travel Search Engine
Reputation
Best
Coolest
Search Aid
Best of the Web

26. Brand Value
Relationship

27. Brand Value
Experiential

28. Brand Value
Symbolic
Travel

29. Demographics
www.quantcast.com

30. Target Audience

31. Doesn’t Go After
Segments

32. 75% Book Airfare

33. Wealthy, Educated &
Older

34. Public Relations Press
Releases

35. Word of Mouth

36. User Experiences
http://monitter.com/

37. Objective
#1 website for online travel search

38. Objective
#1 website for online travel search

39. Marketing & Promotions
Ad Spend: 100% Online
key words & travel site ads
Budget: 35% of revenues

40. Problem
Gain market share without spending
hundreds of millions on advertising
Challenge
Preferably without the use of paid traditional
offline media

41. Opportunities for Success
Lengthen Time on Site
Increase Number of Visits
Leverage Family of Sites

42. Life’s A Trip!
There’s a million reasons to travel.
There’s one site to search before you go.