Hostelworld shows travel giants BA and Thomas Cook how to make holidays interesting

Lucky Generals had a fine year in 2015; like another contender on our Agency of the Year list, Brothers and Sisters, it seems to have this content business cracked – for Paddy Power but also for Hostelworld. It even succeeded in having a Hostelworld ad banned by the ASA, almost de rigueur these days.

Here’s its latest effort featuring Roger from Ireland Skyping a skydive back to his parents in Ireland. From their reaction you can see why it’s running online rather than in, say, Downton Abbey.

Hostelworld is a travel company of sorts, one which manages to be interesting.

British Airways is a rather larger holiday operator and it is indeed advertising in the last episode of Downton Abbey on Christmas Day, on the basis that by that evening everybody’s pissed off with Christmas and the dreary old UK and interested in the option of a sunny holiday.

Fair enough but the new campaign from BBH is, well, boring.

Thomas Cook and agency Albion are trying a bit harder in this new effort, but it’s still a pool shot (another holiday cliche along with BA’s cocktails on the beach).

One for the Luckys I think.

Hostelworld – MAA creative scale: 8.

As for the others – well it’s (nearly) Christmas, so we’re feeling kind as well as a trifle jaded. But rather less than 8.