Orbitz launched 'Just Like What?' in March 2019 via Havas Chicago, marking the brand's return to television after nearly a decade with a surreal film trilogy.
Orbitz Brings Its Rewards Platform Back to TV with Just Like What
Orbitz launched "Just Like What?" in March 2019 through Havas Chicago, marking the brand's return to television advertising after nearly a decade away, using three surreal film spots to dramatise the speed of its instant rewards through a signature finger snap.
The campaign arrived in the United States market on March 13, 2019, with the first reported spot break occurring two days earlier on March 11, according to reporting by Reel Chicago. It built directly on Orbitz's existing "Just Like That" brand platform, introducing a deliberate linguistic twist — replacing "that" with "what?" — to sharpen attention on the speed and simplicity of the rewards proposition. The finger snap became the campaign's central visual and sonic device, a shorthand for the instantaneous nature of receiving Orbitz rewards.
Three film assets anchored the campaign, each carrying the same off-centre, surreal creative tone that Havas Chicago designed as a deliberate departure from the conventions of travel advertising. As reported by MediaPost on March 13, 2019, the campaign initially targeted four local markets, with Chicago among the first to receive the spots. The channel strategy was broad by intent: Carey Malloy, Director of Brand Marketing at Orbitz, told MediaPost that the campaign was built around "the right mix of creative assets, messaging and spend across a variety of channels including linear TV, connected TV, digital video and social media." Malloy also noted that "Millennials are still watching TV," framing the television return as a data-informed decision rather than a nostalgic one. Clapboard's editorial assessment gives this campaign a score of 61 out of 100, reflecting a competent creative execution that earns its distinctiveness without fully transcending its category.
The United States travel market is fiercely contested. Orbitz operates within a competitive online travel agency landscape dominated by Booking Holdings and Expedia Group, which, together with Ctrip, represented approximately 93.4% of combined revenue among eight large online travel agencies examined in 2019, according to Traveltechessentialist Substack. In that environment, brand differentiation is not a creative luxury — it is a commercial necessity.
Havas Chicago was appointed Orbitz's agency of record in January 2018, according to records documented across encyclopedia.com and clapboard.com, giving the agency roughly 14 months of brand stewardship before "Just Like What?" launched. That continuity matters: the campaign did not reinvent the brand but evolved an existing platform, deepening the "Just Like That" rewards narrative rather than replacing it. The strategic logic was cumulative, layering a new creative twist onto an established brand cue to build recognition across the United States market.
The surreal tone was not accidental. A Havas spokesperson described to MediaPost that the campaign's "off-center, strange, and surreal tone was as intentional as the wardrobe, color palette, and soundscape of the spots." In a travel category where competitors routinely default to aspirational landscapes and earnest testimonials, strangeness itself becomes a differentiator. Online travel agencies represented approximately 40% of overall travel bookings on average in 2019, according to scribd.com, meaning the fight for consumer attention and loyalty in the United States was playing out at scale. Targeting Millennials through a multi-channel strategy that included linear TV, connected TV, digital video, and social media reflected Orbitz's attempt to reach a generation that competitors were also aggressively pursuing.
Mathery directed all three films in the "Just Like What?" campaign. Mathery is the Italian directing duo composed of Erika Zorzi and Matteo Sangalli, and they produced the work through 1st Avenue Machine, a production company known for stylised, design-forward commercial work. Their involvement brought a specific visual sensibility to the campaign — one rooted in European art direction and a comfort with abstraction that aligned with the brief's demand for surreal, off-centre storytelling.
The craft decisions across the three spots were deliberate at every level. The Havas spokesperson confirmed to MediaPost that the wardrobe, colour palette, and soundscape were each calibrated to serve the surreal tone rather than simply accompany it. These are not incidental production choices; they are load-bearing creative elements that together make the strangeness feel authored rather than arbitrary. The finger snap — the "Suite Snap" device at the campaign's core — required visual and sonic staging to land as both comedic and brand-meaningful, and the production design work supports that dual function throughout each film.
Reel Chicago, reviewing the campaign on March 13, 2019, described the work as "pretty fun," a characterisation that captures the campaign's accessible register even within its more abstract moments. The three assets operate as a coherent series rather than standalone executions, each reinforcing the "Just Like What?" linguistic twist while deploying the snap in a fresh scenario. For a brand returning to United States television after nearly a decade, the decision to lead with distinctive craft rather than a safety-first approach represents a genuine creative commitment. Production credits beyond Mathery and 1st Avenue Machine are not fully documented across publicly available sources.
No verified performance data for the "Just Like What?" campaign is publicly available. No verified awards data has been found across Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards records as of the time of writing.
Structural analysis, however, points to several effectiveness-adjacent characteristics. The campaign's decision to return Orbitz to United States television after nearly a decade — as reported by MediaPost — signals a media investment of meaningful scale, not a tentative pilot. The four-market initial rollout, confirmed by MediaPost, reflects a phased approach consistent with brands that intend to measure and optimise before broader deployment. The multi-channel architecture, spanning linear TV, connected TV, digital video, and social media, as described by Carey Malloy to MediaPost, maximises the reach of each film asset rather than treating them as television-only content.
The creative platform's structural durability is also notable. By extending an existing brand cue — the "Just Like That" snap — rather than introducing an entirely new one, Orbitz preserved the brand equity accumulated through prior Havas Chicago work while creating sufficient novelty to justify the campaign's launch moment. In a United States online travel market where Booking Holdings and Expedia commanded dominant share, the ability to generate earned media coverage from outlets including MediaPost, Reel Chicago, and Ads of the World represents incremental value beyond paid reach. The campaign's Clapboard Score of 61 out of 100 reflects a solid, well-crafted execution that achieves its objectives without breaking significant new creative ground.
Orbitz launched "Just Like What?" in March 2019 through Havas Chicago. The campaign marked Orbitz's return to United States television after nearly a decade, using three surreal film spots built around a finger snap to dramatise the speed of its instant rewards programme across linear TV, connected TV, digital video, and social media.
Havas Chicago created the "Just Like What?" campaign for Orbitz. Havas Chicago was appointed as Orbitz's agency of record in January 2018, according to encyclopedia.com, giving the agency roughly 14 months of brand stewardship before the March 2019 campaign launched in the United States market.
Mathery directed all three films in the Orbitz "Just Like What?" campaign. Mathery is the Italian directing duo of Erika Zorzi and Matteo Sangalli, and they produced the work through 1st Avenue Machine. Their design-forward, surreal visual approach was central to the campaign's deliberately off-centre creative tone.
The finger snap in the Orbitz "Just Like What?" campaign dramatises the instant nature of Orbitz rewards. It evolved directly from the brand's existing "Just Like That" platform, with Havas Chicago replacing "that" with "what?" to sharpen the speed proposition and give the snap renewed comedic and brand-meaningful staging.
Orbitz returned to United States television in 2019 because its marketing leadership determined Millennials remained active TV viewers. Carey Malloy, Director of Brand Marketing at Orbitz, told MediaPost that the strategy centred on a deliberate mix of linear TV, connected TV, digital video, and social media to reach that audience at scale.
No verified awards data for the Orbitz "Just Like What?" campaign has been found across Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards records. The campaign received editorial coverage from MediaPost, Reel Chicago, and Ads of the World following its March 2019 United States launch.
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