Travel Industry News & Conferences - EyeforTravel - Social Media and Marketing

“Pinterest does not encourage product pushing”

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:47:53 +0000

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As Pinterest shows signs of becoming a mainstream player on the social media front, it is being highlighted that brands serious about leveraging this medium to boost revenues from online and mobile channels are advised to get themselves firmly ‘pinned’ to the Pinterest ‘board’ as opposed to hanging on its fringes.

According to independent digital marketing agency Greenlight, this ‘visually styled’ social network platform is already driving the social shopping experience. It offers a way for consumers to share images of anything - from fashion to pets, pots to plants. Users can create their own online pin boards to suit any theme and share it with likeminded people.

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Dos and don’ts for travel campaigns on Facebook

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:50:09 +0000

Précis:

IN-DEPTH: There’s nothing that a platform can do to make a company trustworthy – it’s all in the content and how they communicate with customers.

The best thing about Twitter and Facebook is that they enable companies to communicate directly using their own voice, and instead of direct communications, communications with individuals are open for all to see, says Tom Kuhr, SVP Marketing, Luxury Link Travel Group.

By Ritesh Gupta

Luxury travel website Luxury Link, as an active participant on Facebook, is eager to see more activity-based conversations rather than just “Likes”.

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Primary Event:

Social Media Strategies for Travel 2012

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Orbitz unveils its Facebook contest

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:04:30 +0000

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Online travel company Orbitz has unveiled the latest version of its Facebook sweepstakes Orbitz 50 Faves, a fun and free Facebook game.

To play Orbitz 50 Faves, Facebook users “Like” Orbitz on Facebook, invite friends to play, and begin bidding.

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Americans viewed 5.6 billion video ads in January

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:00:12 +0000

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comScore has shared that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January.

Google Sites topped the list with 18.6 billion videos views, followed by Hulu with 877 million and VEVO with 717 million.

The average viewer watched 22.6 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.5 hours) and Hulu (3.2 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top 10 properties.

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Home-swap holiday site focuses on trust and sharing

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:19 +0000

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Home-swap holiday website Love Home Swap has worked on new features in order to “build community of swappers and confidence in swapping”.

The company recently launched a Facebook Connect feature that enables members to connect with Facebook friends, and friends of friends, to view listed properties. Now, Facebook Connect is complemented by the launch of a fully transactional Love Home Swap Facebook app and dedicated Trust Centre.

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Working on a viable social media contingency plan

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:03:31 +0000

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IN-DEPTH: A social media contingency plan allows you to set expectations with your management team about how you will respond to negative feedback, because it will happen, regardless of how customer-focused or careful you are.

A plan allows you to think through how quickly you will respond to negative feedback, whether escalation is required, and what your response will be to certain common issues, says Michelle Wohl, VP of Marketing at Revinate.

By Ritesh Gupta

Before launching a social media campaign, you and your management team need to think through the worst-case scenario and decide how much control you want to have over the content.

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Kayak, TripAdvisor form partnership

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:57:09 +0000

Précis:

Travel search engine Kayak has shared that its users can use TripAdvisor reviews and even filter hotel listings by TripAdvisor ratings when they are looking for a hotel on Kayak.

The feature has been launched on Kayak.com in the US and Kayak.co.uk in Great Britain. The company said it will be adding this feature to its global sites and mobile apps as soon as possible.

In October last year, Kayak added a new hotel filter that lets users narrow their hotel search to recommendations from the experts at Frommer’s Travel and Budget Travel. Kayak has now updated that feature with TripAdvisor ratings.

The company believes that this new partnership “will make finding the right hotel even easier” on its site.

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DoubleTree by Hilton unveils new social media campaign

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:50:20 +0000

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DoubleTree by Hilton has unveiled its online and social media campaign that, according to the company, connects the travel industry’s most prominent “tree” brand with one of the most-talked-about movies of this spring.

Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s animated adventure Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax arrives in theaters March 2 and DoubleTree by Hilton is celebrating the film with two unique travel sweepstakes inspired by eco-travel from now through April 29, 2012. No purchase is necessary, highlighted the company.

