The State of the American Traveler - July Report

Our friends at Destination Analysts passed along the newest edition of their extremely informative 'The State of the American Traveler' report. You can view the entire report here (.pdf), but here are some interactive-specific highlights:

Plus, be sure to take a look at the larger chart on page 4, for the question 'In the past 12 months, which of these resources or internet technologies have you used to specifically help plan your leisure travel?' Some of the results:

UGC Reviews of Hotels - 23.2%
UGC Travel Itinerary or Blog - 16.7%
UGC Destination Reviews - 16.1%
DMO Pages on a Social Media Site - 6.8%
Mobile / PDA To Access Travel Info - 17.2%
Google Earth - 19.2%
Online Travel Videos - 8.8%
Word of Mouth - 32.1%

The numbers that really jump out at me are the 16.7% who used an 'UGC Itinerary or Blog' and the 6.8% that used a 'DMO Page on a Social Media Site.' Both of those are pretty healthy numbers.

As far as the 17.2% who used a mobile device, I would like to see a deeper analysis into those results. My guess is the majority of those mobile visits are for such activities as checking flights, checking-in for flights and weather, rather than actual requests for decision-making travel info.

'Google Earth' seems surprising high, but it should be a little red flag that causes you to examine your organizations possible uses for Google Earth. See our recent post about Walt Disney World.

'Online Travel Videos' seems a little low, but I would attribute that to the lack of quality content. The majority of 'travel videos' currently online are simply re-purposed TV ads, not useful or informative travel pieces. Once that content becomes available, I would expect to see the number increase.

And finally, remember that while even those online, social, interactive marketing efforts might not result in convenient to track conversions, they could be increasing the 'word of mouth' about your destination. Which is still one of, if not the, best way to get your message out.

Here's Google!!

The US travel industry is facing a terrible year, thanks to credit crunched consumers and a weak US dollar. But Google sees an online opportunity in the struggling industry. The search giant plans to expand its travel offering, which currently seems to be confined to one-off videos and ads from tourism boards. In the future, the site will have marketer-sponsored pages where would-be vacationers can learn tons about a destination and see related user-generated content. Check out this link to a YouTube New Zealand channel for an idea of the kinds of videos destined for such pages. >>Full Story

Thoughts// Surely some of you read the recent article / blog post from Business Week declaring Google's intentions to jump into the heavily crowded field of travel planning. The story goes on to say that Google is thinking about creating 'a one-stop shop for travel information' as well as citing a recent (and still active) campaign from the New Zealand Office of Tourism...'Nearly 900,000 people have watched a New Zealand tourism board’s video ad since it was uploaded to YouTube last September. That kind of traffic is bound to draw marketers.'

But, before you start waving the white flag to the titan of all things search, let's take a step back.

First, talk of Google Travel has been around for a while, as evidence by a search for 'Google Travel'...since at least 2004...bloggers have speculated at length about the amazing integrations possible with Google Talk, Google Video (YouTube), AdSense, etc, etc. So, the news of Google Travel is nothing new.

Secondly, Google already has a seat at the table when it comes to online travel planning. Offerings including search, maps, photos, videos, weather, news, directions, etc. and are already heavily used by, what I would safely assume, a lot of travelers. In fact, bloggers even mocked-up this Google Travel page (not bad) almost 2 years ago. Plus, the team at Google Maps recently posted an entry on using Google Maps to plan a vacation. As you can see, travel is already a large part of Google's offerings and our usage of the site.

And keep in mind, Google, unlike Yahoo or MSN, is not (really) in the content creation business. Last time I checked, they don't have sports columnists or writers...they pull, collect, aggregate and display content from around the web in an easy to use format.

Which is another reason why you need to break down the wall around your website and start creating and offering content on sites such as TripAdvisor, WikiTravel, Flickr, YouTube, etc, etc, etc. Google, like a lot of sites, travel or not, pull content from these types of sites.

