Social Buying Doesn't Work for Travel: Discuss!

Bit of a controversial statement, we know! We've recently posted this statement on our flagship linkedin group - Social Media in Travel- and we want to hear your views.

We are trying to gauge opinions and experiences from different sectors of the online travel industry on the social buying phenomenon. The trend is exerting a growing influence on the way we market, price, and distribute travel products, but do revenue managers share the same perspective as the sales guys and the marketers? And what of travel suppliers vs. intermediaries? Whatever your role, business type or industry sector, we want to hear your thoughts and accounts of whether social buying/flash sales represents a new era in the evolution online retail, or just fool’s gold?

The best entry on our linkedin group [as chosen by the EyeforTravel team] will win a complimentary all access pass to the upcoming EyeforTravel TDS North America Summit where this very same topic will be debated vigorously by industry giants such as LivingSocial, Las Vegas Sands, Facebook, Jetsetter, Kimpton Hotels, ResortQuest Whistler and many more.

If you aren't already a member- go to http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1690387 and then click on "manager's choice" on the top right corner to find the debate.

The winner will be announced a week on Friday (26th August).

Good luck, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts!

The EFT Team

And the winner is.......

The winner of EyeforTravel's competition to win a free Diamond pass to EyeforTravel's Online Marketing & Social Media in Travel Summit, 10-11 October in Amsterdam is....

...@prose&co aka Kate Moeller http://twitter.com/#!/proseandco

Congratulations Kate!

The winner was drawn from a hat which included all the twitter handles of those who entered the Twitter competition. Kate will receive a copy of EyeforTravel's new Social Media & Mobile in Travel report and full access to the 2 day summit in Amsterdam.

For more information about the report visit http://bit.ly/oDVXch

To see the exciting programme line up for the summit in Amsterdam visit - http://bit.ly/aScDTO

Many thanks to those who entered. There were some great social media in travel campaigns cited and it just goes to show how innovative travel brands are reaping the rewards of social media!

Win a Free Diamond Pass to EyeforTravel's Online Marketing & Social Media Summit, Amsterdam!

This is your chance to win a free Diamond pass worth €2395 to EyeforTravel's Online Marketing & Social Media in Travel Summit!  The pass includes full access to the 2 day conference along with a copy of EyeforTravel's newly released Social Media & Mobile in Travel 2011 report (worth €1140). 

The event will take place in Amsterdam, 10-11 October and sees leading travel brands convene for 2 days of learning, networking and brainstorming of ideas.  Speakers include KLM, Deutsche Bahn, IHG, Melia Hotels, Fairmont Raffles, Google, Starwood, Hilton, LivingSocial, Design Hotels and many more. 

How do you win this amazing prize?  Simply tweet what your favourite social media in travel*campaign has been and why.  For example, was it KLM's 'surprise gift' campaign?  Lufthansa's 'MySkyStatus'?  Or maybe The Roger Smith hotel's innovative use of social media to fill hotel rooms?

All tweets must include the event hashtag #smtravel11 in order to be entered into the competition.   Tweets must be no longer than 140 characters.  The competition closes Friday 5th August at midday GMT.   The winner will be selected at random and announced on this blog in the afternoon of Friday 5th August.

What should you do now?  Make sure you follow @eyefortravel to hear if you've won and then get tweeting!  (Don't forget to include the event hashtag)

Good luck! 

The EyeforTravel Team

* By travel we refer to airline, hotel, other accommodation provider, train, car hire, cruise, OTA, GDS, resort, theme park, destination organisation, tourist board, national park

Are We Seeing A Shift Away From PPC in Favour of Social Media?

(By Tim Gunstone)

Search has dominated travel marketing for years now.  In a recent EyeforTravel survey (Eyefortravel’s Travel Distribution & Marketing Barometer), 62% of respondents had seen an increase in organic search listings in the last 3 months (Q2, 2011). However the study went on to find that 50% of airlines, 33% of hotels and 39% of tour operators surveyed plan to decrease their spend on paid search engine listings in the next quarter.

Where will their spend being going instead?  65% of the travel marketers surveyed are planning to increase their spend social media. 

Groupon has had a hard time in the travel press but as one very educated travel marketer whispered to me whilst Groupon was taking at our Distribution Summit it’s the traffic not the amount you sell that makes social commerce campaigns work.  Apparently, a recent campaign drove so much traffic to his site that was far more targeted and profitable than through PPC ever did. Long ago lost faith in Google’s claim to be honest information broker and are fed up with being driven to spending more and more on PPC.

The Google attitude that only a monopoly can enjoy may soon change!

Practice What You Preach- Twitter Competition for #eftamerica- The Results!

We've had some outstanding entries into our "practice what you preach" Twitter competition. We asked our followers to tweet for a free silver pass to The Travel Distribution Summit North America using quotes and stories associated with the "only in vegas" theme....

With a TERRIBLY strict judging panel (uh-hum, namedly myself, Marco and various other members of the EyeforTravel squad) we have now made a list of our very favourite tweets. Thanks to all who entered, and please see below for the announcement of our WINNER! 

