LinkedIn Social Buying- Winner Announced!

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to our first ever linkedin "competition", where we asked participants to voice their opinions on social buying and flash sales and how they work for travel. To see the thread, go to http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1690387

Our winning entry.... drumroll..... was from Dawn Muir, Marketing and Communications Manager at Carter Observatory. We felt her response was honest, balanced and had some really good "takeaway tips!" Congratulations Dawn, a free pass to TDS America in Vegas is all yours! Please email rosie@eyefortravel.com to set this up. 

Here's Dawn's answer:

Interesting topic and very current ass a number of these group buying sites are springing up all over NZ. As a recently re-opened, mid sized, visitor attraction with a limited marketing budget we were keen to a) raise the awareness of our local market and to b) create ambassadors who could then share good word of mouth for us an c) nurture our local audience that account for approx 30% of our business. We ran two comapaigns with two different companies over an 8 month period. The first sold 2,500 half price vouchers with 95% of these being purchased by locals. This worked very well for us. We ran a second campaign not too long afterwards with a variable price offer, this didn't work quite as well for us. 

Our take outs: 

1. Don't do it too often or you'll condition your market to waiting for a low price - we're after yield as well as numbers. We won't do more than 2 a year - if we do that many. 

2. Use a simple price point offer, don't be too clever. 

3. Consider it a promotional campaign requiring some investment - rather than just a discount offer - it needs to be part of your wider promotional efforts 

4. Wait a bit - I expect there will be some attrition of companies offering these opportunities - some have been around a bit longer and have good back end mechanics for measuruing, etc 

5. Choose your company wisely - they often have a bigger company behind them that has some strong links to areas such as airlines, or media outlets - they can help your business depending on where you want to be 

6. Maximise and leverage your efforts through your own social media activity - it creates more noise for your business 

Understanding Key Trends in Mobile in Travel

For quite some time now the travel industry has been keeping a keen eye on developments in mobile technology. The opportunities to engage travelers on the move go hand in hand. How to go about engaging consumers and facilitating booking via mobile though has not been quite so obvious!

For a multitude of reasons, mobile has been slower to come into practice than first thought. For the past decade each year promised to be the ‘year of mobile’ and each year came and went and we’d only taken a few steps. In 2010 and throughout 2011 we have seen mobile developments gain pace. Finally the technology, brand know-how and consumers’ willingness to engage are all aligned and we are seeing some really exciting and profitable developments in this space!

EyeforTravel’s new Social Media & Mobile in Travel report which was released in July, details some interesting new research into key trends in mobile and travel. It includes case studies from across the travel space and details a step by step guide to measuring ROI.

click here for a larger preview

Social media data is key to produce profitable travel products

62% of travel product developers say social media and in particular Facebook is a vital source of data when building new products

Early findings for a report that we release this November indicate that social media is no longer just for marketing and customer service. Well over half the travel companies so far surveyed show that they social media is vital to assess the demand for new travel products.

37% say that Facebook is the best network for product development but with Twitter performing so badly in the survey it does indicate more focussed social communities are also proving highly valuable. As well as the free data from social media sites, Google is another incredibly useful data source with over 21% rating data from Google is vital for their product development.

The travel industry spends millions each year on developing products and services. The survey reveals the industry needs guidance over which sources of data are truly valuable. 28% of those polled say its lack of knowledge on the data sources that is holding their product development back.

The full report findings will be delivered at the Product Development Strategies for the Travel Industry Conference taking place on London the week before World Travel Market in London.

Over 100 top route planners, product developers, purchasers and investors will attend to debate what strategies are best for delivering long lasting profitable products and particularly focus on the evolving sources of data and data management that the industry is starting to integrate into the product development process.

The event agenda and list of top speakers c an be found here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development/

If you are a travel supplier or intermediary we need your input. Please take 10 minutes to fill in the survey here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development/survey.asp

If you have any questions about the research or the event please call me, Tim Gunstone on +44 (0) 207 375 7557

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!