Now, as far as YouTube and that New Zealand spot. New Zealand has done a good job creating and promoting their Pure New Zealand channel on YouTube. The spots are great and the traffic is impressive. But, this was certainly not pulled together on a shoestring budget...so forget those thoughts of your homemade travel commercial receiving millions of visits.

At a conference last year, a rep from YouTube highlighted this campaign and proceeded to tell the group that the cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $250k. And that $250k will get you prominent placement on the YouTube homepage, which is where the majority of those 900,000 views have come from. As our friends at Travolution pointed out in a recent post, the next closest video New Zealand video has only 26,016 views (similar to other 'viral' travel promo videos). A good result, but no where near 900,000.

Not to mention that Weta Digital, the company behind the impressive effects in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and a New Zealand company) just happened to help out with some of the effects on that popular video. Not bad.

So, the next time you are at a conference and hear someone talking about how Google is going to take over the travel space, you can tell them it has already happened...for a price.

Travel Trends - Upload Your Photos Here!!, Adobe, Weekend Web

Upload Your Photos HERE!! - An amusing post from the daily (ad) biz makes note of a recent Heineken campaign, to....wait for it....upload your favorite photos of the product! I don't know about you, but several people touching a Heineken bottle spells brand loyalty for me. Anyway, the team over at the daily (ad) biz reiterates what we have said a couple of times on the Travel 2.0 blog, which is that consumers (beer or travel) will not just show up at your website to upload anything! The old, 'if you build it they will come' theory does not work online. Flickr, Facebook and Photobucket (and a few others) are the only photo-sharing websites (or websites where photos are shared in the case of Facebook) that matter. Embrace these sites, run your campaign with them...instead of against them...and stop trying to move mountains.
http://dailybiz.wordpress.com/

Adobe Goes Further Online - For all of you techs and (even) non-techs out there, take note that Adobe just launched it's next round of webtop (runs online, not on your desktop) software acrobat.com and Acrobat 9. If you use or interact with Acrobat (.pdfs) on a daily basis, I would recommend you catch up on the news via the post at TechCrunch. The programs offered via acrobat.com are very useful and the integration of Flash into Acrobat 9 means that you will now start seeing video (YouTube) embedded into .pdf documents.
http://www.techcrunch.com/

The Weekend Web - Shocker, users surf different websites at work during the week versus the weekend! While this article is not exactly a revelation, it does include some interesting insight into consumer behaviors on the mobile web and weekday vs. weekend. For example: 'During weekends, we fire up our smartphones for fun. The fastest-growing mobile-Web categories relate to weather, entertainment, games, and music, according to comScore.' I know I am in that group...weather and movies are all I check on the weekends...plus this blog, of course.
http://www.businessweek.com/

Travel Trends - Deltalina, YouTube, Michigan, Wealthy Consumers

Deltalina - From now on, all Delta flights are smokin'. (Zing!)

That oh so cute line from the Atlanta Journal Constitution is in reference to the increasing publicity that Delta and more specifically, Katherine Lee (Delta + Angelina (Jolie) = Deltalina...which was thankfully not coined by yours truly) is receiving from the mainstream media and YouTube. Our friends over at Under the Wing premiered the new in-flight video on the blog February 20th via YouTube. The new in-flight video was probably not the most interesting video on paper, but communicating this new video (or any new or 'exclusive' content) to a loyal group of users via a blog is an ideal way to build consumer trust and loyalty (and having Katherine in the video does not hurt). Plus, posting the video on YouTube extends the reach of the spot beyond the blog...7 comments on the Delta blog, 624 on YouTube. Not to mention over 400,000 views and national media coverage.

Which brings us to an interesting point, how does Delta measure all of that coverage?

