For nearly two decades, trivago has helped travellers across the world compare prices to find the best hotel and accommodation deals. With a presence in more than 190 countries, and 53 localised websites and apps available in 31 languages, the platform provides access to a wide range of accommodation options, solidifying its position as a leading choice for travellers seeking competitive lodging options.
As a global travel platform, trivago’s brand must connect with audiences across the world—quite literally. João Laureano, Creative Director, and Jean Pierre Marsala, Motion Designer, shared that localising their ads for 30 markets at the same time would require months of production and delivery, just to find one person who speaks the language for multiple markets.
Then, they discovered HeyGen, which helped them save months in video production and enabled simultaneous localisation of their ads. With HeyGen, they became more efficient and were able to quickly strengthen the company’s mission of being the obvious choice for travellers searching for a hotel through their global advertisement, Mr. trivago.
The challenge
A major component of trivago’s marketing strategy is focused on creating targeted TV ads.
Jean’s and João’s teams collaborate closely on these projects from the initial concept through production to the final cut. While they worked with production companies in the past, most of their work is done in-house.
Their teams faced a significant challenge in finding a time- and cost-efficient way to localise ads in 30 markets, all with different languages and dialects.
To achieve this, they needed to find one person who could speak multiple languages and resonate with every single market. This process involved expensive, time-consuming research and a considerable amount of time spent in post-production, editing the finer details of their accents, which further increased overall costs. Even after using voiceover effects, the final output did not effectively convey the message trivago had in mind.
They wanted to retain a single person as the trivago brand face across all languages and needed a platform that would streamline this lengthy process.
After evaluating multiple generative AI platforms, trivago chose HeyGen.
The solution
Using HeyGen’s technology, the trivago team dropped the expensive plan of searching for a single actor who could meet all their niche and unusual requirements. Instead, trivago found a one-stop software solution that offered everything they needed and more.
In the beginning, the teams faced a fixed deadline for commercial delivery that could not be postponed without incurring additional time and financial costs. Confident in HeyGen’s ability to manage the production, trivago decided to utilise the technology for the first time.
The HeyGen team proved to be responsive and efficiently prioritised all necessary changes, successfully working across different time zones and ensuring timely submissions.
Despite numerous mid-production adjustments and an extremely tight timeline, the trivago team took a chance on HeyGen, and the outcome was a success.
The outcomes
“We did tests with other companies and HeyGen was always on top for quality. We were very transparent with their team from the start because we were in a high-risk high-reward situation where we were doing this for the first time and were really trusting with them and it paid off entirely," said João.
After using HeyGen for less than a year, the impacts on both cost and time have been significant.
- The technology has cut post-production time in half, saving teams an impressive 3-4 months on average.
- Advertisements were successfully localized in 15 locations in three months—an achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without HeyGen.
Utilizing HeyGen’s text-to-speech feature
- Text-to-speech enables trivago to quickly localize content for target markets around the world.
- In less than a year of using HeyGen, trivago has created TV ads for 30 regions.
“HeyGen provided our team with custom solutions, responded to our questions promptly, and were willing to make the changes we needed and requested within a short period of time.” -Jean Pierre Marsala, Motion Designer at trivago
