The ‘Spotlight’ hub is housed on Culture Trip’s main site and enables DMOs and tourism boards to deliver bespoke, sponsored, and partner-provided content or a blended content approach. DMOs are able to make use of video, written content, photography, illustration, interactive maps, places to stay, and experiences to promote their destinations.

The format, which is fully modular, can be customised to a brand, destination, or marketing campaign, and be combined with Culture Trip’s existing advertising solutions.

“Our team at Culture Trip is proud to launch Spotlight which offers an exciting platform for the amazing work of our global DMO partners and helps them tell their unique brand stories to prospective travellers who come to us for inspiration,” said Kate Glover, VP of Media Sales at Culture Trip. “Spotlight will provide DMOs with a brand-safe environment and a full suite of content opportunities, all reinforced by our award-winning storytelling capabilities. This will enable our partners to connect and convert at scale during a time which is ideal to showcase destinations while people are seeking travel inspiration and making plans to take their next trip.”

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The key works via the ‘Accor Key’ app, which guests download to receive their virtual room key. This key gives customers access to their rooms, entry to meeting rooms, and floor access via lifts all with just the tap of their smartphone. Once the guest has checked out, the mobile key is automatically deactivated.

“We are thrilled to announce the launch of Accor key within our entire network. Making contactless and seamless guest experiences a reality is a priority for Accor,” said Patrick Mendes, Chief Commercial Officer at Accor. “Accor key is a great example of how the Group can build solutions and deploy them efficiently in all Accor operating countries.”

Accor aims to introduce digital key usage in all of its new hotels opening in 2021 and in at least 500 of its existing hotels by the end of the year. Within the next five years, Accor expects at least 50 per cent of all its rooms to make use of the key.

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People in the UK with Alexa-enabled devices are able to say ‘Alexa, Explore Abu Dhabi’ and be taken on a voice tour of the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The skill enables users to choose their own adventure by verbally requesting the path they wish to follow based on given options, which include tours of relaxation and nature spots, cultural wonders, and restaurants – all chosen based on Tripadvisor data and traveller reviews.

“I’m delighted to be announcing the world’s first ever virtual voice tour of a destination on Alexa enabled devices and despite the obstacles the pandemic has thrown in the travel industry’s path, the Tripadvisor advertising team continues to create innovative, data-driven campaigns as we help prepare the tourism industry for the pent-up demand coming their way,” said Christine Maguire, GM/VP Global Media Business at Tripadvisor.

The voice skill is being promoted to Amazon Music listeners through voice ads as well as banner placements across Tripadvisor.

The experience is part of a wider DCT Abu Dhabi campaign, which also features branded guides to Abu Dhabi, custom videos and destination sponsorship on Tripadvisor. The wider campaign is running across 17 markets.

“During these difficult times, the voice skill allows consumers to discover the wonders of Abu Dhabi from the comfort of their homes,” added Maguire. “As we’ve seen from our data and insights, throughout the pandemic, there has been bottled up travel demand and untapped wanderlust from our global travel community. This campaign and test of new travel planning and media technology, shows travellers that Abu Dhabi and the travel industry as a whole are ready to welcome travellers as soon as they are able to visit.”

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The ‘Only In’ six-part series focuses entirely on New York City and the culture that flows through the city that never sleeps. Each weekly episode of around 30 minutes long explores a different piece of what makes New York City special, including discussions about Grand Central Terminal and hip-hop’s birth in The Bronx.

“Our new podcast Only In allows us to showcase the best of NYC with things youve heard of and things you probably havent to show what makes the city so unique and iconic,” said Alex Shebar, Creator and Co-host of Only In.

“With people still spending quite a lot of time at home, our podcast comes at the right time – it’s a great way for our brand to connect with our audience in a new way, and to connect our audience with the buzz and excitement of this amazing city which we all can’t wait to explore again hopefully soon. During what is a difficult time for the city our podcast reminds us of all the great people and experiences in it.”

Today’s first episode focuses on the House of Yes in Bushwick, Brooklyn – the nightlife institution transformed by Co-founders Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova from an illegal DIY arts space into the place to be for dance parties with aerialist performers.

Only is available to stream on Spotify and all ‘good’ streaming services, as well as being downloadable from iTunes. New episodes will be released every Monday until 21 September.

