Kayak turns the humble desktop background into a media platform
Travel brand Kayak has developed software to transform consumers’ desktop computer backgrounds into picturesque, miniature advertising billboards, complete with a direct point of sale to its flight booking options.
Sand Dunes in Peru provide one of the shoppable desktop backgrounds
Kayak Desktop Escape uses the brand’s real-time data and GPS and display hi-res images of aspirational travel destinations, such as glacial ice tunnels, trendy cities and serene beach vistas.
If a particular landscape piques a user’s interest, there’s an option to click a tab integrated into the wallpaper that opens up a list of the cheapest flights to the destination. The brand, which worked with McCann London to release the tech, likened it to “simple but smart search engine” that unobtrusively prompts consumers to think about booking holidays throughout the working day.
"Working with Kayak we wanted to help create a platform that is not only innovative, but marries imagery with technology to elevate the user experience,” said Laurence Thomson, chief creative officer at McCann London. “Plus, we all know that dire feeling of sitting at your desk staring at some pretty desktop picture, wondering where the hell it is and wishing you were there.
"Well now thanks to Desktop Escape you don’t have to settle for just looking at your dream holiday – you can take it."
Kayak has already experimented with innovative search through the language of emojis.