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Hotels.com works on new globally unified marketing platform

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:42:55 +0000

Précis:

Hotels.com launched a new, globally unified marketing platform reflective of a global brand ethos this week.

The company highlighted that over the past twenty years, it has evolved from a phone-based sales company, to a web-based company and now, to a global, fully integrated web, social and mobile-booking company.

“We felt that our branding should reflect our position as a global industry leader,” said Victor Owens, vice president of marketing North America for hotels.com.

New changes to the global branding platform will continue throughout the year, with most countries seeing the largest part of the change effective in the second quarter of 2012.

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Tourism Australia ties up with Lonely Planet

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:35:58 +0000

Précis:

Travel content provider Lonely Planet has formed a strategic marketing partnership with Tourism Australia as part of the There’s nothing like Australia campaign.

Tourism Australia has taken this initiative in order to capture a greater share of the affluent international travel market. The organisation has partnered with Lonely Planet to highlight “only in Australia” experiences utilising the travel publisher’s content.

Nature, journeys and welcoming people feature prominently in Tourism Australia’s There’s nothing like Australia campaign, which is being showcased extensively in TV, print and online media.

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Contiki works on interactive online game

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:57:17 +0000

Précis:

Travel company Contiki Holidays has launched a new online game, This Way to Amazing. The company is offering a European tour every week for a month to the follower lucky enough to find the youth brand’s travellers in four of Europe’s popular destinations.

Mixing video with Google Maps and Street View, the game allows users to hunt for the travellers’ locations and enter for a chance to win.

The Contiki team is to post video clues featuring Contiki travellers exploring the sights, sounds and backstreets of Europe. Each week will feature a different traveller to follow as they explore a new city, uncovering the local and authentic experiences, highlighted the company.

The company is posting video clues on its social media platforms.

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British Airways posts travel and baggage tips videos

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:37:16 +0000

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British Airways has launched travel tip videos for half-term holidays. The airline, which shared that more than 900,000 people are travelling with BA this February half-term, has chosen to offer travellers a light-hearted helping hand with their top travel and baggage tips collected from their staff all over the airline.

The videos, which are located on YouTube, can be found at: http://bit.ly/y0jiLN (Travel) and

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Setting up and managing a hotel's Google+ Business Page

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:20:30 +0000

Précis:

Lodging Interactive has come up with a solution for creating branded vanity URLs for Google+ Business Pages. The company says its technology removes lengthy numeric coding and adds click tracking as part of the service.

Lodging Interactive founder and president DJ Vallauri said that Facebook met this challenge early on, as more and more companies began using the social media mechanism for business promotions, but to date, G+ hasn’t caught on.

Link2Brandnot only owns Google+ related domain names - which can be used with the service to create a hotel’s vanity URL link -, but the company’s proprietary click-tracking system will report the number of times a viewer clicked on the link to connect to the hotel’s G+ Business Page.

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SIA comes up with £1 Singapore Stopover Deal

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:15:18 +0000

Précis:

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has launched a new promotion offering £1 hotel accommodation for customers who choose to stopover in Singapore. In an extension of the airline’s stopover programme, customers’ first night stays will now cost £1 for a twin room, while additional nights are discounted by up to 56 percent.

Singapore Airlines’ customers can choose from 15 different hotels.

To ensure customers have an easy journey from the plane to their chosen hotel, the airline has even included airport to hotel transfers within the £1 charge.

Phee Teik Yeoh, Singapore Airlines general manager for the UK & Ireland mentioned that the airline serves routes from Singapore to numerous onward destinations across South East Asia and Australasia.

Primary Event:

Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2012

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EyeforTravel & Travelmole launch Travel Innovation Awards for 2012

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:44:21 +0000

In association with EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2012 , TravelMole and EyeforTravel are delighted to announce that nominations for the 2012 Online Travel Innovation Awards are now open for your votes!

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Primary Event:

Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2012

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Hotels.com launches first in-Facebook affiliate programme

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:01:53 +0000

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Hotels.com and Columbus Internet have jointly confirmed the launch of what is being termed as the first in-Facebook affiliate programme through their joint app `Hotels WithMe’ in the UK, Italy, France, Sweden and Germany. Hotels WithMe is a hotel search engine run entirely through Facebook.

