Mobile Usage in Travel on the Rise

In December 2012, I wrote a piece called The Mobile Revolution in Travel about recent trends and reports that painted what seemed to be an optimistic portrait regarding mobile adoption rates and its impact for the travel industry. Less than a year later, it appears as if reports were, if anything, very conservative: the growth is in fact staggering!

MOBILE BOOKINGS ARE BOOMING

All the statistics show sheer growth, not only for smartphones but also tablets and other wireless devices, i.e. iPods. According to a recent study by Tradedoubler Insight Unit, tech-savvy European travelers are ignoring travel agents and instead using mobile and online sites to book their vacations. This study looked at the online behavior of 2,500 smartphone users from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Poland. Overall, 19% of these tech-savvy travelers booked their vacation through their mobile device. But if you dig a little deeper, you’d find that in the 25-34 years old demographics, 28% of users say they now book their holidays from the comfort of their mobile phone!
This should come as no surprise, though. Google Travel found that 25% of all online search for travel came from a mobile device at the end of 2012 and eMarketer predicts that this figure would jump up to 40% by the end of 2013. Well, lo and behold, it seems we’re already there! Looking at results gathered during Q1 2013 for the various hotels across North America managed by HeBS, a New York-based agency, we find that 39.5% of all online traffic came from either a smartphone or a tablet – in 89% of cases, an iPad.

Source: The 3 Screens in Hospitality, Q1 2013, HeBS

As can be seen in the chart above, while there is a considerable amount of traffic generated from mobile devices, bookings & revenues remain a small fraction. Nevertheless, it now represents more than 10% of revenues, and growing! So much so, in fact, that PhoCusWright estimates it should reach 20% of online travel dollars in the U.S. by end of 2014, when mobile bookings will reach US$25.8 billion.
Yet, another aspect that requires marketers’ attention is the fact that while bookings may remain on the lower end of the spectrum, mobile is increasingly important at the research level. Thus, travel brands should ensure they have optimal mobile sites and/or applications to properly capture their fair share of bookings, whether this eventually comes through a mobile device, laptop, desktop or even call center. This recent study and infographic from Mobiquity sheds some interesting insights on the matter.

MOBILE IS MORE THAN A CHANNEL

At the end of the day, however, we need to grasp and understand that mobile devices are taking an omnipresent role in our everyday life and that they represent more than just “another channel” to market, communicate or advertize through. In fact, eMarketer recently found that for the very first time, as of this year time spent on nonvoice mobile activities will surpass time spent online on desktop and laptop computers!
We have a much closer relationship with our mobile devices than we would with the office desktop or even a personal laptop. Some bring their smartphone with them to the washroom, others bring their tablet to bed for nighttime reading… it has therefore become a lifestyle item, above and beyond its useful and inherent attributes.

Some takeaways:

• Not all mobile is mobile. Treat smartphones and tablets differently, and have a distinct strategy for each. Behavior and willingness to spend are not the same, whether in research mode or in booking mode, according to different devices.
• Online travel agencies (OTAs) have taken a clear leadership in this space yet again, with mobile applications and mobile sites adapted, in some instances differently according to tablets or smartphones. Hotels, airlines, cruise lines, restaurants and destinations should take a few notes from their best practices.
• Have a mobile marketing strategy in place and appropriate dollars to fund future initiatives. If it’s too late for 2013, then it’s certainly time to prioritize this for 2014 strategy planning sessions that are taking place in various travel brands headquarters right now…

• Original article

Keywords: Best Practices, Research, Behavior, Mobile Apps, Advertising, ROI, News, Mobile, Sales, Social Networks, mobile app, travel industry 

Read More

The Big Brand Theory: How Maersk Grew Social Media Influence in the Shipping Industry

If you pass through a shipping port or train yard, it’s likely you’ll see the logo, with its iconic seven-pointed star. Back in the 1880s, company founder captain Peter Mærsk-Møller used the star symbol to celebrate his wife’s recovery from an illness. Today, the company is a global conglomerate of shipping and oil and gas companies, with annual revenues of over 55 billion dollars. The Maersk Line, a principle division within the group is the largest global shipping company, with over 600 container ships. In fact, if you lined up all the Maersk Line shipping containers in a row, they would reach half way around the world.