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The search giant has created a specific destination on Search for information about travel resuming as restrictions are lifted – and reimposed – between certain countries. It’s also rolling out a feature which shows the percentage of open hotels with availability and flights operating based on data from Google Flights and Hotels.

On Google.com/travel, users will now be able to see trendlines for hotel and flight availability, while links to additional local resources – including the number of COVID-19 cases – are also provided.

Google’s travel hub now also provides an option to see only rooms or properties with free cancellation policies, so there is a little less uncertainty for travellers should coronavirus-related travel measures change. This feature is now available for hotels and for holiday rental later this month.

“As some countries around the world begin to reopen this summer, we’re seeing more searches for places to go on vacation. Because the impact of COVID-19 on destinations can vary, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest travel-related information for places you may want to visit,” said Richard Holden, Vice President of Product Management for Travel at Google, in a blog post.

“The uncertainty of COVID-19 makes it hard to navigate travel decisions. We’ll continue to share the most relevant information so you can make informed decisions and travel safely when the time comes.”

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In partnership with Culture Trip, the ‘Rediscover Paradise’ campaign features an online travel hub to provide inspiration and guidance on hidden gems to visit across the UK. In this hub, there will be a content series and interactive map highlighting beaches, sunset vistas, and little-known natural beauty spots for Brits to explore.

“Corona was born on the beach and believes that it’s the outdoors where our best side shines through, so after months of lockdown we want to inspire people to get out, disconnect and explore – safely, and with care,” said Liz Hemus, Marketing Manager at Corona.

“Our ‘Rediscover Paradise’ platform has been established to encourage people to safely take that first step in getting back to travel, starting with discovering the beauty of the UK.”

Alongside the content on Culture Trip, there will be a TV and digital advertising campaign, showing off some of the potential travel locations. And Corona will be offering hundreds of UK staycations through a trade promotion in Tesco, NISA, CostCutter, Booker and Parfetts.

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Over the last five years, there has been an immeasurable surge in the use of influencer marketing by brands both big and small, who are reaping the benefits of a more cost-effective and personal type of audience reach. In 2016, Meliá Hotels International, which owns over 300 hotels around the globe, decided that the most authentic way of sharing their vacation experiences would be through content creation and influencers.

“Since 2016, we started noticing an increase in the requests we were receiving from influencers, from our hotels, from our regional teams, and directly to our hotel´s general managers,” says Santiago Garcia Solimei, director of global social media, Meliá Hotels International. “Towards the end of 2016, we decided we needed to put a solidified process in place. Specifically, we needed to organize everything in terms of the qualification of each request, discovery, and reporting.”

“We have more than 380 hotels and we have a presence in 43 countries, and basically what we started noticing was that if we were adding up the number of requests we were receiving at each individual property, our regional offices and our global headquarters, we could have days with over 100 influencer requests,” says Garcia Solimei.

Implementing influencer marketing
Since Meliá Hotels International has 11 different unique brands with a social media presence, the company knew they would need help organizing requests and choosing the most compatible influencer for each brand campaign.

“Without the tools and without a rigorous policy, we were finding that some requests were being approved just because someone thought that influencer would be a good choice, even though there was no way to measure or qualify those requests,” continues Garcia Solimei. “We had a pretty informal way of working with the influencers, until we realized that it was critical to add a strong process. We needed to make sure we were accepting who would be an advantage to us and that we were following a consistent criterion.”

Garcia Solimei explains, “The first step was finding a tool that could also act as an influencer database, because our strategy was to develop long-term relationships with the key influencers we wanted to work with. We also wanted to follow a policy where we would select influencers that shared the same values as our brands. We didn’t want to use the same influencer to work with us across all of our brands.”

“We scouted the market and we looked at different solutions, and we decided to work with Traackr in 2017,” says Garcia Solimei. “So, since early 2017, we started our partnership, which continues today. We chose Traackr because we needed an enterprise solution. We have hotels presence from the Asian Pacific to America, Europe and the Middle East, so we really needed a global solution that could fit the necessities of various markets.”