The companies highlighted that this is not only the first real affiliate programme to sit within Facebook, it is also a way for Facebook pages to significantly increase interaction with visitors to their pages.

The `Hotels WithMe’ app enables friends, families and colleagues to get together to collectively browse, choose and book a hotel from Hotels.com’s portfolio of properties.

The app launched on the UK Hotels.com Facebook page in September 2010.

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Letting members exchange retail gift cards for award miles

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:27:32 +0000

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United Continental Holdings, the holding company for both United Airlines and Continental Airlines, has launched the MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange, a first-of-its-kind programme that enables MileagePlus members to convert the remaining value of unused or partially used retail gift cards into award miles.

As per the information available, members also may now use gift cards from more than 60 major retailers to purchase award miles electronically online.

After logging into their MileagePlus accounts, customers select the retailer and enter their gift card information. Once MileagePlus verifies the transaction, United converts the balance on the gift card to award miles and deposits the miles into the members’ accounts.

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Parody Qantas Twitter account suspended

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:13:30 +0000

Précis:

A Twitter account has been suspended after Qantas lodged a complaint with the microblogging site.

The airline reportedly said that it took the decision as it felt that the account, @QantasPR, was misleading and impacting the true identity of Qantas.

Qantas mentioned that it reported the account for “breaching the Twitter terms of use and causing confusion”.

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Kenshoo to handle Expedia’s search engine marketing account

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:05:07 +0000

Précis:

Online travel company Expedia has licenced Kenshoo Enterprise to manage its global search engine marketing (SEM).

Expedia shared that its decision to go ahead with Kenshoo as its technology partner for search marketing and social advertising follows a two-month trial period.

Kenshoo Enterprise allows Expedia to create, manage, and optimise paid search marketing campaigns across channels like Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, Baidu and Yandex.

Expedia leveraged Kenshoo Social as a component of the partnership to manage Expedia’s Facebook Ads campaigns.

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Practical tips on social media from Scandinavian Airlines

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:29:09 +0000

Précis:

IN-DEPTH: The journey of companies in social media should follow the principles of Listen – Engage – Involve, says Christian Kamhaug, head of Social Media at Scandinavian Airlines. Kamhaug provides an insight into how to succeed and avoid failure when it comes to social media marketing.

By Ritesh Gupta

The travel industry is maturing in its use of social media as a part of the overall marketing and communications mix.

There is a certain tendency to follow suit and just embark on a strategy because everyone is talking about it without really thinking it through. But those companies that have a strategic plan with what, how and when they communicate through social media create value for their customers and a return on the investment.

Approach

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Google sustains 90pc market share of UK search

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:29:18 +0000

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Google Sites accounted for 90.64 percent of all searches conducted in the UK in January 2012.

According to Experian Hitwise, compared to December 2011, Google Sites saw a decrease in market share of searches, down 1.11 percent from December’s figure of 91.75 percent. However, year-on-year Google Sites gained market share in search, up 0.27 per cent from January 2011.

Overall, UK Internet users made 2.3 billion visits to search engines in January 2012, up from 2.2 billion in January 2011.

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Creating social media champions and success stories with a meticulous approach

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:08:28 +0000

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IN-DEPTH: The process of nurturing internal experts that take care of social media marketing initiatives depends on several factors including the company culture, making social media intrinsic to marketing and a brand’s business operations, and the model for social media communications that’s been chosen for your brand.

By Ritesh Gupta

Travel companies have been attempting to follow the best practices pertaining to social media marketing which is to be transparent and provide constant updates to members.

Within an organisation, according to social media experts, rolling out social media guidelines for employees have helped a lot in making sure that despite their best intentions, employees are not perceived as representing the brand when they engage in social media.

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W Taipei introduces auction tab on its Facebook page

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:07:33 +0000

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W Taipei has launched a new auction tab on its official Faceboook page where users can bid on items such as all-inclusive vacation packages and hotel room nights.

Other offerings include cuisine and cocktail delights in its signature restaurants and bars, and spa treatments.

