The Roaming Gnome vs. The Negotiator
Written by Ryan Carrigg (contact - e-mail) -- August 24th, 2007 | Recommend This
Amidst the increasingly competitive world of Online Travel Agencies, an interesting battle has emerged between two unlikely spokespersons: Priceline’s Negotiator and Travelocity’s Roaming Gnome. In recent months this skirmish has moved to a new Web 2.0 arena - MySpace.
In June, Priceline announced they would join their competitor with the release of a dedicated MySpace page. Since this announcement Priceline’s Negotiator page has captured more unique visitors than Travelocity’s Roaming Gnome page.
Some interesting discoveries found on the two pages:
- The Gnome is 300 years old, he is on MySpace for “Dating” and one of his top friends is Sasquatch.
- The Negotiator is “Single” and has a body type of “More to Love”.
- The Gnome narrowly wins the friend battle, with 13,762 friends to the Negotiator’s 12,884.
Although the Negotiator is currently winning the MySpace engagement campaign, Travelocity is sitting atop the head-to-head site traffic contention.
The Gnome vs. Negotiator MySpace pages are an interesting and comical example of what tactics companies are employing in order to get an edge in the online world. With essentially zero cost associated with maintaining a MySpace page, there is really no downside to the campaigns.
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August 24th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Nice post Mr. Carigg, but the question still remains.
Who would win:
Jean-Claude Van Damme vs. Dolph Lungren in an steel aquarium match.
With Guest referee - Stephen Segal.
Some interesting discoveries:
* None of them have MySpace pages (and thats the way it should be).
* The two competitors are now so obscure that they were not even considered for the celebrity edition of The Apprentice.
* Chuck Norris was not available for comment and the reporter was never found again.
~ SuperFly ~
August 24th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Check out the Pimp My Negotiator google gadget. You can Pimp out Shatner!!
http://google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107638306661595997786/pimp_my_negotiator.xml
August 25th, 2007 at 6:51 am
The fact is, none of these sites save you any money anyway. While I do use them for trip planing, (it’s easier to compare are hotels and flights on these sites), the fact is direct booking the flights/hotels you find is cheaper than using any of these services. So I say, let the battle rage, I’ll continue to deal direct with the service provider and save money but not paying the negotiator, or the Gnome. ;)
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:20 pm
While I haven’t personally used the negotiator, I have used Travelocity and can say that the customer service alone more than makes up for the price difference. I would rather not deal with directly with an overburdened operator when I can call “the gnome” and get any problems with my stay or my trip handled with a smile.