After starting the Travel 2.0 group on LinkedIn (741 members, thank you very much), several peers asked how we could further the conversion and discussion beyond the networking opportunities of LinkedIn.
We gave it some thought, and decided the best way to approach this was to start a simple Q&A or conversations series that would live on the Travel 2.0 blog and on LinkedIn Answers.
We choose the Q&A format since it is quick and easy (for the travel executive on the go!), but also provides a wide variety of opinions and perspectives.
So, for all of those in the LinkedIn group, you will be receiving an email inviting you to participate in the series. And for all of those readers of Travel 2.0, you can simply comment below.
State of the Industry Conversations
Bringing the Travel Industry together…one question at a time
Question:
Considering current privacy laws and regulations, as well as the New York State Assembly's recent proposed legislation on limiting internet data collection (specifically in response to contextual and behavioral targeting), from a travel industry perspective, how do you see online advertising evolving over the next 1 – 3 years?
Are you looking to create a larger conversation with your audience via non-traditional advertising solutions such as content integration or blogs? How do search and mobile advertising factor into those plans?
Answers:
Post your answer in the comments field below or via the Answers section of LinkedIn.
Note: You do not have to be a member of Blogger to post a comment to the Travel 2.0 blog. Anonymous comments are allowed, however we would appreciate if you signed the comment with your name.
Hopefully this new feature will be beneficial to everyone involved.
If you have a topic suggestion, please send it along.
2 comments:
hi troy, i saw your question posted on linkedin but for a change of pace i decided to post my answer on your blog!
here are a few ideas, including several that are free or low-cost:
+ i would absolutely use search (both SEO and SEM), especially if i were promoting travel to a particular geographic area. i would focus on two types of keywords:
- those related to the geographic area itself
- those related to the type of activities that people do on vacation in the geographic area i am promoting
+ i love the idea of downloadable mp3 tours--walking, hiking, biking, driving, etc. These tours (and even associated maps integrated with google maps/google earth if I really wanted to go crazy) could be downloaded from the tour provider's website and stored on mobile phones, ipods and other types of mp3 players.
the tours can also be produced as podcasts and further promoted in podcast and rss directories, thereby generating additional search engine juice and more traffic to the tour provider's web presence. i would see if i could build in special offers from restaurants and other businesses along the route that are available only to virtual tour downloaders.
+ of course social networks like facebook as well as blogs and forums related to the niche (defined both geographically and in terms of type of vacation activity) provide free mechanisms to promote tourist destinations/tour packages, etc.
i would use google to find forums/blogs related to the niche and search on facebook for relevant groups, lurk for awhile to find out what people are talking about then provide valuable, free content/advice/information/run vacation give-away contests using a soft-sell approach. i would also test out facebook's social ads to see if i could get some traction there.
+ i would also leverage video sharing sites like youtube, posting fun and entertaining clips of what the tour provider has to offer and linking to these clips from my blog/forum/facebook group posts, from my own blog, from my own facebook page, etc.
jeff zweig
chief guru, web guru asia
http://www.webguruasia.com
Hello all,
From our company and my position as manager Webintelligence & eCommerce at Elmar Online in The Netherlands we service the 10 biggest travel labels in the Benelux: Expedia.nl, eBookers.nl, Transavia.com, Schiphol.nl, VakantieDiscounter.nl, ElmarReizen.nl, and more...
We measure about 2 to 3 terrabite data per day about travel bookings over all these brands and recently started developing a new Recommendation technology. Our algorithm creates recommendations based on were people have been, their behavior to come to a specific booking etc. It is all based on non trivial data and measured with previous bookings, keywords, tracking url, booking history, customer ID,...
We have tried working with some new behavioral targeting technologies (Wunderloop, RevenueScience, Nugg.ad, Phorm inc) but all of them were having troubles with future privacy issues . Also the conversions using behavioral targeting was a bit disappointing. The data we are using right now is creating much better suggestions than a behavioral targeting method could ever accomplish. It is great for the long-tail strategy and integrates perfectly with Dynamic Packaging technologies.
Recommendations is the future and has no privacy issues regarding: tracking people by cookie or IP.
Who ever is interested in seeing more, just send me an email and I will send you some info and screenshots from a test version we are running right now with Expedia.
gino [at] moorelaboratories [dot] com
Regards, Gino Goossens
CEO Moore Labs
Manager Webintelligence & eCommerce
Elmar Online BV, The Netherlands
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