Booking.com transforms the best summer photos into epic GIFs in ‘WHO WON BOOKING SUMMER?’ activation

Amsterdam, August 20, 2015 – This past summer Booking.com, Planet Earth’s #1 accommodation site, asked people to Wing Everything. Except their accommodation. Now, Booking.com is on a mission to find and GIF the best shots of summer, and find out WHO WON BOOKING SUMMER?

Over eight days Booking.com is partnering with leading digital artists to GIF the greatest shots of summer. Winners will be celebrated across the web and GIF-mmortalized on Booking.com’s Wing It Hub and on Giphy. In the competitive spirit of the Internet, each day’s winning selection then acts as a rallying cry to anyone who has a better shot, to join the action and submit their photo for the next day’s round.

Booking.com is looking for infinity pool dives, epic views, road trip mayhem, enviable hammocks – anyone with a jealousy-inducing summer photo can apply to be GIF-ed. Simply tag a photo on Instagram or Twitter with #WingItYeah or upload an image in response to a Booking.com Facebook post.

Created with Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, the WHO WON BOOKING SUMMER? activation is the crescendo to ‘Wing It’, Booking.com’s integrated campaign that launched in July and encouraged spontaneous summer travel.

Pepijn Rijvers, Booking.com’s Chief Marketing Officer, says: “Embracing spontaneous travel this summer – confident that you’ll find your perfect place to stay wherever you end up – means new, exciting adventures are yours for the taking. By launching WHO WON BOOKING SUMMER? we’re celebrating those who embody this spontaneous spirit and inspiring others to keep on winging it. With our mobile apps and websites, topped with best-in-class last minute availability at over 700,000 accommodations worldwide, it’s time to seize the moment and go!”

Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam Creative Director, Genevieve Hoey, comments: “People already try to beat each other with their epic summer shots, via social platforms. This idea goes one better, turning people’s ultimate summer shots into digital works of art. Being GIF’d by Booking.com will give people the ultimate bragging rights, and I think we’ll help settle a lot of arguments about who won Booking summer.”

The leading GIF artists behind the activation include Cari vander Yacht, Chris Timmons, Justin Gammon and James Kerr (more info on each artist in the notes to editors section below).

Anyone with a killer summer snap can submit an image now using #WingItYeah or via Booking.com’s Facebook posts. The first selection of photos-turned-GIFs will be released from Monday 24 August, with a new batch released each day until Thursday 3 September. Check out the winning GIFs each day on www.booking.com/wingit.

ABOUT THE GIF ARTISTS
James Kerr (aka Scorpion Dagger)

http://scorpiondagger.tumblr.com/

James Kerr, through animation and digital collage, hopes to convey his vision of the world around him by repurposing elements from the art canon in such a manner to give the works a new life outside of the canvas on which they originally appear. With his work, Kerr explores the often mundane and, at times, bizarre parts of modern life. Since 2012, he has been concentrating on his animated GIF project Scorpion Dagger. His work has been featured on numerous blogs and news sites – such as The Creators Project, Sploid, The Huffington Post, and Wired. His work has also been exhibited in numerous galleries around the world.

Cari vander Yacht

http://carivanderyacht.com

Cari vander Yacht started making GIFs in her free time using found photos she’d been collecting from second hand stores. Since then, her animations have been featured on The Creator’s Project, It’s Nice That, and Fast Company. An Oregon native, Cari is now based in New York where she splits her time between animation and illustration for clients such as Nike, The New York Times, and Businessweek.

Chris Timmons
http://rhymes-with-lemons.tumblr.com
From humble beginnings as “that kid who draws funny pictures,” Chris went on to attend the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he learned to make those pictures move.  He has animated for Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and NBC Sports, winning an Emmy and scoring some sweet preschool swag along the way. Recently Chris “discovered” the internet, animating content for top YouTube channels, but still “keeps it real” creating his own quirky GIFs which he will happily continue to do until he retires in 100 years.

Justin Gammon
http://justingammon.com/
A designer and illustrator living in Greenville, South Carolina, who specialises in branding, illustration, and cover design.

ABOUT WIEDEN+KENNEDY AMSTERDAM
Wieden+Kennedy is an independent, creatively led advertising agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their customers. Founded in 1992, the Amsterdam office is a truly international agency purpose built to produce global and pan-European campaigns. Clients include Nike, Booking.com, Electronic Arts, Corona, Milka.  www.wkams.com

ABOUT Booking.com:
Booking.com is the world leader in booking hotel and other accommodations online. It guarantees the best prices for any type of property – from small independents to five-star luxury. Guests can access the Booking.com website anytime, anywhere from their desktops, mobile phones and tablet devices, and they don’t pay booking fees – ever. The Booking.com website is available in 42 languages, offers over 717,000 hotels and accommodations including more than 312,000 vacation rental properties and covers over 80,000 destinations in 221 countries and territories worldwide. It features over 52M reviews written by guests after their stay, and attracts online visitors from both leisure and business markets around the globe. With over 17 years of experience and a team of over 10,000 dedicated employees in 165 offices worldwide, Booking.com operates its own in-house customer service team, which is available 24/7 to assist guests in their native languages and ensure an exceptional customer experience.

Established in 1996, Booking.com B.V. owns and operates Booking.com™, and is part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN). Follow us on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, like us on Facebook, or learn more at http://www.booking.com.

BOOKING.COM – WHO WON BOOKING SUMMER?