The idea of lining up shipping containers might be farfetched, but if you did you could be sure there would be a lot of people watching and posting photos to Instagram and Facebook. The company’s Facebook profile has over one million likes! When the company posts an image or link on their wall, there are usually hundreds of shares, over a thousand likes, and dozens if not hundreds of comments. It turns out, there are a lot of people in the world who are enthusiasts for shipping containers and cargo ships.
Jonathan Wichmann (@JonathanWich) is the Maersk Line head of social media, and up until a couple of months ago, comprised the social media department.  Jonathan told me that there were many naysayers who didn’t think the organization had much hope in social media; that the maritime industry is conservative and known for its secrecy. At the same time, though, the company employs thousands of seafarers who are away from home for long stretches of time – perhaps a perfect environment for social media use.

Storytelling

It’s probably not a coincidence that Wichmann, himself, studied literature and is a published author. He has a strong sense of storytelling, and that storytelling is central to Maersk Line social media. Wichmann says, “even though we’re a B2B company, there’s a real visual side to it, moving goods from one part of the world to another through beautiful landscapes; so we have an extensive archive of great photos; rich history and story to be told. There’s a basic story about being home, and away, then home again, moving through landscapes.”


With 325 offices around the world covering 140 countries, Maersk also has the advantage of its scale with global reach. As Wichmann adds, “when people see a Maersk ship or container [there is a] tendency to take a photo.” The ubiquity of camera phones has become a natural source of content. With all of this energy and enthusiasm around the photos, employees have come to realize that working in the industry of giant container ships isn’t so tedious or boring.

Return on Investment

Marketers are frequently called upon to justify the allocation of dollars to social media. On being asked the question, Wichmann responds with enthusiasm, “it doesn’t make sense in the beginning to calculate ROI. The real value isn’t what you achieve in the first few months; it’s a cultural change; getting ready for a future that is digitalized and social.”

While Maersk can certainly point to real cultural change, particularly in how employees feel about their jobs and industry, there have also been some other benefits to which real value can be assigned. While major media and trade publications have been telling the story of the shipping industry for over a hundred years, Maersk has taken a leadership position in social media within the industry.
Maersk doesn’t just share the happy stories, either.  Wichmann says that in order to be credible, it’s important to share the negative stories as well. The net result being that they are major influencers in how the news about the shipping industry is told. Wichmann asks, “How do you measure being the most influential in this industry? If I would have asked management two years ago what they would have paid to attain that position, they wouldn’t have believed it could be done.”
As Wichmann says, “It’s an example of how you can not really tell where value will come from when you first start. If you chase short term ROI; you’re missing out; it’s more about mindset than just sales.”

Keywords: Best Practices, Social Media Marketing, Content, Branding, ROI, News, Community, Marketing, Social Customer, Social Media, Social Networks, maersh, shipping, The Big Brand Theory 

Read More

Pinterest Idea: Transform Blog Posts Into Images

Your blog should be feeding your social media content pipeline, including Pinterest.
I know it seems counterintuitive that a largely text-based medium, your blog, could feed your content pipeline for Pinterest, which is such a visually based platform, but it’s certainly not impossible.
Following are a few ideas for how you can reimagine your blog content as highly visual content for Pinterest:
Visualize key points
Every quality blog post typically has several key points that support the main theme. Sometimes these individual points can make great bite-size content, so take advantage of this and reimagine them for Pinterest.
Try isolating the key points from your latest post and re-write them as short snippets of text – think something along the lines of a tweet. Then create or find a compelling, attention grabbing visual that illustrates each individual key point, and spend some time nicely laying out the associated text on the image.
Depending on the length of your article, and number of points or support points made, you could create a nice series of pins from a single blog post.
Graphically demonstrate stats, numbers, or anything you’ve quantified
If your blog post features statistics, or if you’ve quantified virtually anything, try to think of interesting ways to visually demonstrate those numbers and give them richer meaning to your audience.
Consider finding interesting or entertaining points of comparison, re-think how you create graphs and charts to make them more visually stimulating, or lay out your numbers on top of an image to give added context.
Create pin-worthy header images
This is a bit of a no-brainer, but try spending a bit of time on a key visual or header image for each of your articles.
The bit of added time you spend creating a stunning key visual will serve the dual purpose of also being interesting content for Pinterest.
Infographics for added information
Finally, think about how you can create a supplemental infographic to the content of you blog post. You could include a breakdown of key points with added context, give a more detailed analysis of any stats or numbers provided in your post, provide a detailed back story or ‘behind the scenes’ for interested audience members, or more.
There are a number of ways that you can create supplemental value for interested readers through the crafting of an infographic, or infographic-esque image. Get creative and give it a shot.
_
Have you ever converted blog content into valuable Pinterest pins?
Do you have any unorthodox sources of content for your Pinterest boards?