The finalists:

@CravenTravels Gambling was invented as a tax on people who are bad at mathematics. Only in Vegas #eftamerica

@MMcCreesh  Only in Vegas will you find a storm trooper and Darth hanging out on the street corner - http://t.co/ev6v6N5 - #eftamerica

@MMcCreesh Only in Vegas does the hotel #Bellagio have more rooms than the number of residents in a town that shares its name - #eftamerica #tourism

@HHotelConsult Only in #Vegas are there guests who literally believe they're in Paris, New York & Venice, all in 1 day. #eftamerica #Beauregard #Simulacram

@jgabbott "Las Vegas: all the amenities of modern society in a habitat unfit to grow a tomato" #eftamerica

@AreMorch #eftamerica Only in Vegas - What Happens In Vegas now gets viral on Twitter - wonder if I can multiply wins on slot machine with retweets?

Now for the first drumroll please....

Our runner up post has to go to @MmcCreesh for this one- it might be a re-tweet but purely for finding it, we thought it deserved some airplay:

@MMcCreesh Only in Vegas! - #eftamerica RT @jennmc: ive decided im going to vegas and getting married.. cyah y’all in a week kay bye

Second drumroll please....

So that means that our winner of the 2011 #eftamerica tweet competition is..... @CravenTravels, because this aptly sums up EVERYTHING about Vegas. We're looking forward to seeing you there, contact rosie@eyefortravel.com to firm up your free silver pass!!

The winning tweet: @CravenTravels Only in Vegas... does money really talk...it says, "Goodbye..." #eftamerica

What’s hot in online travel marketing right now?

By Gina Baillie
June saw leading marketing, e-commerce, social media and sales execs from across the States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean convene for EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing Strategies for Travel conference in Miami.

There were some interesting lessons learnt about what’s hot in online travel marketing.

Flash Sales

The debate about whether to work with flash sale sites really hotted up.  Using a new live polling feature we found out that 53% of the audience had worked with a flash sale site.  However, 60% found there overall experience to be negative and not to be repeated, 20% found the experience positive and but would not repeat it and the remaining 20% found the experience positive and would definitely repeat it.  Interesting!

The flash sales sites represented (Travelzoo, SniqueAway, Ideeli, Hautelook, Jetsetter) all put forward some very strong arguments to work with them.  All have substantial databases, primarily of affluent travellers.  Both Shirley from Travelzoo and Heather from Jetsetter highlighted the ability of each of their brands to know what their database wants and to reach them (for example by email) in the way that generates the optimal response.

Mobile

Philip J Grote from comScore highlighted that 48% of new phones bought in the US are smartphones.   Thanks to new flexible pricing tariffs without contracts, they are becoming more accessible to all.  He emphasized that travel suppliers currently dominate the mobile advertising landscape – OTAs have yet to catch up (however Expedia is doing very well in terms of traffic to their app and mobile site.)

Providing fuel for the on-going great app debate, Philip cited that consumers spend more time using mobile apps rather than browsing the mobile websites (81% versus 47%).  Indeed, John T. Peters from Rand McNally quoted that the average iPhone user spends about 40 minutes per day using apps (appsfire). 

Social Media

Good news - It’s possible to measure social media ROI!  No, really it is!  Barbara Pezzi from Fairmont Raffles directed the audience through how to use Google analytics and other tools to add meaning and significance to the effort put into social media (in far too much detail to share here unfortunately!).

Jennifer Stafford from HomeAway shared her top 10 social media mistakes.  Here are my top 3 favourites –

1) Not setting social media program versus campaign goals – Program goals should drive tactics

2) Talking at your audience - Your audience wants to know they are being heard and wants you to talk WITH them

3) Not having a social media crisis plan – what is your plan of action when a disgruntled customer uses social media to broadcast your social media mistakes?

Re-visit Human Behaviour

Leonard Brody from Examiner.com gave an insightful presentation about the importance as marketers, of re-visiting human behaviour.   In the last 15 years human behaviour has radically changed and for the first time ever, vast groups of people can readily interact quickly and easily with other vast groups of people.  

Did you know that the average westerner spends two thirds of their day interacting virtually with people via the web?  Leonard highlighted the need for travel marketers to consider the fact that customers now have two identities:  1) their virtual self, 2) their physical self.  Consumers act differently online as their virtual self in comparison to how they act offline or face-to-face. 

 

As a marketer this is an important consideration.   What are the characteristics of the virtual self?  Consumers in a virtual space are more trusting.  They share information more readily.  They are likely to build relationships more readily but many relationships are weaker ties.  Education, wealth, and age can all be interpreted by a person’s social graph.

Lastly, Leonard added -  why is Steve Jobbs so successful?  Because he has made a business out of studying human behaviour and then building products/services around such behaviours.   It has certainly worked for him!


I think the travel industry needs to take note as It's all too easy to get bogged down with the tactical side of marketing.   Without a clear understanding of who you are communicating with, opportunities in the travel industry risk being overlooked by travel marketers.  

Practice What You Preach- Twitter Competition!

We think we've learnt lots from our social media conferences. So we're launching a Twitter competition for a free silver pass to our next event, TDS North America.

The event is to be held on September 19-20 in Las Vegas. In line with the conference location, we're asking our followers and friends to tweet their best "only in vegas" story or quote:

Some examples: "only in vegas would you find a man made beach next to the pool"
                        : "only in vegas can you get take an indoor gondola just for the sake of it"
                        : "only in vegas could you marry your colleague and divorce within 24 hours"


Be as outrageous and as fun as you can be and don't forget to use our event hashtag #eftamerica else we won't count it! For more information on the event and what you'd be winning, you can see www.eyefortravel.com/tdsusa

Best of luck, we'll be announcing the winner in the forthcoming weeks!