There are several ways to address that question...number of comments, views, time spent, traditional media coverage, etc. But I would be interested to know if Delta is looking at this viral campaign as a way to sell seats or as another piece in building the new Delta brand.
http://blog.delta.com/

YouTube Launches Insight - Google has introduced a free YouTube tool that will provide those who post clips -- whether they are semiprofessionals or media conglomerates -- with deeper insights into when, where and how often their videos are viewed. Using YouTube Insight, publishers can analyze the viewing patterns of individual videos far more thoroughly than in the past, when only total views and users ratings were available. For example, with the new tool, any content producer who posts videos on YouTube can examine which days of the week or hours of the day traffic spikes; which U.S. states account for the most viewing streams; and how long particular clips remain popular.
http://www.adweek.com/

Michigan Rolls Out New Design - The team up in Michigan has launched a new design for Michigan.org. The new look is clean and uncluttered, plus easy to read. The large image in the background is a nice touch, and one that we have seen in a couple other state-level sites. However, the biggest change is breaking away from the Michigan Economic Development Corp's website. No need to tell travelers about the great tax breaks for opening a diner in Lansing...just get them to the state first.
http://www.michigan.org/

Wealthy Consumers - Some good stats from the Center for Media Research on Wealthy Consumers and social networking sites:

According to The Luxury Institute's latest WealthSurvey, the participation of wealthy online consumers in social networks dramatically increased to 60% in 2008, from 27% in 2007. Participation levels of online wealthy consumers in leading social networks are 16% for MySpace, 13% for LinkedIn, and 11% for Facebook.

A national sample of 805 wealthy American consumers, with an average income of $287K and average net worth of $2.1 million, was surveyed online. According to the report:

- The wealthy average membership in 2.8 social networks, with an average of 110 connections.

- They are intolerant of opt-out techniques, with 65% saying that having their personal data given out without permission would cause them to disconnect; 63% have an interest in "do not track" lists.

http://blogs.mediapost.com/

You've Got Video

Well, I've got video.

We talk a lot on the Travel 2.0 blog about other sites, ads, trends and technologies throughout the travel industry, but never too much about ourselves (Arizona Office of Tourism and Travel Oregon). I mean, how much more can you take? Well, now it is your turn to critique some of our work.

One of our (my co-worker Johnny and I) major projects at AOT for the past few months has been creating a rich library of video about the Grand Canyon State for our consumers. Luckily, our relationship with Arizona Highways Television provides us with a wealth of footage from around the state. After partnering with Arizona Highways Television, we looked for a robust, yet easy to use and manage video hosting solution.

We looked at using YouTube or Google Video (same thing, I know) as a solution, but alas I want too much control for YouTube. Plus, I don't like that little YouTube logo on my videos. After some research we settled on the Brightcove Platform.

When looking for a video platform, we were looking for several key functions...usability, integration, ease of use, customization, flexibility and control. And so far the Brightcove system has been easy to implement and manage. Plus, it comes with all of the standard viral tools...email to friend, link, embed, etc.

I invite all of the Travel 2.0 readers to take a look at the new section:

http://www.arizonaguide.com/video/

Please note the section is still in the development stages, so we are still tweaking a few things as well as adding addition videos. Eventually, we will be offering several hundred short clips about attractions and experiences in the state.

In addition to this centralized location, the videos will be integrated throughout arizonaguide.com within related sections, cities and attractions.

The new video section has certainly been a lot of work, but I am excited to present this new offering to our consumers. I really believe this level of video will enhance there visit to arizonaguide.com and increase actual visitation to the state.

As Mo and I have talked about ad nauseum, engaging your consumer is key in this new 'Web 2.0' world. For the Arizona Office of Tourism, taking advantage of our partnerships to introduce this level of video is just one of the ways we are increasing engagement among our visitors.

I will continue this post once we start seeing some numbers on viewership and engagement, but for now take a look and let me know what you think.

Oh, and if anyone is looking at developing a video site, I would be happy to share my experience and thoughts.

