Online travel site eLong.com names DDB Guoan as branding AOR

For the past four years, eLong has focused on hotel bookings, supplying inventory for 360Buy, Qunar and Nuomi. eLong offers a large directly-bookable hotel selection of over 32,000 hotels in China and over 155,000 international hotels in more than 200 countries worldwide.

According to the company, its competitive advantage lies in its market prices and multi-screen user applications on iOS and Android operating systems.

DDB Guoan won the account following a competitive pitch also including Lowe. The agency is tasked with creating a thematic TVC series due in the summer. This will mark the first time eLong ventures into above-the-line, multi-screen advertising on mobile devices, websites, television and tablets.

eLong operates websites including www.elong.com, www.elong.net and www.xici.net.

According to Xie Zhen, COO of eLong, DDB Guoan won the client over with its three-year planned strategic input, while other participating agencies were driven by shorter-term ideas.

Richard Tan, president and CEO of DDB Group North China, added, “The e-commerce space is often overlooked for creativity. We're convinced it is the new frontier and therefore very focused on being firmly in the middle of it.”

This is the second e-commerce account DDB Guoan has won in the past 15 months following 360buy.com in April 2011.