In 2000, Jean-Louis Boss took part in the creation of the start-up FastBooking as marketing director. He was looking to devise an online communication campaign that would reach his hotelier clientele massively — and boost the company’s launch!
He entrusted 3TOON with the production of a 3-episode animated series (see the dedicated page) that would form the heart of an e-mail marketing operation. Each of these films targets a specific category (independent hoteliers, travel agencies and end users). The cartoons produced by 3TOON achieved quite exceptional click-through and conversion rates and served for years as a B2B sales tool for FastBooking’s sales forces.
In 2012, twelve years later, Jean-Louis Boss granted us an interview in which he shares his expectations at the time, and a full assessment of this exemplary viral marketing operation (Grand Prix de l’e-mail marketing 2001).
Transcript of the interview with Jean-Louis Boss
“ When I think back to these 3 films, it is always with a great deal of emotion and nostalgia, because I believe that what we did, in terms of a marketing operation, was perhaps the finest operation we ever carried out at FastBooking. It enabled FastBooking to truly launch itself in 2000, its first year — to make itself known, to reach all the hotels we were targeting, and to sign them up. Today, more than 7,000 hotels around the world work with us. At the very start of the company, this operation was an extremely important booster shot for us! ”
When did you contact the 3TOON studio?
Jean-Louis Boss: We created the company in 2000; there were 4 of us at the start. We are more than 200 today, and still going. A 100% Internet company whose aim is to offer hoteliers products and services that increase their online bookings. And it was in 2000 — 12 years ago now — that I got in touch with 3TOON, which was also just starting out at the time… we were their first client.
What challenge or problem were you facing before contacting 3TOON?
J-L B: The objective was to make the FastBooking brand known to our target — independent hoteliers — with a slightly offbeat, original message. And also with the idea of starting to create “buzz”. At the time nobody talked about it, the word didn’t even exist, but that is more or less what we wanted to do.
How did you define the brief?
With Ali (3TOON’s manager), we had chosen to make a first cartoon… and then, while working on it, plenty of ideas came to us — and in the end, we made three! Each film tackled a very specific problem faced by hoteliers, or by Internet users looking to book hotels online at the time.
What results did you get in the end?
In terms of results, for me, we really achieved the type of message and tone we wanted from the outset. So we sent these films to 500 Parisian hotels to test the concept. And, to our very great surprise, we got an extremely high click-through rate. We had a click-through rate above 40%, which is enormous for an e-mail campaign, even in B2B! And around fifty hotels — 10% — contacted us to learn about our product and set up a meeting to present our solutions.
So obviously, it saved us a lot of time. We met all those hotels and, for the vast majority of them — I no longer remember the exact figure — we signed a huge number. Today, more than 500 hotels in Paris are our clients! It was a formidable way to “open the door” of those hotels, introduce ourselves and, in the end, sign the contract with them!
How long did you use these 3 episodes?
We used these cartoons for years! Both in sales meetings — at the start of every meeting, we would screen one of the three cartoons, whichever we felt was most relevant to the discussion. It relaxed the atmosphere and got our message across.
We obviously used them a great deal on our corporate site; they were still online until very recently.
Beyond the fact that they helped us sign up many hotels, 12 years ago now, it is still a product we use, even in sales presentations with hoteliers who come to see us. We don’t hesitate to show them the little cartoons we made 12 years ago — which is quite something! Thank you 3TOON 😉
Watch the 3 episodes of the web series by clicking the posters
FastBooking’s corporate website (now D-EDGE):