Travel Trends - Consumer Satisfaction, Video, Internet Usage

Consumer Satisfaction Declines For Major OTAs - Consumer satisfaction with major online travel players has dipped to an all-time low, while satisfaction with the e-commerce sector overall has risen, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. For the third straight year, satisfaction has risen, this year by 2%, reaching an all-time high of 81.6 on the 100-point scale. However, satisfaction with online travel e-commerce has gone in the opposite direction. For the second year in a row, satisfaction has dipped to an all-time low of 75. Only four online travel companies are tracked: Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline. In addition, a category of "All Others," representing hotel sites, airlines and travel search engines, is tracked.
http://www.theacsi.org/
From Travel Advance and traveltrade.com

That's A Lot of Video - A recently released comScore Video Metrix service report, revealed that U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month of December, 2007, representing the single heaviest month for online video consumption since comScore initiated its tracking service. Google Sites saw substantial growth and extended its video market share gains, now accounting for nearly one out of every three videos viewed online.
http://blogs.mediapost.com/

Going Online To Purchase Travel - According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits, more than 85% of the world's online population has used the internet to make a purchase, increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years.

And, take a look at what those consumers were purchasing:

Popular Online Purchases
(Global Average, % of Online Purchasers in Past Three Months)

Purchase / % of Online Purchasers

Books / 41%
Clothing, Accessories, Shoes / 36%
Video, DVD, Games / 24%
Airline ticket, reservations / 24%
Electronic equipment / 23%
Music / 19%
Cosmetics, nutrition supplies / 19%
Tours, hotel reservations / 16%
Event tickets / 15%
Computer software / 14%
Groceries / 14%
Toys, dolls / 9%
Sporting goods / 8%
Automobiles & parts / 4%
Sports memorabilia / 3%
Other / 20%

Source: The Nielsen Company, 2007/Marketing Charts, January 2008

http://blogs.mediapost.com/

(Photo Credit: http://www.crucialminutiae.com/)

Post It And They Will Come?

During my morning perusal of AdPulp, I came across the news of Ogilvy’s new advertising pitch for Tassimo coffee makers…which is going to consist of webisodes and a consumer-generated contest:

“Creating original, entertaining content gives Tassimo both cultural currency and permission for further conversations with consumers,” said Joseph Frydl, director of Ogilvy’s branded content and entertainment group. “Purely interruptive marketing simply cannot accomplish that.”

Beyond the fact that these webisodes, which has acting and production values that make it look like something that ran on my high school’s internal television channel, just aren’t original or entertaining, the idea that some webisodes, a website and a promotional overlay will start conversations with consumers is simply wishful thinking of the sort that somehow seems to convince clients, but reasonable people know are just empty words. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A great post from ad blog 'the daily (ad) biz' on a recent new media campaign for coffee maker Tassimo. As the article alludes to Tassimo simply followed the pattern of (what seems to be) every other new media / interactive / viral campaign that we have seen during the last year. Make some 'funny' videos (I use the word funny in quotes because the videos are merely laborious...I did not make it thought the whole clip), put up an authentic fake-office website and let the laughs roll in!

I am unsure how this online campaign complements the rest of the marketing campaign for Bob, but alas, I am afraid it misses the mark with or without an offline execution.

Like Mo and I have been talking about for a while, not all new media / interactive executions are right for your company / brand. It might be too expensive, too time-consuming, not have the right content or not the right fit for your audience.

Take the time and determine which one of these new and amazing interactive opportunities will be the best fit for your goals and target audience.

And if it is making a series of videos, just make sure they are actually funny.

Gucci Loves New York...

Gucci "Loves" New York, but perhaps New York does not share the sentiment? In an effort to promote the opening of its flagship store in New York, luxury brand Gucci recently launched www.GucciLovesNY.com, a site that pays homage to the city by featuring the favorite chic hangouts of the brand's CEO and creative director - including restaurants, clubs, boutiques and spas. One problem...the economic development arm for the State of New York is locked in a dispute with Gucci over use of the legendary "heart" symbol synonymous with the "I love NY" campaign. >>Full Story

Thoughts// Kudos to the marketing team at Gucci. They could have played it safe and celebrated the new Gucci flagship store by running one of those run-of-the-mill fashion campaigns we’ve become accustomed; yes, the ones with super skinny blondes enjoying the party life (not that there’s anything wrong with it).

