TripAdvisor's TV-Heavy Marketing Strategy

In the current era of disruptive marketing strategies there some companies who have recently rolled back to conventional marketing strategies. ‘Trip Advisors’ recent marketing strategy is to emphasize TV advertising and reduce online marketing expenditure in areas where the channels are less profitable.

  TripAdvisor aims to focus primarily on an extraordinary brand-building through TV advertising. The company will build on the $74 million it spent on TV last year, which began in the second half of 2017, and will nearly double that commitment.

The companies average spending on the different platforms for online marketing or performance marketing on channels such as Google will be reduced in the current year.

As a part of company’s hotel segment, they will continue to reduce performance marketing expenses to achieve a higher return on investment from online marketing channels. TripAdvisor stated in prepared remarks.” The net result will be lower Hotel selling and marketing expenses

Online travel companies, hotels, and airlines nearly always strive to make their marketing spend more efficient. For example, several years ago Delta stopped advertising with a couple of dozen metasearch and online travel agency companies because the airline wasn’t getting sufficient bang for its bucks.

Despite a great partnership with Expedia & Priceline; TripAdvisor will rely more on TV advertising in 2018 hence it is possible that Expedia and the Priceline Group may likewise decide to reduce their marketing spend in TripAdvisor.

Online advertisement is considered as a powerful source of revenue for companies such as Google. Stepping away from online platforms and switching to a visually interactive medium can highly impact companies whose revenue chain relies more on online advertising. 

Source: https://skift.com/2018/02/15/tripadvisor-has-a-tv-heavy-marketing-strategy-that-competitors-are-trying-too/


- Yash Desai & Ziting ZHAO

A Magical Wristband

Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

Are magic bands just the start of what to expect in the hotel and tourism industry in the near future? Are cell phones going replace our wallets holding everything from money to identity cards? These are just a few questions we need to ask ourselves in order to adapt to the rapidly changing environment around us.

A huge influence on this trend is Disney, where they are using RFID chip technologies and have designed a Disney Magic Band where customers are given complete control. Disney focused their Magic Band around the customer to give them an extremely personalized experience. For example, when customers book a table at the dining hall a host will greet you and already know your name. The technology sent a signal when the diner entered the dining hall and the host gets notified immediately. To quote the article, “We tend to acclimate quickly if technology delivers what we want before we want it,” which could not be more true in this case.

It may be that in terms of customer satisfaction technologies, the travel industry is playing a huge roll. By this I mean that they are some of the first industries to test new technologies on customers to see if they work. RFID chips in wristbands seemed to have worked well in Disney’s case, so does that mean that the new trend in technology will reflect this? Will customers slowly start going completely digital with their identities? I believe that this is completely possible due to the quick adoption of the Wrist Band technologies from Disney.

https://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/

Kaja & Bianca

The future of wearable technologies in events

Technology has made some good progress since Casio’s “smartwatch” in the 1980s. But it’s still not quite there yet.

Sure, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are more and more prominent, but they are still just at the beginning. Which is very exciting, because it calls for many more new developments and surprises, especially for the future of the event industry. So, what could technology possibly have in store in terms of attendee experience and data collection?

© http://techsytalk.com/techsytalks-epic-guide-to-event-tech-trends-in-2015-wearable-tech/

First, we can expect that soon, both VR and AR will find new uses during events, and no longer merely be baits to attract attendees on exhibitors’ stands. For now, they require a lot of heavy equipment (be it the computers required to make it work or the headsets), but more research and development in portability would eventually lead to innovative ways for attendees to experience conferences and exhibitions. Wearables could lead to more gamification and new ways to deliver content, or even to facilitate networking. For example, smart glasses could match you with other attendees sharing the same competences, interests or prospects, either through the sharing of information or, even bolder, facial recognition.

Not only does this technology represent the future of attendee experience, they will be a new tool for event planners to collect data on attendee behaviour, both during and post-event. Obviously, any data collected will allow the planners to improve future events, going even further than today and offering insights on how long attendees were looking at something or how their body reacted at a certain moment during the event. But wearables could, on top of that, give event planners access to the data immediately, thus giving them the chance to act upon whatever information they receive, for instance if attendees are feeling tired or hungry.

Opportunities to improve the attendee’s journey through technology are endless. Those are merely today's expectations for tomorrow; the more technology will evolve, the more responsive planners and the events themselves will be.

