Wotif and ninemsn part ways

Australian accommodation powerhouse Wotif.com and the local MSN JV ninemsn have parted company after 9 months. They launched a promotional deal in September last year (as I reported here) which was probably Wotif's largest marketing spend to date. The official announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange of the end to the deal (here is a link but will require registration) does not go into the details. My guess is that the transaction flow to Wotif did not justify the spend on a direct response basis. This is typically the case with a big portal buy from a travel company. There are few if any of those deals that can be justified on a pure transaction return basis. As I said in my initial reporting, advertising buys on portals are for "branding" purposes (ie you spend more than you make in direct response). Does not mean that the deal is no good, just that you have to be in it for a brand spend, not direct marketing spend.