Keywords: Best Practices, Social Media Marketing, Content, Pinterest, ROI, Community Management, Blogging, Engagement, Infographics, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks 

Read More

Shifting Tastes and Fizzling Sales for Coke: Listen Up!

Social forensics and listening practice aside, Coca-Cola has recently received a clear message of souring consumer tastes as sales of Diet Coke fell for the second consecutive year on the heels of a second quarterly drop in global sales.  Reflecting a trend in consumer thirst and ideas about health, overall sales of diet sodas have fallen more than sales of beverages containing sugar, with Diet Coke sales down by a ratio of 3 to 1 over sugar-sweetened Coke.  Sales volumes for Diet Pepsi and Pepsi plunged over twice as much.

Last week, in deference to the consumer concerns it is tracking in social media—in particular, the safety of Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners—Coca-Cola launched an ad campaign disputing Diet Coke’s hazards to human health and defending its safety.  They are certainly on the right track here. As our NetBase social intelligence monitor reveals for the past week in the word cloud below, consumers continue to associate artificial sweeteners with disease in humans.  Discussions around Gulf War Syndrome reveal consumer suspicions attributing the disease to the thousands of pallets of Diet Coke distributed to soldiers during the conflict.

  

Suspicions linking artificial sweeteners to cancer date to the 1970s. This was the social media dark ages, well before consumers had a voice capable of impacting corporate policy. Nowadays, consumer complaints can actually alter food and beverage formularies.  As more companies begin to understand the intrinsic relationship between sales and investment in social ROI, beverage companies like Coca-Cola are leveraging actionable social insights to respond to and initiate conversations with consumers.
Today’s consumer health science ultimately gets leaked or published in social media, rightfully fueling public fears. As recently as last year, for example, a study by Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital initially touting the safety of Aspartame was retracted in a press release titled “The truth isn’t sweet when it comes to artificial sweeteners.”  As the Coke word cloud below reveals, when high-fructose corn syrup is filtered for other sweeteners—artificial and sugar- or cane-based—in addition to Aspartame, including Cyclamate, Bisphenol A, 4-MEI caramel, GMOs, high fructose corn syrup—as well as alcohol in soda, consumers draw a correlation to obesity and diabetes, with a leading concern revolving around children’s health.   

  

Meanwhile, Coke has launched a new defense of Aspartame, the primary substance in its diet drinks. This comes on the heels of its proactive marketing campaigns this year to address falling sales and a market shifting away from artificial sweeteners and additives, and speaks directly to those now seriously concerned about health issues, food and beverage safety, and the harmful effects of additives and chemicals.
Our NetBase social analysis is a cautionary tale of consumers who continue to make associations among studies linking artificial sweeteners to cancer and other life-threatening diseases, including obesity and diabetes. We also see concerns about drink sizes and the life-long effects of additives and chemicals in the food chain.
Sugar and high fructose syrups in sodas, too, have been targeted by consumers and consumer health protection watchdogs like the Center for Science in the Public Interest as fueling obesity and as a leading contributor in diabetes, as we see in the NetBase theme chart below.  CSPI, a leading Coke critic, is advocating that Coke spend more time and money on new research for safer low-calorie sweeteners, rather than on an ad campaign resurrecting its old Aspartame safety claims.

