For the latest Super Bowl 57 advertising news—who’s in, who’s out, teasers, full ads and more—check out Adweek’s Super Bowl 2023 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories here. And join us on the evening of Feb. 12 for the best in-game coverage of the commercials.

As pandemic restrictions loosened and pent-up travel demand let loose, three travel brands took the plunge and bought Super Bowl ads in 2022.

Only one has booked another trip to the Big Game in 2023.

Last year, Booking.com used a Super Bowl spot with Idris Elba—the company’s first time in the game—to reassure travelers it would be there to meet their needs as travel markets reopened. It even gave away nearly $500,000 in vacations to destinations featured in Super Bowl ads just to put customers in an adventurous mood.

This year, the Dutch travel site aims squarely at the U.S. market by bringing in Emmy Award-winning actress and producer Melissa McCarthy to sing about a dream vacation “Somewhere, Anywhere”—especially if it has child care, but even if it curls her hair (“Hello, humidity!”)

Accompanied by her husband, frequent collaborator and sexy “landscape architect” Ben Falcone, McCarthy illustrates the breadth of global properties on the site while singing the praises of features including cancellation policies and verified reviews.

“The joy and excitement we get from traveling and exploring the world, or even taking a short trip close to home, gives us such wonderful memories,” said McCarthy, whose last Super Bowl ad appearance came in a Kia spot in 2017. “Every time my family travels, we come back as a little bit better versions of ourselves, and we’re immediately inspired to start daydreaming about our next trip.”

Already a household name in many European markets, Booking.com is building on its 2022 Super Bowl success by launching another yearlong, multifaceted campaign designed to bring more U.S. travelers to the site. While last year’s Super Bowl ad positioned Booking.com as a reliable travel supplier for the nation’s pent-up demand, this year’s game plan has a far bigger win in mind: making Booking.com the top online travel agent in the United States.

“The key focus for us is really strengthening ourselves in the U.S. as the No. 1 travel brand,” said Arjan Dijk, svp and CMO at Booking.com. “And then once we have people book with us, that they book with us more, and that’s the playbook branding.”

Somewhere, everywhere

Working with creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo and media agency Mindshare, Booking.com turned the McCarthy-led Super Bowl spot into a full year of ads and giveaways. The company is hosting yet another Super Bowl sweepstakes, asking viewers follow @bookingcom on Instagram or TikTok and leave a comment on any Booking.com giveaway post—along with #ShareYourAnywhere and #Sweepstakes—describing where they’d want to go.

Booking.com will pick 50 winners at random and give them each $10,0000 in travel credits to use on the site.

Once the final whistle blows, a blend of 15- and 30-second commercials will run on audio streaming, online and social media channels until the end of April. Spots including “Vacay in the USA,” “Perfect Vacation Rental,” “Room Service” and “Double Booked,” all available on Booking.com’s YouTube channel. Another slate of ads will roll out in time for the peak summer travel season.

Dijk notes that Booking.com believes strongly in accelerated momentum and likes to jump on shifts in travel planning whenever possible. As it discovered during the Super Bowl last year, the middle of February kicked off Spring Break booking season.

As a result, he and his team put McCarthy in at least 10 different wigs to create hundreds of different executions and cover various high points on the calendar for travel.

With Booking.com’s own research finding that 73% of global travelers are more optimistic about 2023 than they were about 2022—though 70% of U.S. travelers are seeking more value for their dollar—the company wants its Super Bowl campaign’s influence to spread beyond one given Sunday.

“Consciously, we only remember 12% of our life, and we play in that space,” Dijk said. “That trip to New York City, or that trip to San Francisco or to Miami—those are the things that you remember, and we want to make it easier for people to achieve that.”

A familiar destination

In just its second attempt at a Super Bowl campaign, Booking.com has built on a strong foundation of success.

For the 2022 Super Bowl, Booking aired its 30-second ad with Elba in the fourth quarter and supplemented it with a $500,000 vacation sweepstakes and a five-week push of 15- and 30-second ads. Those were followed by more spots toward the summer and a continuation of Elba’s campaign all the way through New Year’s Eve.

Using Booking.com’s “test and learn” mentality toward marketing, Dijk and his team used a brand tracker that surveyed 3,000 U.S. consumers on a monthly basis throughout the 2022 campaign. As the year progressed, they saw a steady increase in Booking.com’s brand awareness in the United States.

By the third quarter of 2022, the number of room nights booked across all Booking Holdings properties in the U.S.—including Booking.com, Priceline and Kayak—increased 30% from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. According to Apptopia, Booking.com became the most-downloaded travel app in the U.S. in 2022.

“We have this great momentum,” Dijk said. “So for me to sell to my boss and to our board of directors that are going even bigger in the second year was not difficult based on those results.”

For the latest Super Bowl 57 advertising news—who’s in, who’s out, teasers, full ads and more—check out Adweek’s Super Bowl 2023 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories here. And join us on the evening of Feb. 12 for the best in-game coverage of the commercials.