HotelTonight saluted last-minute travellers with Wes Anderson-style mini epics

An awareness campaign for the relentlessly unique online travel agency, articulating the confident, savvy traveller its app is built for and the benefits of booking last minute.

Two 15-second films turn last-minute bookers into immaculate eccentrics — a prize Afghan hound in a Vespa sidecar, a single pair of tanning goggles packed in a trunk.

Directed by Iain MacKenzie of Madre with Wes Anderson framing, choreographed symmetry and an erudite British narrator; a retro-styled man rides a Vespa with his prize-winning Afghan Hound ('Greatness deserves greatness'), and an austere woman unpacks tanning goggles from a trunk ('overpacking is a sign of weakness').

No results were reported; the campaign gave the app's playful, 'wiser-than-thou' interface attitude a filmic equivalent, per the agency.

HotelTonight, the online travel agency built on last-minute booking, ran an awareness campaign with the ruling spirit of 'plan less and live more', created by agency Our Man In Havana and directed by Iain MacKenzie of Madre. The films depict over-the-top travellers who travel like pros, maintain high standards and are not intimidated by booking at the last minute.

The two fifteen-second films borrow Wes Anderson's framing techniques. In 'Best In Show', a sharp, retro-styled man zips along on his Vespa with his prize-winning Afghan Hound in the sidecar while a British voiceover intones, "Greatness deserves greatness." In 'Tanning Goggles', an austere, stylish woman walks through a boutique hotel and unpacks a large trunk containing a single pair of tanning goggles, ending on the line "overpacking is a sign of weakness".

"HotelTonight is a different breed of OTA designed for a different breed of traveller," explained creative director Sylve Rosen-Bernstein — more astute, confident and sophisticated. MacKenzie said he wanted to show characters who are "one of one", matching the app's next-level lodging with precise visuals; managing director Lacey Gardner said the goal was to bring the app's playful, jestful in-interface attitude to film.

The films never show the booking flow; they characterise the person it is for — aspiration by portrayal rather than demonstration.

Wes Anderson's grammar — symmetry, deadpan narration, retro styling — mirrors the product's promise of effortless control.

Quirky specificity ('Greatness deserves greatness', 'overpacking is a sign of weakness') makes a generic OTA message feel authored.

At fifteen seconds each, the spots are over-the-top portraits rather than plots — attitude you can absorb in a single viewing.

When your product is a feeling — the confidence of booking late — cast the customer as the hero of a very small, very stylish epic.

'Best In Show' and 'Tanning Goggles' ran as HotelTonight's awareness campaign. The material records no media or business results; the agency framed the work as bringing the app's own playful, flirtatious, wiser-than-thou interface attitude to the screen, with the confident HotelTonight customer at centre stage.