Instead however, they chose to pay homage to the city that is the fashion capital of the country and built a whole campaign around it. Visitors to the site can view locations on a Google “mashup” map and read about why each location makes “Gucci love New York.” The site also has blogs from a group of fashion bloggers, all of whom also add their favorite New York places to go. Visitors can participate by submit their own posts, complete with a photo of themselves in front of their favorite place.

And what’s more, the company also designed 600 commemorative purses and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these purses are slated to be given away to a charity that maintains childrens' playgrounds at Central Park (at $600 or so a pop, that adds up nicely).

The campaign also has a ton of potential to extend itself to other channels: Madonna’s “I love NY” which plays in the background would make for popular ringtones, they could leverage the photos on Flickr, perhaps add a Twitter feed to track the hippest places frequented by Gucci staff and of course some point of sale interaction with customers.

Despite all of these positives, Gucci's love for NY is unrequited. As of this writing, the legal wrangling over the use of the “heart” symbol continues; in addition, some fashionista bloggers are up in arms about the fact that none of the bloggers on the site are from NYC. Guess you can’t please them all!

Gucci…perhaps you should head West?

Spherical Storytelling

What if you can bring the magic of skiing down Mt. Hood or hiking down the Grand Canyon to life using "three dimensional" video technology where the user can not only get just the linear view but also take in the complete surrounding environment?

With "immersive video" technology you now can. Check out the video below that follows a whale watching expedition. Don't just view it....click on the arrows and use it to look around the boat.



This technology powers Google's Street View and the hardware and software are powered by Portland based "Immersive Media Company". For a few technical details on how it all works view this video on their website. For another look at how this can enhance the web video experience, below is another video sample from folks testing it around at our agency.

Travel Trends - Delta, Sweden, Ad Agencies, TripIt

Planeguage from Delta - Delta and Delta.com, who have been rapidly adopting to some of the latest interactive trends since emerging from bankrupcy, (see Delta SiteSeer Challenge, Delta SiteSeer Video and Under the Wing) have just launched a series of short, animated videos titled 'Planeguage.' The videos put a humorous spin on some of the most common challenges/hassles of airline travel. You can view the first video above or, if reading via email/rss, view the video online.

Personally, I think the videos are fantastic, from the intro music to the characters to the stories, and the spots appear to be a great way to create a viral marketing campaign around the new Delta brand. Notice that the videos are already on YouTube, and in the case of the one above, have been viewed 10,000+ times. While the videos themselves are entertaining, it will be interesting to see if consumer response is 'that is creative and fun' or 'so they are telling me they have no room on there planes.' Communicating with consumers online, what a tricky endeavor.
http://blog.delta.com/

Community of Sweden - Always under the radar, those Swedes have been busy. Visit Sweden has just introduced what it is calling the 'Community of Sweden', the ' the official online community for Sweden,' where visitors can 'share and enjoy photos, travel stories tips and more from friends in Sweden and all over the world.' Think of it as it MySpace for people who love traveling to Sweden. As numerous DMOs begin to experiment in the UGC / Social Networking space, look for more of these communities to begin appearing. Hands down, the best feature of the site is the fantastic flash map / update tool on the homepage. Great execution on the map.
http://communityofsweden.com

Forrester: Web Shops Not Ready to Lead - During the recent HSMAI Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, which I attended last Monday, one of the topics brought up by the attendees was what the ad agency of the future looks like. The popular answer was that the ad agency of the future has a deeper understanding of the interactive world with a solid background of 'traditional' advertising. While several interactive / online agencies are getting closer to this ideal situation, it would appear...according to this report...that we still have a while to go.
http://www.adweek.com/

TripIt Is In Sync With You - Semantic Web here we come. Travel planning service TripIt...introduced to the blog a few months ago...has launched a new service that will automatically sync your travel plans with your calendar such as Office, iCal, Google, etc. So, no more manually entering your travel dates into the calendar, TripIt does it for you. Just as a refresher, the 'hook' of TripIt is that you can forward your confirmation email to the service, which will automatically create a complete trip itinerary for you. Convenient.
http://www.tripit.com/

You Never Would Have Seen This Without The Internet

I try not to clutter up the Interactive Trend Report with too many of those 'amazing' videos floating around the internet (the kind you get from your Uncle or roommate), but every once and while a video will catch my eye.