The page has more than 21300 Facebook fans.

Cary Gray, general manager of W Taipeisaid, “Research tells us that the average time spent is 1.7 minutes per page. We realise that our page can be even more fun and “adhesive” so that we can attract them to stay longer on our page and explore what’s new and next.”

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VisitBritain unveils £25 million image campaign

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:57:18 +0000

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Britain’s Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched VisitBritain’s largest ever image campaign last week.

The £25 million image campaign will add to the £100 million match-funded tactical campaign already being run by VisitBritain with commercial partners such as British Airways, easyJet, Hilton Worldwide, Radisson Edwardian and STA Travel to deliver the agency’s biggest marketing push, with an aim to drive an extra 4.6 million visitors to the UK over the next four years, stimulating an additional £2.3 billion in international spend.

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Best Western’s new promotion to reward business travel “Heroes”

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:44:39 +0000

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Best Western International has launched a new promotion on its Facebook page. The company says it intends to remind everyone that road warriors are heroes to the people back home, and this promotion is a way to connect the dots between making a living and living it up with those you love.

The “Be a Travel Hero” promotion rewards business travel “Heroes”, according to the company, as it attempts to reverse the guilty feelings of being away from friends and family while traveling on business by rewarding travellers this spring with this initiative.

The contest, which runs in tandem with Best Western’s “Stay Three, Stay Free” Spring Promotion from February 6 to April 8, 2012, allows Best Western Rewards (BWR) members to build a vacation for their family and friends.

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Wipolo introduces its new social travel app

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:39:22 +0000

Précis:

Wipolo says it has developed a new app, which allows users to share their travel experiences “on-the-go” with their friends.

Users can “plan a trip”, “travel” and even indicate they are “back home”.

The company mentioned that it has brought the “travel dimension” to Facebook. The app allows people to discover and explore new destinations around the world through - and with - their friends.

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Secret Escapes unveils new ad campaign

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:56:25 +0000

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Secret Escapes has launched a new advertising campaign on TV as part of its growth plan and to further establish itself as the UK’s number one private sale site for luxury travel.

The company completed one year of its operations in January.

Secret Escapes says it now has over one million members and its partnership network exposes its deals to a readership of over two million customers. The company added that it routinely sells over 500 room nights per deal. It focusing on negotiating exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the UK and abroad, at up to 70 percent off the price one would pay by booking anywhere else.

The campaign, unveiled last Sunday, is scheduled to feature on all the major channels throughout February.

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BA ready with its London Olympics TV campaign

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:35:08 +0000

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British Airways is once again set to use social media to unveil its new advertising campaign.

The airline, according to a report filed by marketingweek.co.uk, is to showcase its London 2012 Olympic advertising campaign, under the “To Fly. To Serve” strapline.

The campaign will debut on Facebook (on Thursday) and then Google+ shortly afterwards. It will make its television appearance in the evening. The airline is stepping up its awareness of its London 2012 tier-one sponsorship with this multimedia campaign.

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“Facebook commerce offers better interactivity between an airline and its customers”

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:50:09 +0000

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IN-DEPTH: The use of social media as a reward platform is expected to open new horizons for travel companies to better engage their customers.

Since social media is a word-of-mouth marketing communications tool, customers become the unofficial ambassadors for the company, harnessing the powerful marketing medium, word-of-mouth to its fullest, says Mohd. Hisham Salleh, Malaysia Airlines’ Head of Social Media & Innovation, E-Business.

By Ritesh Gupta

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Dealing with misleading or fake user-generated content

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:54:35 +0000

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IN-DEPTH: Travel review sites have been the subject of allegations regarding the authenticity of their reviews on several occasions. The industry needs to look at the whole business of user-generated content and sustaining a fair play for everyone including consumers.

By Ritesh Gupta

Last week the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told TripAdvisor not to claim or imply that all the reviews that appeared on the website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted.

This verdict emerged as the UK-based Authority acted upon complaints filed against TripAdvisor. The complaints were related to claims on tripadvisor.co.uk.

Travel review sites have been the subject of allegations regarding the authenticity of their reviews on several occasions.

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Image Caption:

Richard Anson