Mobile Social Networking Is On the Rise

Ever been bored on your commute to work and checked your favourite social networks on your phone?  If so, you are not the only one.

The prolific rise of smartphones has led to more and more consumers accessing popular social networking sites on the move.  It’s a key trend that’s only set to grow in popularity as access to smartphones and the necessary technology continue to improve.

A recent study by comScore found that in September 2011, more than 60 per cent of those surveyed posted status updates on their mobile devices.

Mobile social networking users also engaged with brands on their mobile devices, as 44.3 per cent reported reading posts from organisations, brands, or events, and a similar percentage (41.6 per cent) reported reading posts from public figures or celebrities.

This represents an interesting key shift in consumer behaviour.  Social media users are more comfortable than ever before in sharing information about their lives, and also expect instantaneous access to information and purchasing no matter where they are in the world.

Travel brands in particular should also be aware the increasing trend to watch video via tablet and mobile platforms.    A report by VideoMind Video Index found that, on average, tablet viewers watched videos nearly 30 per cent longer than when watching on their desktop — and were more than twice as likely to complete an entire video.

Video is known to increase conversions dramatically for travel brands.  It would therefore be very worthwhile for travel brands to consider the importance of video when planning their mobile strategies.

Want to find out more?  We’ll be discussing these key and more at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Social Media & Mobile Strategies for Travel conference, March 5-6, San Francisco.  Click here for more info or feel free to email me – gina@eyefortravel.com .

Nominate your brand for the Mobile Innovation in Travel Awards

Does your brand have an innovative mobile strategy?  We all know that mobile is going to play a vital role in future travel customer communications yet our recent research found that only 38% of travel brands have a basic mobile friendly website.

At EyeforTravel, we believe that those brands who are investing their valuable time and resources to drive forward successful mobile strategies (and pave the path for others to follow) should be rewarded.

 EyeforTravel’s inaugural Mobile Innovation in Travel awards will take place in San Francisco, March 5-6.   The categories are :-

• Best Mobile Travel App
• Best Mobile Website
• Best Mobile Strategy

Make sure you nominate your favorite brand online now (before December 30^th).

Good luck!

By Gina Baillie

Tablets Top Holiday Consumer Wish Lists

When the iPad first launched in January 2010 I have to admit I was a little sceptical about the concept of the tablet.  Why did we need them?

Less than 2 years later and they’re a must-have item.  According to recent research by PriceGrabber posted on Mashable.com, 79% of consumers would rather receive a tablet than a laptop this holiday season.

Amazon, Nokia, Samsung, HP, Dell and more, all have launched their own often more affordable tablets allowing tablets to not just be for the higher income consumer.

There are well over 100,000 apps for the iPad but many brands have been slow to release apps for tablets for a number of reasons -  namely cost and uncertainty of market reach.  Like mobile apps, it’s no longer just a question of designing for one operating system.  With Amazon’s Kindle taking tablet apps for Android mainstream, it would be foolish not to research the pros and cons of designing for other OS also.

But how are travel brands progressing with reaching the tablet user? 

At EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media in Travel Summit earlier this autumn in Amsterdam, Adam Goldstein, Co-Founder & CEO, Hipmunk shared his advice on apps.  Hipmunk successfully launched their first iPad app earlier this year.

Adam suggested –

•  Not to do a tablet app by itself – the tablet market will not outgrow mobile
•  If you have a mobile website and a tablet app then not having a mobile app too would be a mistake
• Don’t forget to regularly update your mobile and tablet apps – it may be a reoccurring expense but it’s worth it to continue consumer engagement and usage
•  Consider the marketing of your app – if done correctly having a tablet app can lead to free PR and increased brand awareness

Other points which travel brands should consider is the fact that tablets can handle more rich media than mobile apps.   They are often used in the more ‘fun’ research and planning stages of the consumer travel lifecycle.  This makes them a great platform to inspire and engage customers (I’ve found research on conversion to be too limited to comment at this stage).

What’s also interesting is the opportunity for travel brands to use tablets in other innovative ways.   For example, more and more travel brands are using tablets during the actual travel experience. 

British Airways recently piloted a scheme to give cabin crew iPads to handle passenger management in-flight, allow crew to identify where each customer is sitting, their Executive Club status and any special meal requirements, and also to give them a “greater understanding” of previous travel arrangements.

In the hospitality space, Design Hotels’ Eccleston Square hotel in London was the first hotel to have an iPad in every room.  The iPads are used to control the room temperature, lights and curtain control, in-room dining orders, restaurant booking, spa reservations, housekeeping, as well as information about the hotel and the local area.  

With other hotels and travel brands looking to follow suit, I think we can safely say the tablet is here to stay!

