1.
Rabbits From Their Hats:
Tricks Design-Savvy Executives Are
Using For New Web & Mobile Revenue
Melissa Matross
@mmatross
February 2013
www.visualphotos.com

2.
So how does it work?
1. User does a search for flight, hotel or car
2. User sees Hotwire’s great prices and thinks
“Let me check to see if this is a good deal”
3. User notices the “Compare with other sites” conveniently located on
Hotwire’s search results
4. User thinks
“Hey, this is easy. Hotwire must have the lowest prices since they are
allowing me to check with other sites, but I’m going to check
anyway…”
5. User selects on average 3 checkboxes and deeplinks to results on other
sites
6. Hotwire gets paid for each search initiated on the other sites
5 | Media Strategy

3.
Trick
#1 Read minds
Know your customer’s behavior

4.
Collect payment on searches initiated
from Hotwire
(searches that users would do anyway)

5.
Trick
Believe in Magic
#2
(Trust your value proposition)

6.
Build confidence that Hotwire offers the best
prices
9 | Media Strategy

7.
Why did it work so well?
• Lots of users cross shop
• We treated it as a feature rather than ads
• We designed it to highlight our exclusive opaque inventory & low prices
• Sales team negotiates competitive CPC rates with partners
10 | Media Strategy

8.
2000%
increase in revenue
over 3 years

9.
Trick
“Hocus Pocus”
#3
(Focus)

10.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/4509414056/

11.
Trick
“I can make you
#4
disappear”
(Remove unnecessary features)

12.
Trick
“Presto!”
#5
(Speed Matters)

13.
Search times
23.1
12.1
7.1
Full Site mWeb 1.0 mWeb 2.0
Full Site mWeb 1.0 mWeb 2.0

14.
“Abracadabra!”
(Summary)

15.
1. Know your user’s behavior
2. Trust your value proposition
3. Focus
4. Remove unnecessary features
5. Speed matters

16.
Thanks!
Questions?
Melissa Matross
mmatross@hotwire.com