Arjan Dijk, senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer VP at Booking.com joined the Variety Studio presented by Canva, at Cannes Lions for a conversation about the marketing practices of…
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Arjan Dijk, senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer VP at Booking.com joined the Variety Studio presented by Canva, at Cannes Lions for a conversation about the marketing practices of the tech company, and how the strategies of utilizing global celebrities, such as Idris Elba, leaning into the influx of Artificial Intelligence all in effort to contribute to the company’s international growth.
At the start of the interview, Dijk approached the critiques the tech industry has faced, elaborating on the travel tech company’s intent to embrace the growing use of AI. “Everyone realizes that there are kind of huge opportunities ahead of us and that as marketers, we need to stay in touch with the capabilities and make sure we do that in a solid and good way.”
Dijk also referenced the company’s current implementations, “At Booking.com, we have hundreds of data scientists who are very focused on driving the success of our marketing campaigns.”
As Dijk spoke to Booking.com’s incorporating new technology as pillars of its marketing strategies, he shared how vital the messaging has been to its growth, explaining how Booking.com works to create messaging that aligns with the company’s intent.
“You have to stay close to your product. I do think that a lot of brands struggle with that nowadays, because there is so much content, there’s so much noise, and everyone tries to be a little bit more special. But in the end, it’s about their products and what it does to people’s lives.”
Dijk credits both the company’s strategy to keep “realistic” messaging that aligns with Booking.com’s purpose, but also notes how successful the campaigns with Idris Elba and Melissa McCarthy were for the corporation.
“The reason we really loved working with [Elba] is that he has this universal appeal, and we’re a brand for everyone. We’re not a brand for rich people or people with a smaller wallet. We’re not for a very specific target audience. We’re for everyone — and Idris had this universal appeal.”
As for working with McCarthy, Dijk explained “This was really about our products and the booking experience, and of course her with her humor and everything, making it fun to watch and that people get the key messages we want to convey.”
“We’re actually running the [Melissa McCarthy] ads in France at the moment, but we have her French voice, and so she’s singing in French, and we have the voice that she normally has in her movies in France, and it works incredibly well,” said Dijk. “We clearly research because we’re like, ‘Okay, she kind of suited for French people and the French people love her.’ And when you watch the ad, you almost forget that it’s actually originally American English.”
Watch the full conversation above.