Connecting with Traackr
Traackr, an influencer marketing platform, offers brands and agencies an organized approach to discovering, vetting and activating the appropriate influencers for each individual campaign. Once the influencer is hired, Traackr helps with campaign management and performance measurement. In the world of influencer marketing, metrics such as follower count, audience reach, engagement and authenticity are critical to a high performing campaign.

“We ended up creating our influencer policy around Traackr, so whenever an agency with available influencers wanted to work with us, regardless of location, that same agency needed to get into Traackr and pull out all of the required information,” says Garcia Solimei. “We standardize all the information that goes into Traackr, then when the request goes to the general manager of a specific Meliá Hotels International property, who are the decision makers approving or rejecting a request, all the backup information is there.”

Garcia Solimei continues: “General Managers could see that we have already analyzed reach, engagement, brand affinity, and so on. When we say, ‘we believe this influencer is the right fit for that hotel’, normally there’s no rejection of our requests since all that information is supplied and supported.”

“One of the most valuable things about Traackr is that we are able to understand who the audience of each influencer is, including details like demographics, location, age, interests, and occupation and average income of that audience,” explains Solimei. “I think that’s extremely useful because at the end of the day, what we want is for that influencer to create custom content for that specific audience.”

Garcia Solimei mentions that each of Meliá Hotels International brands have a specific niche audience that the company is trying to appeal to, so Traackr can be used to decide whether a macro, micro or nano influencer is needed. For example, for some of Melia Hotels International´s more luxurious and exclusive locations, it would be appropriate to use an influencer that has a luxury audience that can relate, be influenced and consider booking a stay in those properties.

“Sometimes we do campaigns with micro-influencers, because for us, it’s not always about the audience numbers, it’s really about specific interests that influencer audience has. For example, for the ME Meliá Brand, which is a luxury lifestyle brand, we look for influencers that are primarily related to art, design, music, and fashion. The audience interests for us are more important than follower count.”

The bond between influencers and audiences
One of the biggest concerns a brand may have when implementing influencer marketing is the authenticity of their influencer’s followers, which can include fake accounts to bump up metrics, without any real ROI. With the help of influencer marketing platforms like Traackr, brands and agencies alike are usually able to weed out the fake followers and bot accounts.

“Obviously fake followers and authenticity are two concerns that we share across the board for all of our brands,” says Garcia Solimei. “Traackr gives us an indication of the audience types, so for every single influencer, we are able to analyze suspicious accounts. Suspicious/fake followers are indicated in the platform, we also receive a measurement of the quality of the audience as a whole.”

Garcia Solimei continues: “Of course, we want to use influencers to amplify our brands’ stories, and we really need to create content that is trustworthy. That’s where the reputation of the influencer is extremely important to us, and that’s why we put so much effort into the dedication to choosing the right partners to work with. “

Seeing success
As influencer marketing steadily gets more and more popular each year, Meliá Hotels International has seen some impressive metrics when it has come to their social media presence. Garcia Solimei credits much of the success in choosing the best influencers for each of Meliá’s brands, as well as keeping a close, long-term partnership with these influencers.

“We have identified around 900 influencers in our database, and over 100 of those are what we call advocates, or long-term collaborators,” says Solimei. “We feel that this working relationship is the key, because that influencer needs to trust us as well. If there is a mutual benefit and shared values in place, then the influencer fully committed and aligned with what the brand has to offer.”

“We have increased influencer mentions by over 100 per cent in the last year,” says Garcia Solimei. “We have also seen a 52 per cent increase in our social media interactions. When you look at our social media results from all of our channels in 2019, the combined reach has almost doubled. This means the right mix between owned and third party experience based content has paid off .”

The post Talking Mobile with Meliá Hotels International appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Smooch by Zendesk, an omnichannel conversation platform, has released State of Messaging: Travel, a report covering modern messaging technology and strategies used by travel brands to optimize customer service. The report takes consumers through all stages of booking travel with online messaging, including Pre-Stay, Pre-Flight, In-Stay and Post-Trip.

“Travel is an industry that’s taking a leading role in the adoption of modern messaging to elevate experiences throughout a customer’s journey.” said Warren Levitan, VP conversational business, Zendesk. “We’re seeing more and more innovation in this space and travel brands that are using the power of personal messaging, developing incredibly intuitive and customer-friendly experiences which are in turn delivering real, tangible value to their bottom line.”