From our friends at Upgrade: Travel Better, check out this amazing video (see above or follow this link if you are reading this post via email) of a passenger train in Bangkok street market. Not only is the video amazing (be sure to watch the whole clip), but it also serves as another example of how our world is becoming smaller due to technology.

Prior to YouTube and other video sharing sites, most of us would probably never have seen, heard or read the countless videos, pictures and stories now available online...unless we were to travel there ourselves.

Unknown Canada Goes Viral

With little to no branding involved, Tribal DDB Toronto's ploy for the Canadian Tourism Commission began last August and sent an unassuming couple on a jaunt across three major Canadian cities--namely Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Posing as tourists, the pair were told to indulge themselves throughout with the only stipulation being to capture their fun on a digital camera and a camcorder. The footage was then sent to be inserted into 1,000 USB keys, which were also stuffed with MP3's of hip Canadian acts along with the couple's itinerary. They would then be "mistakenly" left in key American markets, including Chicago as one of the central locations.

Those who found the keys and loaded them up would find an embedded link once they played the MP3's, which directed them ultimately to the landing page "Unknown Canada." Nevertheless, the clever strategy leads the key owners to a site that includes a host of information and destinations for not just the three cities mentioned, but also Vancouver and Calgary. Additionally, descriptions of Canadian indie acts like Stars and Malajube can be perused, adding up quite an experiential taste of our neighbors up North.

Thoughts// A quirky little site from our friends to north, Unknown Canada, shows 'adventurous' travelers some of the little known sites and sounds of Canada. The real star of the show is the way this campaign was introduced to the public via USB keys or flash drives...similar to the promotion of the most recent Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero. A clever way to get consumers actively involved with your brand...as long as you deliver a payoff worthy of the effort involved.

Adding some additional content, such as a few unique videos and mapping features to the site, would be a way to further engage the consumer.

Travel Trends - JetBlue, Wayback Machine, Online Video Ads

The Wayback Machine - An established (possibly old) site for some people, however the Internet Archives' Wayback Machine still proves to be a great resource...especially for those who missed the initial launch and have not heard of it (I forget that not everyone knows about this site). The concept is pretty simple, type in a domain name and browse through the previous versions of the site...for example, Travelocity.com a la 1996 (pictured...and yes, it really did look like that). A great way to understand the evolution of web site design.
http://www.archive.org/

JetBlue Point of View Photo Contest - As mentioned in a previous post, JetBlue has been holding a photo contest to promote the collaboration of the airline and Google. To host the images from the contest, JetBlue is using Google's Picasa photo sharing service (naturally). Although it appears that the entire contest was not completed via Picasa, the use of a photo sharing site (Picasa or Flickr) to promote and run a photo contest is an interesting approach...if the consumers are already using Flickr or Picasa, take the photo contest to them, rather than making them come to you (your site). Take a look at the finalists and vote for your favorite.
http://jetblue.com/google/

Online Video Advertising - A recent TNS study in partnership with AOL and Google presents some key findings for online video advertising. While these results are specifically speaking about advertising on other online videos (such as advertising before a YouTube video), they do provide good insight into some general online video factors.
http://adage.com/

Avoiding 'the Slog' with Horizon Air

Some people call it the "road of regret" or the "heartache highway," but I-5 covering the Seattle-Portland trail has its share of disgruntled road warriors according to Horizon Air. Therefore, with the help of agency Wongdoody, the airline is aiming to placate Northwestern business travelers with not just a $99 shuttle offer, but a website capturing video that canvasses infamous landmarks along the dreaded trail.