Written by: Marie Cyrot & Rodolphe Hermann

Sources:

https://www.eventindustrynews.com/guest-blogs/wearable-tech-and-hybrid-events-are-we-nearing-an-events-revolution

6 Digital Trends Any Tourism Professional Should Know

(Source : Pexel)

148.3 million. That’s the approximated number of people who use the Internet in 2017 to “make reservations for their accommodations, tours, and activities” according to Rezdy’s statistics. This growing number represents around 57% of all travel reservations each year. (G.Abramovich, 2017).

This is no secret that the era of digitalisation is affecting our diverse industries. Focused on a customer-centred delivery of services, the Tourism and Hospitality (T&H) industry is also adapting an ever-changing environment.

Digital technologies and tools are transforming the T&H industry throughout the value chain and its actors.

In January 2018, Daniel Newman, Broadsuite Media Group CEO and Forbes contributor, delivers the “Top 6 Digital Transformation Trends in Hospitality and Tourism” on Forbes.com. For D.Newman, these trends are the ones with the greatest impact on modern Tourism and Hospitality.

In his article, the contributor briefly introduces Mobile integration, AI & Chatbots, Integration of Internet of Things (IoT), Focus on Data, Reputation, as well as Virtual Reality.

For each of these trends, at least one business is used to illustrate the reality within the industry, such as Marriott’s chatbots and AirBNB’s business model. This shows that Tourism and Hospitality professionals from around the world are invested and investing in efficiently adopting the digital trends. The techniques and tools used might be different but the goals stay the same: offer better services and products that are adapted to customer expectations; stay competitive on the market and so on.

In the article, the trends can be divided in 4 categories: Ubiquity, Automation, New realities, Online Information.

UBIQUITY

(Source : Pexel)

Tourism and Hospitality professionals must work with both the Mobile Integration and the Integration of IoT, as they can go hand in hand in this area. Being available and accessible 24/7 on all usable platforms is now a necessity in order to be more visible and connected to the customers when they wish to.

AUTOMATION

(Source : Freedigitalphotos)

With the development of AI and tools like Chatbots, the Automation of some services such as online help centres, reservation and more is a reality for many within the industry, from boutique hotels to DMOs. There is still a long way before Chatbots can be efficiently used to hold complex conversations with their human customers. However, this is a trend that is closely monitored and invested on buy a plethora of industries, Tourism and Hospitality industry being one of them with global chains such as Marriott.

NEW REALITIES

(Source : Freedigitalphotos) 

Virtual reality and Augmented reality form the third category of digital trends: New realities. The two technologies are used to promote destinations and services as well as to enhance the overall experience for customers following the idiom that a picture is worth a thousand words.

ONLINE REPUTATION

(Source : Pexels)

The final category is linked to Data and Reputation. Data is the new gold for Tourism and Hospitality businesses. It enables professionals to adapt their offers to the growing expectations of customers by collecting, analysis and interpreting information on customers around the world. The recent scandals linked to Data (misuse and hacking) as well as the upcoming European GDPR help reopen topics such as data security, B2C trust in data gathering. The financial losses of companies such as Facebook (2018) or United Airlines (2017) following negative media coverage and online backlash also reinforce the idea that businesses now more than ever must work on strengthening their E-reputation (online reputation) and digital communication plan.

D.Newman finishes his piece by a last reminder to tourism and hospitality professionals: the tools should not replace the actual experience.

Indeed, this is a recurring topic in the industry and a central question. Nowadays, those digital trends represent opportunities that are increasingly invested upon. However, some technologies such as the Virtual/Augmented Reality are not as vastly present as technologies linked to Mobile integration and Data gathering and protection.

Thus, to what extent should professionals use those tools without losing their customers to the digital technology itself? Are there areas better off without digital tools in the Tourism and Hospitality sphere?

Comment below!

Posted by Qianyao CHEN and Gaelle BULGARE

SOURCES

Abramovich, G. (2017, June 02). 15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Digital Trends In Travel And Hospitality. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2017/5/5/15-mind-blowing-stats-about-digital-trends-in-travel-hospitality-tlp-ddm.html#gs.=UPkdOY

Home Page of EU GDPR. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from https://www.eugdpr.org/

Newman, D. (2018, January 02). Top 6 Digital Transformation Trends in Hospitality and Tourism. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2018/01/02/top-6-digital-transformation-trends-in-hospitality-and-tourism/#446748b667df

Rezdy. (2017). Travel Statistics for Tour Operators - Learn About Online Booking Behavior. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://www.rezdy.com/resource/travel-statistics-for-tour-operators/