Social Media and Marketing

IN-DEPTH: Many travel sites use bland, SEO-ed content that isn’t always relevant and is often in no way practical, says Tremayne Carew Pole, Publisher and Founder, Hg2

Published: 16 Aug 2011

IN-DEPTH: Many travel sites use bland, SEO-ed content that isn’t always relevant and is often in no way practical, says Tremayne Carew Pole, Publisher and Founder, Hg2

By Ritesh Gupta

Virgin Atlantic has been working with city guide publisher Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to… for its social travel community site, vtravelled.com. The editorial is based around each of Virgin Atlantic’s global destinations and will be used to inspire customers to see cities in a new light.

EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta spoke to Tremayne Carew Pole, Publisher and Founder, Hg2, about the partnership. Excerpts:

Can you elaborate on what factors did you take into consideration while working on content for social travel community site, vtravelled.com?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

We wanted to create content that would engage Virgin Atlantic's audience - they have a distinct brand identity but quite a diverse demographic, it was important to create content that was going to be relevant across the different demographics and develop something that the whole audience felt they could share and engage with.

What was the brief from Virgin Atlantic considering that the airline has been re-working on vtravelled.com and also what were the major challenges for your company while working on this assignment?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

The brief from Virgin Atlantic was to create content that was searchable, portable and provoked an emotional response to share - the remit was relatively broad but had to focus on Virgin's 32 international destinations.

The actual content was relatively simple to devise - we looked at the site we would build if we had the same presence as Virgin and the ideas just flowed, our principal challenge was to find writers who could effectively cover all the destinations, for our own travel guides we have a great pool of journalists, but this doesn't necessarily extend to the likes of Accra and Lagos.

Considering the numbers of screens and gadgets, and also content sources consumers have for travel planning and buying, how do you think an offering like vtravelled.com stands out when it comes to building stronger ties with travellers?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

vtravelled is in a great position - no other airline is currently offering anything close to what is being developed - instead of generic, Google-researched content that many of the other sites have, the vtravelled site will have a tone of voice, a personality and writers that the audience can identify with.

It is about emotional engagement and if you can empathise and see the writer who is creating the contenton a particular city trust levels rise exponentially. Virgin Atlantic customers will be encouraged to engage with the site and in doing so they will be rewarded for their contributions.

The site’s editorial will include: reviews of the best places to sleep, eat, drink and shop in each destination; interviews; itineraries; reading lists; soundtracks; trends; and much more. Can you elaborate on the areas/ sections which are new and how their treatment is different?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

We have reached out to people in the city, personalities are being interviewed about what makes a destination so special to them, they also build itineraries as to where to go, DJs and musicians pull together soundtracks to the city, the reading, film and album lists allow the users to engage with the city before they go – it’s more than saying buy a guide book - it is giving the essential flavour to the destination and allowing Virgin's independent and intelligent audience to really explore the city physically, emotionally and mentally.

How do you think this content partnership has set a new benchmark in the industry?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

I believe it has set a new benchmark because the site is about engaging, and rewarding those who actively participate - the basis on which this is initiated is the content that we are preparing - we are hoping that the audience will feedback their soundtracks, hotel recommendations, comments etc.

What do you make of content consumption when it comes to travel community sites? What is the behaviour pattern on such sites and how do visitors indulge overall?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

I feel that content is this much talked about entity that supposedly drives SEO and engagement with users, in reality it works well to drive SEO, but when it comes to informing users it is strangely lacking.

Many travel sites use bland, SEO-ed content that isn’t always relevant and is often in no way practical.

We have just removed the paywall from our own travel site, http://www.hg2.com/, where we have 12,000 reviews of hotels, bars, restaurants, clubs, sights, shops and spas in 44 destinations around the world available to the world. We haven't licensed our content from a generic provider, we have sent writers to each of the cities or taken on residents to visit every place that we review. This makes our own content relevant.

Real value comes from having a practical mix of the booking tools and clout of someone like Expedia, but the practical on the ground know-how of someone like us. It allows users to be properly served from the booking and content perspective.

It is being pointed out that there is a lack of sites and tools addressing a fundamental question in travel planning: how do I end up deciding on where I want to go? How do you think an offering like vtravelled.com fills a gap in this arena?

Tremayne Carew Pole:

vtravelled will fill this gap by inspiring users to travel, not only will it be a practical site where users who have already booked can research things to do and places to visit during their trip, but it will also try and encourage users to try out new destinations and highlighting aspects of cities breaking down any preconceptions.

vtravelled also benefits from being able to add offers from their Flying Club partners and a direct route to booking flights.