TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel platform, has completely revamped its brand identity to mark its 25th anniversary. The rebrand was carried out in collaboration with UK design agency Koto Studio.
TripAdvisor has long been known for its signature turquoise green, but this time around, it’s opting for a more vibrant lime green as its primary color. Along with this, the brand’s mascot, the owl Ollie, has been given a more lively makeover. With animated eyes, Ollie is depicted as someone who pays close attention to reviews from real travelers.
TripAdvisor has decided to actively incorporate user reviews and real travel photos into its advertising and design. For example, real content from users, such as monkey selfies or photos of capsized kayaks, is now the star of brand campaigns.
“The images that our users were posting were so much more beautiful and authentic than the content we were creating,” says Matt Dacey, TripAdvisor’s head of marketing, explaining the change in brand direction. Since the pandemic, people have been more focused on people and local experiences than just travel, and TripAdvisor has responded by elevating user-generated content (UGC) to be more brand-centric.
Arthur Foliard, Koto's lead designer, says the company extracted colors from traveler photos to create color palettes that can be used by season and city—for example, pinks for Tokyo's cherry blossom season, or darker tones for New York's winter.
Along with this, TripAdvisor is also working on revamping its app and enhancing its artificial intelligence functions, and plans to launch the world's largest travel membership program in the third quarter of 2025.