Locales with names such as Filthy John's Holler, Molasses Pass, Longblink Gulch and the Bridge of Heavy Sighs comprise the three-hour sojourn, with grey-black, well-edited footage, morose music and amusing narration giving site visitors a vivid feel of each destination on the pathway--conclusively making air travel seem that much more convenient.
http://www.i-5slog.com/

Thoughts// A clever creative execution from Horizon Air to promote there 'Horizon Route' for travelers from Portland to Seattle. Speaking from a purely creative / aesthetic perspective, the I-5 slog website (micro-site) is easy-to-read and navigate, well composed and incorporates a good use of online video. The rustic feel of the site is not only a nod to the expeditions that discovered this section of the country, but a reason to keep clicking around the site. It would be interesting to know how this piece was integrated into the overall campaign...via email, online banners or other placements.

So, Mo, is the I-5 really that bad? And do you call it 'the Slog'?

Visit My Baltimore Allows Baltimoreans To Post Video

If you've never been to Baltimore, you don't know what you're missing. That's why we've created this website. So you can get the real Bawlmer experience from the people who know it best: Baltimoreans. Let us show you what gives Charm City its charm. The wonderful. The weird. The waterfront. It's the world's biggest invitation, from us to you. So please, come explore. http://www.visitmybaltimore.com/

Thoughts// The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association launched Visit My Baltimore earlier this summer to allow Baltimoreans the opportunity to show off the best of the city as well as continue the new 'Get in on it' marketing / branding campaign. The site, which uses online video technology from ViTrue, lets users upload their own videos or create a video using a variety of pre-selected clips. So far the site is hosting just under 100 videos. Side note, how can you not love the video rating icon of the crab...a nice touch.

As with several other DMOs who have begun to explore the idea of user-generated video, it would appear that the growth of content is slow, however it is still too early to determine the impact of the site on potential visitors.

In addition to the UGC video site, the BACVA has also launched a mini-site for it's recent 'Get in on it' brand launch. The site, www.areyouinonit.com, offers some good information on how and why the current brand was produced...including a brand-icon match game! If you are currently going through a re-branding process, I would recommend giving it a look. This is not only a good way to introduce a brand to the public, but also to constituents and co-workers who will help determine the success of any new brand.

Hyatt Rolls Out Ultimate Adventure Challenge

The latest installment of Hyatt Resorts' "Ultimate Adventure Challenge" goes live today. Curium Studios developed the Web-based reality series for Global Hyatt, a project aimed at building brand awareness and affinity for the Hyatt Resorts group of family-focused "adventure" vacation properties.

Hosted at www.HyattAdventureChallenge.com, the Webisodes follow five families as they compete in activities like kayak races, scavenger hunts and jungle safaris during a two-week stint across three US Hyatt Resorts locations. >>Full Story

Thoughts// An interesting promotion and concept from Hyatt, a sort of take-off from The Amazing Race television show. As Jim Forni, executive producer, says in the article, the one of the reasons behind the promotion was to jump into the YouTube craze, but still maintain brand control of the product ("Like many other brands, Hyatt wanted to leverage the participatory energy that's frequently attached to sites like YouTube,but in a thoughtful manner that would integrate the brand without completely turning it over.") Another good quote in the piece explains that the promotion was looked upon as a way to 'nudge' consumers down the purchase funnel without making a typical commercial. An obvious move to use 3 (spectacular) Hyatt resorts as the backdrops for the series completes the commercial within a show concept. With somewhat limited advertising (the article did not go into detail), it will be interesting to see how much participation this promotion, and the Delta SiteSeer Challenge, generate without the easy-to-find, hard-to-target, 'YouTube' audience.

What the French Taught Us (Online Engagement in Politics)

Click on the Freestyle Zone, one of 16 video channels on French president Nicholas Sarkozy's Web site, and you begin to understand how this former candidate's Internet strategy played a big role in helping him win the May 6 election. >>Full Story

Thoughts// With CNN hosting a one-of-a-kind "YouTube" debate Monday and Tuesday night, this article on AdWeek offers a fascinating look at how the interactive medium, and tactics such as social networking, streaming video, played a key role in the political strategy for the recent French elections and how they've already inspired elections here.

