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!

Confronting the Social Buying Dilemma!

By - Marco Saio - Industry Analyst!

The Expedia-Groupon partnership has finally stirred me to acknowledge and poke an inquisitive stick at the new 900 lb gorilla in online travel: the social buying phenomenon.

During this period of strained supplier-OTA relations and Google search domination, the concept of group/social/daily/ buying (insert buzzword bingo here) further adds another interesting and disruptive dimension to the online distribution power struggle.

The group buying trend is flourishing very rapidly, this is unquestionable, the question though is how will this affect new business models for travel suppliers and now OTAs?. 

Let’s dig deeper and consider the potential benefits and risks facing suppliers using basic scenarios. The four biggest group buying companies for travel deals are; Groupon, LivingSocial, Coupons Inc and Gilt Group.

Ryanair's cautious. Are oil prices or Facebook to blame?

By - Tim Gunstone

Ryanair is cautious about future growth…it blames oil prices, I would like to know if customer mobile browsing habits or Facebook is also an issue?

The Irish Times on Wednesday last week told us “Despite plans to cut its winter capacity, and the hedging the airline has put in place, it expects its fuel bill will rise by €350 million in its 2012 financial year. As a result, net profit is expected to remain flat at about €400 million, a level that falls considerably below previous market expectations of €490 million.” 


For the full story go to http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0524/1224297637594.html

Is the travel industry in rude health? Or just doing a Nero and watching their industry burn?

By - Tim Gunstone


If the last 2 years have been hard for you as a travel professional, it’s been really hard for me as a publisher of travel conferences, news and research articles. In the hands of cost focussed (and I would say) short sighted CFOs, the industry limited their purchases of research, conferences and pretty much anything that helped you plan for a successful future ….this made life in EyeforTravel harder for a while.

But the first half of 2011 has seen a 100% turn around, dynamism and optimism is back and as a result all of our shows have grown. This belies my grim weekly reading of the Economist. So who is right, the seemingly dynamic travel industry? or the doom and gloom of the Economists?

User reviews – A missed opportunity for hotels?

How to manage user reviews continues to be an issue that puzzles many hoteliers across the world. Should you reply to each review to show you are listening? Should you leave conversations about your hotel to continue uninterrupted?   Should you encourage guests to post user reviews following their stay?

Although the answers to these questions may seem obvious to some, in my opinion hotels are still not getting it right.

I’ve recently been on holiday to Italy and stayed in a wide variety of places ranging from small B&Bs in the middle of the countryside to bustling beach resorts. I enjoyed each and every place I stayed and whilst some have since asked me to leave my comments online, most properties have not asked.   

I feel that this is a missed opportunity.  If asked, I would not only share my enjoyable experience of their property but would also provide constructive feedback. I'm a busy person and to be honest unless I’m prompted it’s far too easy to forget to go online and write anything.

Google’s acquisition of ITA Software is approved

It’s been a dramatic weekend for the online travel industry as last Friday saw The US Justice Department approve Google Inc's purchase of ITA Software (but with stiff conditions).

The deal, which had been rumbling on for months, will have sizable implications for the online travel industry.  It represents a huge shift by Google into vertical search, something which has long been feared by online travel brands.

Google said it was "excited" to get the deal approved, and would soon bring out a new travel search tool. 

Stating on their blog ‘How cool would it be if you could type "flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May" into Google and get not just a set of links but also flight times, fares and a link to sites where you can actually buy tickets quickly and easily?’

Whilst they might be excited, many online travel brands including Kayak, Farelogix, Sabre and Expedia are not.  Last autumn the site - FairSearch.org - was set up to fight the deal.  They argue the deal will harm competition in the industry, limit innovation, and expand Google’s dominance in search overall.


FairSearch.org are however pleased by the announcement that antitrust laws will be enforced.   They feel this enforcement action represents a significant milestone against anti-competitive behaviour.

The deal will most certainly affect search traffic – we’ll be discussing this (the good and the bad) in upcoming posts so stay tuned!

It’s important to note also that the deal will still be subject to further disputes.  The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are both contemplating an investigation into claims the internet search giant manipulates its results but there has been no decision made on which agency may take it up.

EyeforTravel