Cheapflights launched an image-based search function, Drag, Drop and Go for people wanting to find flights for worldwide events. This case study looks at how the travel site got a 95% clickthrough rate to the site with a quirky interactive banner search campaign
Case study summary
• Cheapflights web banner worked as flights search tool
• Users dragged image of the articles on page of interest into the banner to get the right ticket
• Engagement rate: 145% higher than the benchmark for other digital campaigns
The challenge
Nowadays people travel to experience sports, arts and music live. According to recent UK report, 45% of live music audiences were music tourists and there were 9.5 million music tourists in the UK alone.
To target these people, Cheapflights introduced a web banner that worked as an easy tool to search flights simply by dragging the image of the articles the user is reading into the banner to get the right ticket.
The solution
The functionality launched in banner ads in news websites of the Guardian, Telegraph and Mirror and NME.com.
Someone reading an article about their favourite football team can drag the image accompanying the article, drop it in the accompanying Cheapflights banner ad and immediately get flight prices for their next game.
An another example, a music fan can drag an image of their best-loved band, drop it into the site's ad banner and seamlessly find the best flight price to go to their idols' next gig.
Once the image has been dropped, it is captured and analysed to establish if the photo shows a singer, actor or sports star.
This information is then fed to ticket sale services, such as Ticketmaster, to find out when and where is the person of interest's next public event.
The Cheapflights API is then used to search for the best flights to that event from the user's location. Flight search results are then sent back and displayed in the banner.
Cheapflights.co.uk managing director Andrew Shelton said: "We're taking our 'Smart Search. Made Simple' concept to the next level by bringing our simple flight search to our media partners' readers.
"Our new advert widget will find flights to the next sports, music and arts events using an image of an artist or sports team. Global flight search has never been easier."
The results
• Engagement rate: 145% higher than the benchmark for other digital campaigns.
• 92% clicked through