      

And just how are people responding to Coke’s new defense of Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners? In the past week since Coke went on the defensive, net sentiment has fallen compared to the prior week. This, combined with a rise in passion intensity score, reflects an emotive negative social consumer reaction.  Our NetBase listening tracker also reveals heightened alarm over Aspartame consumption by parent bloggers. They cite links to cancer, muscular sclerosis and diabetes, as well as potential links to weight gain, fatigue and other maladies afflicting children in growing and disproportionate numbers.
As social media makes the science of disease increasingly transparent, companies like Coca-Cola can no longer placate consumers with self-serving ads that skirt scientific studies whose findings have already scared increasing market share away from sugary and Aspartame laden drinks.  Ironically, Coke has in place a leading listening strategy.  Perhaps it just isn’t “hearing” the language of its market.

Keywords: Monitoring Tools, Branding, Advertising, Enterprise Social, Platforms, ROI, Listening, Sales, Social Customer, Social Media, Coke 

Read More

Why Social Media is the Rodney Dangerfield of Marketing Channels

 

 

Rodney Dangerfield won fame and a cult following with his comedic catchphrase, “I don’t get no respect.” His signature line and self-deprecating ways kept people laughing for years. The tactics Rodney used then fits perfectly in our social media world today. When his comedy act failed to take off, he created a character that was always on the losing side. The image he developed launched his career and kept it going.

Was it Rodney’s success that inspired self-professed gurus to adopt an “I don’t get no ROI” mantra for social media? Maybe it was the need to differentiate the channel from traditional marketing. Or, could it be that the people professing its value to the corporate world didn’t understand the need for ROI? Whatever the motivation, the image of the emerging channel was hurt by the people declaring its worth. This is truly a shame because there is value, measurable value, in effective social media strategies.

Five years ago, corporate social media was in the early adoption stage. A few forward thinking companies were testing it. The rest were watching from the sidelines, skeptical about anything that wasn’t proven to generate revenue and profitability. The economy was presenting tough challenges. Investments needed to deliver revenue.

The first impression of the baby channel wasn’t good. Anyone who dared to mention a return on investment was chastised for not understanding that it was “all about the conversation.” This made people who understood business uncomfortable. How could they justify participating in a channel where discussion of ROI was taboo?

Time passes and the channel evolves. Platforms and tools are created. Rising social media rock stars passionately promoted the channel. They talked about transparency, engagement, connections, fans, followers, and likes, but ROI remained off limits. Real questions about the viability of social media receive flip replies. One of my favorite responses is, “What’s the ROI of your mother?” (Note: Adult language in video)

Answering a question with a question is a classic avoidance tactic. It directs the conversation away from the original topic. The people who do this either don’t want to share their knowledge or they don’t know the answer. Neither option endears business leaders to social media or its gurus. This is a disservice to the channel and the companies that need to have a presence.

Social media is increasingly becoming a cost of doing business. Credibility, in the form of a measurable return, is needed to justify investments. The argument that other channels aren’t measurable is false. They are, with the right mix of message and call to action. Admittedly, some advertising is created for the sole purpose of brand awareness. I’m not including branding messages in this discussion. For a direct marketer like me, brand awareness is a side effect, not a purpose.

Measuring the return from social media is similar to measuring the return from customer service. It isn’t easy or simple but it can be done. Companies participating in social activities have three choices when considering quantification. They are:

1. Invest the resources required to implement a measurement strategy that defines the cause and effect.
2. Treat social media as a cost of doing business like customer service.
3. Maintain the status quo.

If you choose the first option, here are some tips to help you measure the unknown:

• Add trackable call to actions to content. This allows you to see how many people are responding and what they do.
• Establish and maintain benchmarks. Monitoring benchmarks identifies trends that can be used to evaluate strategy.
• Segment prospects and customers acquired via social platforms separately. Comparing their lifetime value to those acquired via traditional methods provides information for long-term investments.
• Include service costs in analysis. Social media is more of service channel than a marketing channel for some companies.
• Validate all data before using it. And, when in doubt validate it again. Social media analytics change quite often.
• Ignore all naysayers. ROI is a critical component of business analysis. Omitting it is poor management.

Original article

 Keywords: Best Practices, Social Media Marketing, ROI, Marketing, Social Customer, Social Media, Social Networks

Read More