The power of Viral Marketing

 

When social media is a big tool for promotion: Examples from airline industry

 Marjorie GARCON

Jonathan SARPAUX

“Did you see this video? It’s amazing!” Nowadays the viral marketing is certainly the best way to promote the tourism industry. And the airline brands know well about that.

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Before to start: a presentation of what we are talking about

WOW Air is a low cost airline of Iceland.

Snapchat is a mobile messaging application used to share photos, videos, text, and drawings. There is one feature that makes Snapchat different from other forms of texting and photo sharing: the messages disappear from the recipient’s phone after a few seconds.

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Last summer, Wow Air launched a competition on the famous social media Snapchat. The goal? Create a maximum 2 minutes “Snapchat story” to upload on the app of the company. Why? To win airline tickets to a destination among the 28 ones the company serves. Hotels, activities and a travel allowance were all paid by WOW air. How? The participants had to prove why they should be selected, they had to be creative, dynamic and involved.

By accepting the rules of the game, the “Applicants grant WOW air the right and permission to use all photographs, video recordings and other media, which the applicant will produce during  SnapTraveler project”. This game was a very good viral marketing as the company collected all the good videos on the tourism theme they can now use to promote their brand. Actually, the expenses they had to do were very low compared to the savings they did on the future advertising campaigns!

This is a good example of how the viral marketing can be used. This is a great way to create interest in a destination or particular tourism product in a different and memorable way. Viral Marketing is so successful because it creates the curiosity and desire needed to generate the demand for a product or service.

The winner in the use of viral marketing is Air New Zealand. The brand used the film “The Hobbit” to promote the safety of their planes. The video was directed by Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi and included real locations of the films and some people who worked for the film itself. The ad has become the airline's most successful ever, with 16 159 909 views at the very moment we are writing this article.


If we think about it, the viral marketing is certainly the best way to promote the tourism industry: like the tourism industry, the viral marketing is used to set off emotions and memories, and create a huge community. It’s not about facts and contents but the creative way to deliver the message. So now we are aware about that, we would like to know: in ten years, who will have launched the best viral marketing video among us?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc

Technology Evolution in Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Technology is no longer what it was been: nowadays, it can take some many different forms.

 From mobile application to credit card, including software; Technology is printed deeply inside Tourism and Hospitality processes. Using services such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) had become more and more easy and affordable.    To run a business, Travel agencies as hotel must had those technologies in their global strategy. Further than that, for a few years, cloud computing appeared as a new revolutionary solution.  Keeping information in clouds has two main advantages. First, it saves space because there is no need for physical server room anymore. Second, it is safer to store the special data base concerning the customers in clouds. Thus, security monitoring become easier as well.

More than make the process simpler and safer, Technology devices and processes in such an Industry have accelerated work.  Time to book, to upload, to modify a reservation, to make transaction is rather shorter than 10 years ago. That is a huge step in productivity for the staff side and in satisfaction in the customer side.  In 2017, you just need one click to have a power on thing you have to manage. Software via Internet are accessible in any places at anytime.

Thanks to technology, Millenials generation is sharing their travel experiences through social network. Moreover, technology was synonym of creation of sharing economy in Tourism with the apparition of concept such as Air BnB or Uber. It is changing all the Tourism and Hospitality landscape. Year to year, purchasing behavior is leaded by the evolution of technology. This change will operate from the moment the prospect is gathering information to the way to give a feedback on a consumed trip.

To give an example, Skiplagged.com search for travelers the fastest and cheapest routes. The company is able to provide that service by short-stopping connecting flights, such as a ticket from San Diego to Milwaukee that connects through Chicago is often really cheaper than buying a San Diego to Chicago ticket. Skiplagged.com takes the flight to Milwaukee but tells to get off in Chicago instead. Technology is in constant evolution and will continue to find ingenious solution in traveling for all targets and generations.

Eloise Camélio

Amélie Roux

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/technology-evolution-tourism-hospitality-industry-saiyida-nafisa?articleId=6225283759281922048