Future of Display Advertising – Is the Hotel Industry Ready?
Google recently presented their vision for how display advertising is likely to evolve by 2015…these seven predictions are something all marketers worth their salt absolutely MUST be informed and aware about.
To summarize, here are the broad predictions:
- 50% of ad campaigns will include video ads bought on a cost-per-view basis
- 50% of ads will be bought using this real-time bidding technology to tailor experiences for different viewers
- Smartphones / mobile is going be the number one screen for digital brands to engage users
- There will be at least five metrics that advertisers will regard as more important than the “click”
- 75% of web ads will be “social” in nature i.e. Ads will be shared, discussed, subscribed to and recommended
- Rich media formats enable great creativity and interaction – these will grow from 6% of display ad impressions to 50%, especially for brand building campaigns
- Digital display advertising is going to grow to a $50 billion industry
Interview with Marketing Guru Naufel Vilcassim
I finally had the chance to grab a little time with Naufel, whose Marketing course I attended at London Business School, to ask a few questions about how he got where he is, what excites him…and his thoughts on some key marketing issues:
[JJ] Could you please tell us a little about yourself and why you chose the world of Marketing and Academics?
My path to an academic career in Marketing was quite accidental. My undergraduate degree was in Physical Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) and after completing my studies, I joined a diversified corporation in Sri Lanka as a management trainee and that kindled my interest in the study of management. While studying for my MBA degree, I took a liking to Economics and Applied Econometrics in particular, and so chose to do further studies (i.e. Ph. D.) in that subject. However, being in a business school, I chose to apply my training to modeling consumer choice and that led me to the field of Marketing. Not a grand design, but one that happened quite fortuitously and I never looked back. It has been a wonderful experience.
Recession, Identity and the Art of War
Is the end really nigh?
A recession is here again….and as with every economic downturn, echoes of despair and quick fixes permeate the wires. That’s all well, of course, except for the fact that this is no ordinary downturn…this one’s big, real big. Some say we’ve just about hit bottom now, others claim the fall’s decelerating. Only the fittest will survive, proclaim the Darwinians, somewhat gleefully.
That may be true, but the good news is that the evolution of businesses need not be as fatalistic an affair as the evolution of species. The great thing about hitting bottom is it gives the eventual survivors the chance to catch a breath, gather their bearings and strategize about the climb out. It goes without saying that the animal that’ll emerge from the fray will be a leaner and wiser one. This is all about conscious decisions…and the individuals that choose to make them will lead their organizations to even greater heights.
Say “cheese” – You’re on candid cam!
A picture may be worth a thousand words…but most hotel PR & Marketing managers today would be at a loss for words at the plague of user generated photos out on the Internet today. Hoteliers may need to get used to the fact that competing with their ‘official’ previews of what to expect, past guests have provided quite an unflattering visual footprint for those to follow. It’s no secret that hotels pay thousands of dollars for painstakingly taken, doctored photos that would entice even the most hardened globetrotter to positively drool in anticipation…and hit that book button. Great pictures DO sell.
Just as the transparency offered by the Internet in terms of rates has given many a hotel revenue manager gray hair, the ability to easily share rich media on the web promises to do the same for the marketing ilk. One only needs to turn to photos posted on TripAdvisor or Flickr to obtain unflattering photos of virtually every nook and crany of your hotel these days. Plus aesthetic slip-ups and the dreaded ease with which users can now take and publish photos online virtually guarantee that any dirty rooms, dropped drinks, deteriorating facilities and other ‘oops’ moments get their 15 mintues (or perpetuity) of fame on the Internet (as if old high school photos resurfacing on Facebook wasn’t bad enough!).
So is it all bad news?
Technology and Marketing – A Match Made In Heaven
“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson may have put a poetic twist on human fascination with new technology, however the statement certainly lacks in bringing across the crucial importance of marketing. History is littered with examples of great new inventions and astonishing advances that never made the light of day…a lot of times simply because not enough people knew about them or just didn’t understand them.
Social lessons from Twitter
“Great…another lame social networking site. I don’t have time for this stuff! Heck, I hardly use my Facebook account…how do people manage to keep these things updated anyway?” exclaims a fellow hotelier. On some days and with certain social networking offshoots I’d be inclined to agree. However Twitter is truly something else.
Although it’s hard to take a count, there are at least 140 ‘popular’ social networking sites, varying in community focus, from business networks to friend feeds to photo enthusiast platforms. MySpace and Facebook lead the pack, with Compete.com ranking Twitter the 3rd largest, with a population of approximately 6 million users and 55 million visitors per month.
The Twitterati Dozen Survey Results – Twitter Use and Hotel Best Practices
I did a quick survey recently called the Twitterati Dozen. This was basically an online survey with 12 questions addressed to prominent and very active Twitter users, to obtain their thoughts on Twitter use, connections, peeves, best practices and more. A big thank you to those of you who participated – the survey link was posted on Twitter and 100% of the results obtained within the first 24 hours. The majority of survey respondents who were contacted directly are based in the United Arab Emirates / Dubai (60%). Other geo-locations include France, the Netherlands, Spain, UK and USA.
Hospitality Bloggers and Experts – Thoughts on Hotel Internet Marketing in 2009
Very early on this month, a colleague (thanks Lola!) sent me a copy of Peter Kim’s collaborative compilation of thoughts by bloggers on Social Media. I loved the format and the power that collaboration could harness…bringing together the thoughts, ideas and best practices of those defining the field.
The following document was subsequently born – I reached out to about 18 prominent industry bloggers, writers and industry leaders in online hospitality marketing. 6 came back…here are their thoughts on the main trends the hotel industry is likely to see this year, plus tips on how hoteliers can survive and thrive in the recession. The contributors include:
- Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Deputy Director at the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR), School of Services Management at Bournemouth University.
- Todd Lucier, creator of Tourism Keys Internet Marketing for Tourism blog, podcast and learning materials
- Patrick Landman, Hotel Revenue Management, Online Distribution and Internet Marketing Guru and the Founder of Xotels
- Jan Tissera, President, TravelCLICK International (Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions)
- Guillaume Thevenot, French Londoner based at Amadeus and founder+editor of Hotel-Blogs.com
- Jitendra Jain (JJ), Online Marketer at Starwood Hotels and founder of The Talent Jungle Network, YoungHotelier.com and HoteleMarketer.com
Please feel free to share this work as required: http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=11403251&access_key=key-23o5j75xc4uxljxk4vfw&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list
Video – The Dramatic Shift in Marketing Reality
A great animated video by Michael Reissinger, based on a concept by Scholz & Friends, titled “Dramatic shift in marketing reality” that illustrates how the producer/marketer – consumer interaction has changed drastically in just a couple of decades. Also known as “The History of Marketing” Enjoy!
Will Artificial Intelligence spell the end of the TripAdvisor Model?
Travel and Hotel Reviews…love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re here to stay. The question just begs to be asked though…just how long will the user-generated model of referrals really last?
TripAdvisoris used as an example in this article because its simply too big and too well established to ignore. However this piece is not aimed at the company (to be perfectly fair, I love TripAdvisor and have used it on many occasions to find and book accommodations in strange and foreign lands). There are various other travel and hotel booking websites, guides and online travel agencies that also incorporate user reviews to add an element of trust and ‘referral credibility’ to their products.
Image Source: Compete Inc. “Consumer Generated Content in Travel” 2007. Not surprisingly, 82% consumers in the survey indicated they trust other consumer opinions over what a hotel had to say about itself. But interestingly enough, even now, less than 70% really trust the information and barely 51% feel that TripAdvisor content is unbiased.
