If you want paying customers, then you need to think personalised, contextual marketing, writes EyeforTravel sponsor Epteca

Personalised marketing has come a long way since the famous scene in Steven Spielberg’s scientific mystery-thriller Minority Report, where Tom Cruise’s character walks through a luxurious shopping mall of the future and is besieged by sensor-triggered branded messagesspoken by pre-programmed voice bots pretending to be personal.

Today many retailers are still trying to entertain and engage consumers by boosting their brand selfies. Others, however, are using intelligent data that helps them to anticipate customers’ needs long before they need them. And they are doing this by personalising micro moments of marketing throughout the customer’s journey.

Last year, in the US alone, Amazon generated 27% of total retail growth and now accounts for 60% of all eCommerce sales.

Amazon is a notable example of how this is playing out in the retail space. Indeed, data-driven personalisation is one of the pivotal reasons that the online retail mega-giant continues on its march towards global domination.

Last year, in the US alone, Amazon generated 27% of total retail growth and now accounts for 60% of all eCommerce sales. Meanwhile in the UK, it’s already attracting almost two-thirds of all online visits from shoppers. A massive 331 million Britons visit Amazon – and, yes, that’s per month!

Fear of missing out

Enter travel retail, boasting 1.6 billion customers who spend $260 billion on post-booking merchandise and services. In fact, 25% of travel retail sales take place after travellers arrive home from a trip. That’s down to what has come to be known by the trade as FOMO, or fear of missing out.

According to Lindsay Parker, Vice President of Sabre Travel Network Marketing “travellers want curated content that is personal and meaningful to them. At the same time, they want to know about all the options that are out there so they know they’re not missing something.”

More often than not, however, retargeting engines are like misguided missiles, generating an automatic avalanche of ads, which are often irrelevant and interrupt the shopping experience. Instead of generating brand interest, customers are left feeling irritated. All that money on ad spending is destroyed in an instant with the consumers’ counter attack: the delete button. Even Apple is arming consumers with ad blocking software for iPhones, iPads and their portfolio of computers.

Actionable insights

So what’s the antidote to irrelevance? According to Bojan Jokic, CEO and Co- Founder, Epteca,“it lies not in big data or small data but in translating that input into actionable insights where, among others precise parameters such context and intent are king”.

Travel industries often look to the retail industry, considered by some to be a pioneer in big data. But the truth is, the retail industry is also struggling to ensure that data delivers personalised targeting and, as a result, profits. Worth noting, however, is that as many as 76% of consumers who receive context-aware communication can be persuaded to make a purchase they might not otherwise have considered.

The idea is to deliver personalised offerings that are both perceptive and receptive to the customer’s real-time needs

By leveraging intelligently assessed consumer data insights it is possible to connect with customers in the right way at the right time when they are most likely to be in the right mindset. The idea is to deliver personalised offerings that are both perceptive and receptive to the customer’s real-time needs. Today this is possible and can help brands to secure a bigger piece of the retail pie.

In the words of Agatha, one of the exceptionally perceptive so-called ‘Precogs’ in Minority Report, who possess a psychic ability to predict events: ‘The others never saw their future. You still have a choice...’

Epteca is a sponsor at this week’s Smart Travel Data Summit