Lessno.com – Reaching Young Travelers

Lessno.com is an international discount travel website targeted at European and American business and leisure travelers.  Developed by a Harvard Law drop-out and a college finance professor, Lessno.com’s primary target audience is young professionals and students.

In helping to develop a marketing and media strategy for Lessno.com, Braithwaite Communications recommended and ultimately implemented a diverse set of new media marketing activities.  A viral online game called “Chimps” offered players a 7-day vacation for earning bananas and referring friends.  Interactive emails reached out to young professionals at the ideal time for them to be read – Sunday afternoon.  And a keyword advertising campaign was initiated to reach the targeted audience when they were surfing the web – but not necessarily searching for travel.

The public relations strategy was similarly focused on attracting attention indirectly.  Instead of attacking the big 3 of discount travel – Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia – on flight trends, Lessno.com was featured for its innovative approach to marketing, its tips for young travelers, doing business in a virtual office and other things.  This resulted in numerous media placements in newspapers across the country, Forbes.com and a book on starting an e-business to be published by Entrepreneur magazine.

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