Cheapflights Launches Partner Portal

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. October 14, 2008

AUGUST 17, 2006. Cheapflights Partner Portal ("CPP") is launching to provide advertisers with real-time reporting on their advertising activity on Cheapflights' site via password protected access to their own data on Cheapflights' server.

The CPP delivers a user friendly interface, developed with extensive feedback from Cheapflights' advertisers, on the types of market information questions they wish to have answered on a daily basis. CPP provides this information in an immediate and flexible way. Hence advertisers are now able to access information regarding all the leads that Cheapflights has sent them within 24 hours of a click being made. These are detailed by the type of travel product clicked on by Cheapflights' users, what route the lead was interested in and whether it was a click to their website or on their telephone contact details. The report is drillable, enabling them to go from a very top-level view to a very detailed granular view. CPP therefore provides a detailed breakdown of information so that marketing managers can make informed spend decisions based on return on investment criteria.

Cheapflights has historically developed its products to cater for the ever changing demands of the travel market and has introduced a number of innovations that have benefited both the industry and the consumer. Travel advertising in traditional media lacks the ability to track responses to travel offers in real time. Hence, in an earlier innovation, Cheapflights was the first UK site to introduce Pay-per-Click ("PPC") in 2000. This revolutionized the way the travel industry paid for online advertising. The PPC model does not charge advertisers to be on Cheapflights' site, it is free to list and they only pay for the clicks or telephone calls (leads) that are generated. With no big up-front fees this enables small travel operators to advertise online alongside the majors. This payment method importantly was the first to directly link advertising spend with travel customers' seasonal demand. However, feed-back data on sales about particular offers took several days to supply.

CPP now provides a powerful campaign management tool previously unavailable to marketing managers and offers a new level of control and analysis into the marketing activity undertaken by advertisers with Cheapflights. CPP Phase One is complete. However, the project is an ongoing development which Cheapflights' dedicated technology team is delivering in successive phases. Phase 2 with other exciting new features is therefore due to be released imminently.

Rob Passmore, Cheapflights' Commercial Director commented: "We see this product as a major advance for online travel industry marketers and their response has been enthusiastic. Whilst PPC was a huge advance in online travel advertising accountability, the CPP goes much further and now provides greater transparency for our partners in terms of how the Cheapflights products are delivering for them. Thus this new programme has enabled our hundreds of advertising partners to obtain data on the individual performance of all the deals advertised by them on Cheapflights. It also enables our travel industry experienced sales team to work with our partners' marketing teams optimizing their campaigns and helping them to realise greater efficiencies."

He added: "CPP provides the detailed feed-back on what products the buying public are interested in and enables our advertisers to increase the ROI on their own sites by fine-tuning their offers and publishing relevant deals to meet immediate customer demand. A measurement of success has been the frequency of use of the portal and the very positive feedback the sales team have received from our partners."