The report highlights the growing need for implementing online conversational assistants, with 46 per cent of surveyed customers choosing to use a chatbot if it meant faster service than a human (Phocus Wire). With such an array of travel apps, competition is steep, and 88 per cent of travelers will switch booking apps if they aren’t satisfied (Google). The convenience and timeliness of travel booking is a huge factor, as 70 per cent of travelers would rather be notified of updates or changes via messaging.

“As messaging becomes part of the travel experience, chatbots are popping up as fast as boutique hotels and budget airlines. Luxury hotel guests are messaging the front desk rather than calling. Airlines are routing customer concerns to messaging channels — both owned and OTT (over-the-top) — before phone and email,” said the report.

Airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) mentioned in the report include: WestJet, Malaysia Airlines, Kayak, SnapTravel, Hotel Tylosand, Club Med, Booking.com, My SWFT, ServiceFriend, Delta, Lufthansa Group, KLM, Four Seasons, Jumeirah, The Annex, BookBoost, Alliants and GuestDriven.

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The search giant has been testing the feature with its Local Guides and the Pixel community over the past few months. It is now expanding the beta to Android and iOS devices that support ARCore and ARKit respectively.

Google Maps is also getting a few other upgrades. The first brings flights and hotels reservations into Maps, putting everything needed for travelling in one place. Users can tap on the three grey lines at the top left corner of the screen and then tap on ‘Your Places’ before heading to the ‘Reservations’ tab. This will pull up a list of all upcoming trips and selecting a trip will bring up all the necessary details for that.

Looking for places to eat in Maps has also been improved with the addition of taste matching with ‘Your Match’, the ability to see how long the wait is, and booking a reservation without leaving the app.

For those with Location History turned on, there is an updated timeline with all the places visited in a country or a city. Within this, people are able to search by restaurants, shops, attractions, hotels, and airports. These places can be selected and shared in lists.

Flight and hotel reservations, Live View, and the new timeline will arrive in the ‘coming weeks’. The timeline is only available on Android.

Elsewhere, Google has also made changes to its ‘Flights’ tab, providing more insights, offering recommendations to help out with planning, and displaying the best neighbourhoods to stay.

The post Google launches AR walking directions in Maps appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

WeQ, a mobile advertising and branding company, has partnered with South Korean hotel booking app Allstay, which allows users to compare and purchase travel accommodations for destinations within Asia and North America. South Korea is a rapidly growing hotspot for travel-focused platforms, with travel apps leading the domestic app economy.

South Korea has the highest smartphone usage in the APAC region and globally, and the country saw a 58.7 per cent growth in mobile travel sales between 2011 and 2016. In South Korea, 94 per cent of the population has a smartphone, but that number is expected to grow to 100 per cent of 18-34-year-olds by the end of the year.

“We are thrilled to be working with Allstay to successfully scale their mobile user acquisition strategy in South Korea. Their collaborative approach has enabled us to deliver a first-class CPI user acquisition campaign strategy, optimized towards first installs,” said Sven Lubek, managing director of WeQ. “As seen from the great results delivered with other travel partners in Korea including DailyHotel and MyRealTrip, we have built up solid experience working with travel and hotel booking apps. We are growing stronger in this vertical and happy to build further on this experience by extending this knowledge to helping more brands in South Korea.”

During their collaboration, Allstay challenged WeQ to create a CPI campaign that would focus on new quality user acquisition that was optimized towards Search (action 1) and Purchase (action 2). The campaign resulted in an overall 817 per cent new user growth between June 2018 and May 2019. In July 2018, WeQ’s initiative went on to increase new users by almost 600 per cent more than the month before, in the Korean region during summertime. For the continuation of the partnership, Allstay changed the creatives for each following season while WeQ executed the campaigns.

Gyusup Sim, CMO of Allstay, said: “Working together with WeQ over the course of 12 months has enabled us to continuously grow our app and expand our market share locally in the competitive travel vertical. We are in daily contact with the WeQ team and trust their impressive local market knowledge. Overall, WeQ’s long-term and proactive approach to campaign management is a great fit for us, and our partnership has enabled us to deliver above and beyond our ambitious KPIs. Also, we trusted the team to lend their experience and AI-powered solution to fight fraudulent traffic.”

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