Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
VRBO.

Stephen Semple:
Oh, another one of those.

Matthew Burns:
What is it? Vacation VRBO.

Stephen Semple:
Vacation rental….

Matthew Burns:
By owner.

Stephen Semple:
By owner, that’s it. Vacation rental by owner. God, we can’t even think of it. Anyway.

Matthew Burns:
Well, here’s the thing. It’s been known as VRBO for a really long time.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah, which is fine.

Matthew Burns:
This is the second time that we’ve talked about this one. And normally, if we try to come back with some, if we do a good one, we might highlight a bad one. VRBO, this is two strikes, man. I’m just saying. And Steve, you were pointing out something about VRBO losing market share.

Stephen Semple:
Well, they’ve been losing market share to Airbnb, and I reflected back to we actually did want an Airbnb, which was a great ad.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. And so I’m going to play it because I think everybody needs to see it first and then we can talk about it. So guys, watch this. Fairly current. I think it’s within weeks.

Stephen Semple:
Oh yeah. It’s running right now.

Daughter: My life!

Mom: We knew our last VRBO was going to be incredible. We didn’t know the hot tub was broken.

Dad: Or that our daughter’s going through a phase.

Daughter: Hot tub is busted.

Dad: I’m on it.

Mom: But VRBO had our backs, and with VRBOCare, they moved us. Better place, better hot tub.

Dad: Water’s real hot, honey. Daughter’s about the same.

Announcer: Teenagers are full of surprises.

Dad: Got any room for dad?

Daughter: Ew, think again, Bruce.

Stephen Semple:
A vacation rental from VRBO is not. If you know, you VRBO.

Matthew Burns:
So okay. I need to say, I got a chuckle. I really like the dad. I really like the dad.

Stephen Semple:
So here’s what it has. It has entertainment. It has a shared experience. Anybody who’s had kids has had that teenage kid.

Matthew Burns:
Absolutely.

Stephen Semple:
So it hits all those marks, but it’s a bad ad. It’s a bad – And here’s the reason why. It’s a bad ad for a couple of reasons. One is when people are in a negative space, they don’t buy.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
And so the ad left us. Basically what the ad said is, you’re going to have this vacation with your teenage daughter, and it’s going to be crappy.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
So that doesn’t put me in a real positive happy space of, gee, I want to go on VRBO and book something.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
So that’s number one. But number two is even worse than that. Number two is here’s what they planted in your brain. You might rent a place, and stuff might not be working. Hadn’t considered that. Well, that’s kind of interesting. Thanks for pointing that out to me, VRBO. And if it’s not working, we will move you to a new location, which means you’ve got to pack your shit up and you’ve got to go to a new location. And that’s all we’re doing for you, which basically means you know what we promised to do is give you the bare minimum of what you booked.

Matthew Burns:
Right.

Stephen Semple:
There was no, oh, and we’ll give you a moving fee, or oh, we’ll give you an upgrade, or oh, we’ll do these things to make sure you’re happy. It’s like, oh, if it’s broken, we’ll move you to. Really? That’s basically all you said to me is we’re going to do the bare minimum.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. No, I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one. And I’d like to give you a challenge on that, but I can’t because really what they’re saying is we’re celebrating. It’s a participation trophy ad. We’re going to do the bare minimum. We’re going to do exactly what you were expecting us to do, which is take care of us if something’s not right. It’s

Stephen Semple:
Like when a company ships you something and something’s broken, they go, we’re amazing because we’re going to send you a part so that you can fix it. Aren’t we amazing? It’s like, no, really?

Matthew Burns:
Please, please give us five stars for that, please.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. And again, I’m going to say it again. It’s a participation award ad, which is meh, meh at best. But then they also have the dad who can’t satisfy the daughter. You had said something off camera, which I thought everybody should hear. If they had taken this shared. It’s a shared experience. Listen, I have two boys and at some point in those. So it doesn’t have to be a daughter, but my son –

Stephen Semple:
I have two daughters, so I really relate.

Matthew Burns:
This is true. But at one point or another, my kids have been assholes. I mean, let’s just call it. It is what it is. We didn’t see eye to eye on something, and it took us a while to get through that phase. And I dreaded vacation time during that. Which means that if any of that’s happening, I’m now reliving that experience. I feel it.

Stephen Semple:
It’s causing you PTSD.

Matthew Burns:
Right? But we know that fear stagnates movement, which means that as soon as it’s negative, so this is the negative feeling- we freeze.

Stephen Semple:
People tend not to purchase in negative, especially if it’s something that is not a must-have.

Matthew Burns:
Correct. But you said if they hadn’t done a story, okay, great. We start off, daughter’s not feeling good. The vacation made the situation better for everybody. So at the end of it, there was a smile. There was a little. Even if it was a glint of –

Stephen Semple:
Right. Could you imagine if they gave him a better place and she liked it?

Matthew Burns:
Right.

Stephen Semple:
How amazing that would be.

Matthew Burns:
Right.

Stephen Semple:
They resolved the story with her, even begrudgingly.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. Yeah, I guess this is better. Even if it was like, guess this is better.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Right.

Stephen Semple:
Or even if she said the teenager thing, well, it’s not awful.

Matthew Burns:
Right. But exactly. But that’s movement from being a sourpuss.

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
Even if sourpuss to meh is growth. Sour puss to “Oh yeah, it’s good. It’s fine.” From gross. So yeah, unfortunately, it’s not moving the needle. And as you said, it’s proof positive. The last few ads that we’ve noticed that we’ve taken any notice of keep promising the same thing as another company, or they’re asking you to think they’re amazing for doing the expected. And this is something we would never do with our clients.

If it was just entertainment for entertainment’s sake, we can do an ad like that. You know why? Because it’s interesting and it takes you from the beginning to the end. You get really good characters. As I said, the dad character, you said he was a good character. I said I just really liked them. I loved the whole, she says, “No, Bruce.” And he turns around, and he goes, “Okay.” And he walks away.

I thought that was funny. The daughter says, “Hot tub is broke.” He goes, “On it.” And he’s like, “He’s very quick. Those one-liners are really good. The mom doesn’t say anything.” She’s just like, “I’m not getting in the middle of this.” There were good characters. Show a storyline. Show a progression. Show something else.

Stephen Semple:
Show something that gives us a positive feeling.

Matthew Burns:
Gives us some hope that this is going to be resolved, right? Because even with the resolution of getting into the new place, she never acknowledges that the hot tub’s hot. Even if she had to just acknowledge the daughter, yeah, it’s hot. At the very least, then you know that VRBO got you into the right place. She didn’t even acknowledge. She just threw the cover over, right?

So yeah, I can’t beat this one up too much, but I probably could, but I’m not going to because it’s not right. But VRBO, listen, we actually think you guys could. Listen, the big dog is doing the big dog thing. We think you could catch some of that. You just have to not celebrate the mundane. And we’re there for you. We would love to help you. Steve, any last thoughts on this one?

Stephen Semple:
No, I think we’ve hammered it.

Matthew Burns:
I’m Canadian, and I live in my feelings. I’m sorry. But we’ll help you. Okay. Thanks, guys, for watching. We’ve got something coming up- a lot of fun on the next one, so stay tuned.

 

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