If you’re a travel brand who has had a successful experience of working with tablets then let me know!  Email gina@eyefortravel.com

By Gina Baillie

Taking the Guesswork Out of Social Media and Mobile Strategies

I recently conducted a survey of over 500 APAC travel brands to find out what’s keeping social and mobile marketers up at night. The findings show that despite 68% of companies claiming to have deployed mobile and social media initiatives, more than half admit that they are unsure how to ‘define, achieve and measure success’

Despite recognising the benefits and potential of both of these enfants terribles  in the online travel industry, marketers were frustrated by a lack of practical know-how, fear of failure and the diaspora of social and mobile channels, platforms and analytical tools to gauge success.

One respondent hits the nail right on the head:

‘For all its potential, social media keeps me up at night… It feels a little bit like jumping in at the deep-end without arm-bands and being expected to swim like Michael Phelps ’

And yet, some brands are making good gains and even ROI through such experimentation;

‘Airlines have already started driving distribution through social media - be it Delta selling tickets through Facebook or jetBlue clearing distressed inventory through flash-sales on @jetBlueCheeps. To sustain the growth in the number of fans and activity, airlines need to dedicate significant resources and execute well on the strategy, to make social media work for the business," says Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying, a leading airline brand strategy firm.

It’s a similar story with mobile; 85% of respondents claimed that mobile is an essential strategic consideration in 2012, but in stark contrast only 24% had clear-cut strategic roadmaps and budgets in place.  Lack of resources and knowing where to invest (apps, HTML5, Android vs. iOS, smartphone or Tablet?) were the most cited obstacles.

Whilst these results are perhaps unsurprising, what they do reveal is a fundamental gap in know-how and best practice. Companies realize the importance and potential benefits but are unsure how to deploy and execute ‘successful’ social and mobile campaigns.

So I’ve teamed up with leading industry experts from Malaysia Airlines, SimpliFlying and Abacus and will be conducting a free webinar on Wednesday the 23^rd November to address precisely these challenges.

This 45 minute webinar; Drive Real Engagement and ROI from your Mobile & Social Strategies, will serve as a practical ‘how-to’ manual  to launch and ensure successful mobile and social media campaigns for your travel brand.

The Webinar is completely free to join or download – Find out more and book your place here! 

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/842292606

Use the hastag #tdsasia on Twitter.

Best,

Marco Saio

7 Key Mobile Take-Aways from EyeforTravel Amsterdam

Mobile featured prominently at EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media Strategies for Travel conference earlier this month in Amsterdam.

Here are my 7 key take-aways from the mobile sessions featured –

1)      Get a mobile friendly website – it’s predicted that by 2015 there will be more searches via mobile than via PCs.  In the last quarter a 59% of travel brands said they did not allocate any budget to mobile.  That’s a pretty worrying statistic!   It’s not that hard to make a website mobile friendly yet not enough travel brands are doing so.  Let’s hope it’s an essential part of all travel company’s e-commerce plans for 2012!

2)      Don’t jump on the mobile app bandwagon without careful thought - it’s essential to understand what you want to achieve from having a mobile app before developing one.   Apps can be a money pit, needing constant updates and consumer engagement tactics to keep customers using it.  They also need strong marketing strategies to make them work. Developing an app should therefore be seen as a long term commitment.  Christelle Chan from Hotels.com said they see it as a way for them to retain valuable customers.  Apps also serve a different purpose to a mobile website (read on for more details)

3)      Consider where your customers are engaging via mobile – Hotels.com found that those browsing their mobile website tended be in more of a rush (they were often on a trip or, for example, stranded in the ash cloud) than those browsing through their apps (who were often on the train or at using the app at their leisure)

4)      Invest in marketing your mobile products – all of the speakers at the event emphasized that it’s of paramount importance of marketing your mobile products effectively.  Budget needs to set aside for effective mobile marketing.  Adam Goldstein from Hipmunk highlighted the value of the free PR gained through launching their apps but not all companies can achieve this.   According to David Gelabert from Melia Hotels, 80% of branded apps fail to achieve 1,000 downloads.  Indeed, Hotels.com found nothing happened until they started marketing their app.   App store ratings count and awareness and downloads must be encouraged on a country by country basis.

  

5)      Mobile redefines the search space – The no.1 place for consumers to search online in Europe is through Google.  In the mobile space this is different.  App stores for example act like search engines.   The number of downloads of your app matters.  Marketing efforts must also be tailored to the target countries.  App reviews should be encouraged.

6)      Don’t underestimate the value of the tablet –Laptops and desktops are likely, in some cases, to be replaced in the home by tablets.  Media consumption is therefore inevitably set to increase via the tablet.  This provides an ideal opportunity for travel brands to reach customers at the inspirational stage.  Tablet users have more disposable income and a higher propensity to travel (but of course they are not everyone’s target audience!).

7)      Consider the multi-platform user experience – customers are increasingly likely to experience your brand across different platforms.   Simple things like ensuring that customer accounts are synchronised across multiple platforms can help to improve the customer experience of your brand

Don’t forget that you can stay up-to-date with mobile – follow @eyefortravel on Twitter for updates from across the industry!

