Trivago Wants to Find Profitability and Spend Big on Marketing, Too
Photo Credit: In one TV ad, the "Trivago Guy" watches his own ads. That's how heavily the hotel price-comparison site has been advertising. In its first earnings call, the company says the ad blitzes are working. Trivago
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Your eyes weren't fooling you. Late last year, Trivago really did spend more on its TV ads than ever before in many markets. In its first financial report as a public company, the price-comparison company says the ads are working.
Can a company that seemingly spends almost every euro it earns off customers on more TV and digital marketing find a path to profitability? That was the question on the minds of some analysts as Trivago, the digital hotel search company majority-owned by Expedia, released its first quarterly earnings report since it went public in December at a $4 billion valuation.
On a call Friday, the Düsseldorf-based company said its selling and marketing expense (including money for all of those Trivago Guy TV ads) increased by 70 percent, year-over-year, in 2016.
The path to making money is there, executives said. In some countries, the company has met its long-term profitability targets, though the executives wouldn't name the countries. Some of the near-profitable countries are likely European, though a few may not be. For the first time, the Düsseldorf-based business earns the majority of its revenue outside of its core European market.
Executives said their key measure of advertisi
