September 2009 Archives

 

The increasing use of video by the industry throws up a number of issues

 

Video length and how and where on a site it is used are major considerations as highlighted in our report from the TTI conference.

 

However, how many of you have thought about the impact of background music and presentation. To illustrate the point Trailstream showed us a clip of Bulgaria's Victoria Palace Hotel, twice - but with very different treatment.

 

 

 

We'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Start-up YourTour got its day in the Techcrunch sun today. It was 'originally developed for tourism businesses', but owner deciZium has secured partnerships with Lonely Planet and Booking.com to develop a consumer-facing version.

The tool puts together a bookable independent tour on the fly, with promising customisation options - sliders to change the proportion of attraction types, plus the option to play with budget and number of travellers.

And it's all fine as long as by 'tour' you mean 'fly-drive' - there are no options for flights or train travel. Booking is hotel-only (i.e. no car hire). And it's France-only.

Those limitations aside it does a decent job. I tested it on something I've done myself, a pre-Christmas drive around Amiens in Picardy.

It came back with the attractions I'd expect, but the absence of the Amiens Christmas market suggests it doesn't do seasonal attractions or special events, which is a pity.

Presumably the deal with Lonely Planet means that YourTour can add other countries with relative ease (plus cash), but it remains to be seen how much investment this consumer version will get - according to Techcrunch and the YourTour about page, deciZium will prioritize its white-label proposition.

One question: given the focus on driving tours and hotel booking, should deciZium be worried that there is now a deal in place between the AA and Expedia Affiliate Network?

New Media Age reported this week that the vast, vast, vast Procter and Gamble is to pay publishers for engagement as well as page impressions and clicks.

I think we can count this as increasing sophistication among advertisers, if only because 'measuring engagement' has a nice metaphysical ring to it.

P&G haven't spoken to NMA, but the indications are that engagement will be measured by interactions (newsletter signups, video plays etc).

> Are e.g. video plays a great measure? This is still passive activity - watching a 30-second ad doesn't become engagement just because you're doing it online.

> If not, what would be a better measure?

> What's the timescale for a similar change of attitude in travel?

> Do travel publishers have work to do before advertisers even consider 'engagement' as a metric in this market?

An agent on our travelhub community has posted about bringing in a £15 refundable service fee on tailor-made enquiries.

It's by no means the first time I've heard an independent agent talk about this. The principle, obviously, is to discourage customers from using the agent as a free research tool then booking direct.

Let's assume this went ahead, and other indies followed suit. Would that be an agent equivalent of News International charging for online content?

The backgrounds are wildly different, but there are two common pressure points:

> How do you differentiate yourself enough to justify charging for your information?

> How do you show people that you're different when the difference is behind a barrier?

The latest issue of Travolution is given over to transparency, metrics and brand reputation online so this video from Social Orgs is particularly pertinent.

It's mildly amusing especially where it talks about conflicting messages to your audience but more importantly it's a good place to start in social media and its pitfalls.

 

Social Orgs predicts that the next phase of social media will be lots of people generating mixed messages about their business in different networks = wasted time and effort. Couldn't we bypass this phase and be smarter?

I've just spotted some figures in New Media Age about how the video game market is continuing to mature.

The cliches are true enough, and maturation in this context means an influx of female consumers: a new study by Aegis Media has found that 34% of women play games once a week.

And while the in-game advertising market is struggling to maintain the trajectory some industry-watchers predicted, there is still potential, particularly as the demographic changes. 

Google extended Adsense to Flash games last year, and other studies have suggested that gamers are receptive to advertising - though this should be taken with a pinch of salt, given that in-game creative is something far more novel than a 30-second TV spot or an online banner ad.

Two questions, then:

- Will games ever become a significant part of the marketing mix for travel companies? 

- Will we see DMOs involved with big-ticket games that feature real-world locations? (Imagine what New York could do with an equally realistic but less, erm, gritty Grand Theft Auto IV.)