Science & Technology 
Science and Technology
Science and Technology 
Fri, January 16, 2009
Thu, January 15, 2009
Economy Is A Major Theme In New Priceline.com TV Campaign Starting This Week
NORWALK, Conn.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) unveiled its new marketing campaign featuring Emmy Award-winning actor William Shatner, who is returning for his 11th year as priceline.com's celebrity spokesman, in a series of TV, online and print advertisements that begin appearing this week.
To see the new TV spots, visit [ http://www.priceline.com/negotiator/ ]
The spots were created by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners (BSSP), priceline.com's San Francisco-based advertising agency. No financial details of the campaign were released.
The campaign is a further extension of Shatner's successful run as the Priceline Negotiator. Priceline.com decided to make the economy a major theme in this year's campaign. "Priceline.com makes leisure travel affordable even in this economic environment," said priceline.com Chief Marketing Officer Brett Keller. "Delivering great travel deals is built into the priceline.com brand's DNA. If there ever was a time to give priceline.com a try, it's now. And The Negotiator delivers that important message in a way that's both humorous and informative."
"These are unsettling times, and people need to know that it's OK, even good for them, to take time off and take a vacation," said Mr. Shatner. "The Negotiator reassures them that an affordable getaway is still within their reach."
Most TV and film buffs know William Shatner for his work in series such as Star Trek and Boston Legal, which recently completed a four-year run. Mr. Shatner recently joined The Biography Channel with a new interview series titled Shatner's Raw Nerve. And, of course, fans know him for his work on priceline.com's commercials. This will be the third consecutive year that Mr. Shatner has appeared in the spots as The Priceline Negotiator – a shrewd, hard-bargaining professional negotiator who will stop at nothing to obtain the best travel deals and maximum savings for priceline.com customers. This year, fans can look forward to seeing Mr. Shatner in a retro blue muscle van with all kinds of high-tech gadgetry.
According to BSSP, the 11-year Shatner/priceline.com partnership, sometimes referred to as his longest-running role, has been a winning combination. "We were thrilled to hear that Shatner was coming back for an 11th year," said Mike Shine, BSSP's co-Creative Director. "His presence gives priceline.com a personality that you don't see much these days in the online travel space. That presence translates into believability, recall and consistent brand recognition."
William Shatner first appeared in a priceline.com advertisement in 1998. Early priceline.com commercials featured a singing William Shatner twisting the words of ‘70s pop hits like "Age of Aquarius", "Convoy" and "Two Tickets to Paradise" into odes to priceline.com and its money saving prowess. The ads were spoofed by Jay Leno, parodied on Saturday Night Live, lampooned in MAD Magazine, and even featured as a question on Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Later on, priceline.com paired Mr. Shatner with his former co-star and friend Leonard Nimoy. That campaign focused on promoting priceline.com's new product lineup that included published-price and Name Your Own Price® travel products. In another series of spots, Mr. Shatner educated shoppers about the many travel choices they have when shopping at priceline.com.
About Priceline.com(R) Incorporated
Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) [ www.priceline.com ] provides online travel services in 22 languages in over 70 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Included in the priceline.com family of companies is Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service.
Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe's largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 70 countries in 19 languages and offers its customers access to approximately 57,000 participating hotels worldwide.
In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting great published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com's TripFilter advanced search technology, customize their search activity through priceline.com's Inside Track features, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.
Priceline.com also operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.