(Note - This article does not directly relate to marketing/travel 2.0; however working in politics was my first immersion in marketing and I've always been inspired by the techniques used in political campaigns to build "engagement". From the use of social networking, user generated video, blogs, twitter feeds and "friend" collections on Facebook and MySpace, technology is already leaving an indelible mark on the 2008 Presidential Election and will no doubt provide marketers some interesting case studies in the future)

Travel Trends - MSN, Video, Google, Newspapers

Farecast.com & MSN Travel - MSN and Farecast.com, the airfare prediction Web site, announced an agreement today in which MSN will offer its users free airfare predictions and planning tools on the MSN Travel Channel. This agreement marks the first distribution deal for Farecast to bring its unique travel technology and planning tools to a broader consumer audience. (Ironically posted on CNNMoney.com)
http://www.cnnmoney.com

Online Video Numbers - comScore's Video Metrix report for May said that nearly 75% of U.S. Internet users watched an average of 158 minutes of online video during the month. Viewing of online video has reached 63% of U.S. Internet viewers according to a CTAM report.
http://www.mediapost.com

Google Small Business Search - Google Custom Search Business Edition is a service hosted on Google computers that starts at $100 per year and does not require businesses to run Google ads. The new service marks a middle option between Google's existing Custom Search Engine, a free, ad-supported service, and Google Appliance, a hardware device selling for prices starting around $2,000 which customers manages on themselves.
http://www.reuters.com

Newspaper Crossover - A new study recently released by the Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found that 81% of newspaper website users also read the printed newspaper in the last 7 days. Crossover users (those who used both print and online newspapers in the past 7 days) have deep affinity with both their printed newspaper and their newspaper website, and 83% say "I love both my printed newspaper and visiting my newspapers website."
http://www.centerformediaresearch.com/

Delta Launches 'SiteSeer' Video Section

Delta Air Lines has launched SiteSeer Travelcast, a series of free, downloadable travel shows that aim to connect with passengers and highlight the travel experience of the airline's employees.

At launch, the travel videos, located at http://www.delta.com/siteseer, featured seven cities, including New York; Seoul, South Korea; and Mumbai, India, as of press time. Delta planned to launch a total of 10 videos. >>Full Story

Thoughts// Similar to some other airlines (Virgin Atlantic), Delta's new 'SiteSeer' Travelcast delivers online destination videos from real Delta employees. The travelcasts, which can be viewed online or downloaded to an iPod, take the user on a short tour of a Delta-serviced city. The videos and content are good quality, but it will be interesting to see if Delta expands this offering with more professional videos or takes the larger step and begins allowing user-generated videos on the site.

70 Percent of U.S. Web Users Streamed Video in March

comScore released its comScore Video Metrix rankings for March 2007, showing Google Sites as the top U.S. streaming video property with 57.4 million unique people streaming ("streamers") and 1.2 billion video streams initiated. YouTube.com drove the lion's share of the video streaming activity at the Google Sites property with 53.5 million unique streamers and 1.1 billion streams initiated.

In March, Americans consumed more than 7 billion video streams online, led by Google Sites with 1.2 billion. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 434 million streams, followed by Fox Interactive with 421 million and Viacom Digital with 260 million. >>Full Story

Other notable findings from March 2007 include:

• Five out of every seven U.S. Internet users (71.4 percent) streamed video online.

• Three out of every ten (30.1 percent) of U.S. Internet users streamed video on YouTube.com.

• The average online video viewer consumed 55 video streams, or nearly two per day, during the month.

• Online viewers watched an average of 145 minutes of online video in March 2007.

Thoughts// It is becoming increasing apparent that the online public has crossed the threshold for online video consumption. Slow internet connections, out-dated browsers and the public's unfamiliarity with online video would appear to be less of an issue than in previous years.