Dive Brief:

• Priceline today (March 10) launched a new campaign meant to inspire young travelers to quit “dreamscrolling” — or endlessly browsing travel content — and book their bucket-list vacations, per a press release.
• The effort from the travel site includes a tie-up with actress Kaley Cuoco, who appears in ads as a whimsical travel guru to help consumers book a dream trip. A basketball-themed ad premieres this week and is joined by “Buzzer Beater” deals for basketball fans.
• Priceline also teamed with DraftKings for a “Dream It, Book It Bracket” around the men’s college basketball tournament. The campaign spans broadcast, digital, social, audio and podcast ads, along with influencer activations and will build throughout the year.

Dive Insight:

Online travel brand Priceline is riffing on doomscrolling — the act of spending too much time consuming negative news or other online content — with its latest campaign targeting the younger generation. The effort instead nods to “dreamscrolling” and is rooted in brand-commissioned research indicating that over half of millennial and Gen Z consumers dream about vacation plans every week, but barriers like price and complexity hold them back.

Ads for the effort feature a person lost in a pink-cloud world, fantasizing about their perfect vacation, before Cuoco — portraying a travel guru — appears to disrupt their dream and encourage them to take the plunge on their dream trip by booking through Priceline.

The campaign kicks off with a basketball-themed spot that will premiere this week, a move that could help the brand align itself with March Madness hype. The spot follows a passionate fan dreaming of himself in a stadium while watching his favorite team before Cuoco, who is floating inside a spinning basketball, wakes the fan to remind him of Priceline’s deals.

Priceline and DraftKings have also teamed for a bracket challenge around the men’s basketball tournament. The challenge includes one free-to-play bracket, with each match-up featuring a custom rollover showcasing real Priceline hotel deals for each host city. Players can score points based on how many correct winning teams they picked through the tournament for the chance to win a $50,000 cash prize. To create a bracket, consumers can visit the entry page on the DraftKings app or website from March 16-20.

Rounding out the effort are “Buzzer Beater” deals which offer consumers deals on hotels in the Men’s and Women’s tournament host cities for a limited time before each round from March 25 to April 6 including during the top 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games. On March 1, the travel site also upgraded customers, including students and educators, with .edu email addresses to VIP Gold status for the remainder of 2025. The loyalty status unlocks exclusive travel discounts and could help the brand establish a stronger relationship with younger consumers.

Priceline’s campaign will run across broadcast, digital and social media, including Meta, TikTok, YouTube, SB Nation, DirecTV and Peacock. The campaign will continue to build throughout the year with social content, per release details.

A number of marketers are tapping into the NCAA March Madness season this year in hopes of capturing the loyalty of sports fans, including Powerade and Modelo, the latter of which has increased its college basketball media investment by 48% year over year. Priceline is owned by Booking Holdings, which also owns Booking.com — a routine Super Bowl advertiser — and OpenTable.