Let's hope Expedia isn't about to have A Consignia Moment

Back in 2001, branding experts (apart from the company which designed it, of course) poured scorn over the Royal Mail's decision to change its name to the, er, far more memorable and trendy "Consignia".

It was an unmitigated disaster. Workers reacted with dismay and the public simply laughed.

It reverted back to Royal Mail within a year.

So, raised eyebrows all-round this morning when Expedia Corporate Travel announced it has changed its name to Egencia.

President of Egencia, Jean-Pierre Remy, said:

We pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to our customers changing needs and deliver the services expected of a true business partner, and the Egencia brand reflects who we truly are as a company.

Sounds suspiciously like the Royal Mail circa 2001.

Anyway, the Egencia name comes from a French business travel agency Expedia acquiried in 2004.

Reports at the time revealed Egencia would be rebranded to Expedia Corporate Travel following the acquisition.

Four years is a long time in marketing. Just ask Boo.com!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@E4T - Buzz over Boo appears justified to some

Maybe it's decent PR and the fact that many industry watchers are curious as to why on earth a company would resurrect the name of one of new media's most famous failures.

But Boo.com has made quite an impact in the three or so weeks since it banished its previous fashion retailer image to Dot-com Bust Hell, to emerge as a very Web 2.0-led travel portal.

So not a surprise to see the Boo stand attracting a fair bit of attention today.

Earlier, Boo's chief marketing officer, Niamh Ni Mhir, told delegates during a session that its method of reviewing was how consumers will want to learn more about a product.

Boo believes that only by seperating out reviews into those posted by friends, trusted bookmarked users and then the wider community, will consumers really value user generated content.

A lesson many believe for TripAdvisor to learn from as it looks to counteract increasing concern over the sheer volume of reviews some hotels currently have against them.

Ni Mihr admitted later on that the initial PR buzz generated at launch had subsided, but traffic is "at the levels we anticipated" for launch.

With a flight meta search tool coming within weeks, powered by TravelFusion, Boo's growth over the next six months will be watched very closely by rival travel portals and the likes of TripAdvisor.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: boo dot-com crash dot-com bubble travel reviews user generated content

It takes a special kind of guts to relaunch Boo.com

Back in the good ol' days, Boo.com was best known for being a prime example of How Not To Run An Internet Company.

The online fashion retailer famously spent heaps of its venture capital on not very much - $120 million, according to Wikipedia - and the site was dogged with what can reasonably be called "a crap design".

The company went into receivership in May 2000. The fall-out was huge. Lessons across e-commerce was learned very quickly.

CNet.com even named the Boo project in sixth poition in its Biggest Dot-com Flops of all time.

Here's how it looked at one point:

Fast-forward seven years and Boo.com is back - AS AN ONLINE TRAVEL BRAND!

The site has been re-launched by Web Reservations International as a rather intriguing hotel meta search/portal effort, with some excellent functions such as reviews, destination information, weather, Ajax-driven search functionality, tons of images, destination clouds, user blogs and maps.

It looks the business, too.


The new Boo reckons it has 50,000 hotel properties worldwide and more one million reviews, collected from other WRI sites such as Worldres, Trav.com, Hostels.com.

The question many will be thinking: Is a fancy new site, concentrating on a different sector, enough to eradicate what for many was a name associated with failure?

Seven years is actually quite a long time on the web. The target demographic, we suspect, was probably more concerned with teenage matters than the fate of a flashy fashion start-up.

The site's backers, probably anticipating a surge of interest in Boo.com, have already found someone to update the Wikipedia page today. Got to get rid of that old image...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: boo dot-com crash dot-com bubble