By Gina Baillie

Mumbai Rocks… but the world does not know it

I am just back from one of my favourite cities, Mumbai. I spent last week running our information packed (and ever so slightly stressful) Indian conference and expo. The show examines how the huge Indian travel market is adopting to web, mobile and social media. As ever in Mumbai, last minute surprises abounded but the debates were incredibly informative. The potential facing the company that can tap this market is huge.

Several comments from Azran Osman Rani the CEO of AirAsia X did grab my attention.

First, alliances are doomed due to inherent costs and the proliferation of on-line tools that by pass the goods. In addition Building brand equity for your airline customers is vital. As alliances cut out brands, alliances will die. He also mentioned that what LCCS save on distribution costs they spend on brand.

Second, and in relation to the Indian market he can sell flights to Indians going back and forth but has a huge problem creating India as a destination. An “Overwhelming percentage of passenger mix are people from India. Normally when we fly to Japan, Australia or Europe we start with 60 -70% passenger mix from Malaysia and Asia.” Day 1 for Air Asia our customers were from Delhi and Mumbai. To demonstrate the problem Mr Osman recalled how they had “5000 free seats from Delhi and Mumbai for Malaysians and only sold 3800.” Normally for any other destination such an offer would sell out in 2 hours.

As yet there seems little demand for visitors from Mr Osman’s Asian hub. Now KL is hardly the top of most travellers wish lists but as Mr Osman pointed out it’s the exciting islands and pulsating cities all around it that make it special.

Having spent just one week in Mumbai I know the rest of Asia is missing out but how the Indian travel companies and tourist board can counter this will be a major challenge. One thing I know for sure is that the battle for the Asian traveller will be won and lost on-line and I am sure we will hear more at our next Indian summit in July again in Mumbai. Please note we have brought it forward by a few months!

By Tim Gunstone

5 Key Social Media Take Aways From EyeforTravel Amsterdam

I’ve just returned from EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media in Travel Summit in Amsterdam.   Here’s a quick summary of my key 5 social media take-aways.

1)    Effective engagement is everything

Engagement was definitely the word of the event.  Learn to understand what your customers are interested in and then engage with them in a way that is more likely to prompt a response.   Natasja Fortuin from the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions found that simply changing the way they spoke to their Facebook fans lead to far higher engagement.   

For example –

Instead of an ‘announcement style’ -

‘The official opening of Keukenhof 2011 is in exactly one month from tomorrow!’

They tried asking questions –

‘The official opening of Keukenhof 2011 is starting with the dedication of the Vincent Van Gogh tulip.  If you could dedicate a tulip to anyone, who would it be?’

The second post received a much greater response.  

2)   Make it as easy as possible for your customers to share with their peers that they like your brand

  

     Shashank from SimpliFlying shared an interesting case study of a Uruguayan airline called Pluna who adds a tweet option to the step between entering their booking details and receiving full confirmation details.  At this stage, whilst waiting for their confirmation, the customer is asked if they would like to tweet the fact they have booked their trip.  The pre-populated tweet contains the fact they are flying Pluna to a certain destination.  People love to brag about their travel plans.  Simple – but effective.

3)   Measuring the ROI of social media is possible

Barbara Pezzi from Fairmont Raffle hotels shared detailed tips on how to measure social media ROI.  Many brands fail at the first hurdle.  They dabble with social media with no idea what they are trying to achieve.  Setting KPIs is possible.  For example, is it important for your brand to increase bookings from loyalty members?  Do you want to service the customer?  Do you want to gain PR?

Stay clear of using formulas to measure the precise monetary value of a Facebook fan or Twitter follower - it’s meaningless.

Use as many free measurement tools as possible.  Google analytics is vital.  Other useful free tools include simplymeasured.com, socialmention.com, twentyfeet.com, peoplebrowsr.com, pagelever.com, tweetstats.com and many more!

    

4) Video is big

YouTube is the world’s 2^nd largest search engine.  Video lends itself to travel products and services and can be a great way to highlight the best things about your product at a low cost.  Danny Barrasso from Hilton shared a number of ‘homemade’ style affordable videos including this one from the staff at their property near the site of ground zero in NYC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMEzothVaEg

KLM also saw nearly 1.5 million page views from this video which was made at Schiphol airport which serves to emphasize the marketing message that KLM they have more leg room on flights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NPF0A_vGC4

5)    User reviews are here to stay

The number of review sites continues to grow and user reviews will continue to remain a deciding factor in the consumers purchasing decision process.  Making it as easy as possible for customers to see reviews which are as relevant to them as possible is important.  Brands such as TrustYou aggregate together the reviews from different review sites into your own travel site allowing consumers to read them without leaving the your website.

Can’t wait until the next EyeforTravel Social Media event which will be in San Francisco!

By Gina Baillie