The COVID-19 pandemic has been a real-life stress test on
the entire travel industry, and the ups and downs of infection rates and
lockdown measures have made unpredictability the only thing that is certain.
That’s created unprecedented challenges for those working in
travel marketing, as they juggle operational issues such as slashed budgets and
reduced staff along with creative questions around how to craft message that keep
their brands top of mind while not being reckless in the face of a pandemic.
Fletch Brunelle, vice president of marketing for the Las
Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, saw his budget drop from $101.5
million in fiscal year 2020 (ending in June 2020) to now $65 million for the
current year, while the organization’s staff dropped from 450 people to 95.
“We are operating very lean,” Brunelle says.
“When we think how we are spending our marketing dollars, we
are doing it differently than we have in the past – not being as broad in terms
of the upper funnel and being more in the mid and lower funnel as we are
talking to customers who are actually interested in booking travel.”
To do that, Brunelle says his team has “upped the ante” on research
to get a better view of who wants to travel, what content would help them feel
safe and which channels consumers are using as they dream about travel.
“We moved away from some of our other channels –
connected TV ... even broadcast, and moved more towards what are we doing with
travel endemic partners and what are we doing on the search side,” Brunelle
says.
MMGY senior business strategist Brian Klein says marketers
need to recognize that the decision of whether to travel now, and potentially
for some time into the future, is deeply personal.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
“That’s one of the biggest challenges for travel marketers –
it’s hard to target somebody at a broad level because it is such a personal
choice,” he says.
“All you can do through your messaging is make people
feel comfortable and have that trust and transparency to make it easy for those
that do want to travel to say yes and pick your brand.”
Focus on flexibility
According to Sojern’s report, The
Future of Travel Advertising: The 2020 State of the Industry, released in
early 2020, nearly half of all global ad spending by travel companies in 2019 –
45% - went to digital channels, while 21% went to print and the rest was split between
TV, radio and other channels.
The pandemic had a swift and direct impact on all travel marketing
spending, and eMarketer
predicts digital advertising spending by travel brands in the United States
finished 2020 at just $3.24 billion – a 41% drop from the previous year.
But digital strategies such as social media and paid search are
still expected to continue capturing the largest share of overall travel ad
budgets. In fact, Expedia Group Media Solutions’ senior director of business
development, Jennifer Andre, says the pandemic will help digital grow even
more.
All you can do through your messaging is make people feel comfortable and have that trust and transparency to make it easy for those that do want to travel to say yes and pick your brand.
Brian Klein - MMGY
“The shift to digital has really accelerated during the last
year,” she says.
“A lot of partners, before the pandemic, were spending
budgets on things that didn’t necessarily show direct correlations to
conversions or engagement. And also weren’t platforms that are super nimble: If
you are talking about print and television it’s hard to switch on a dime if COVID
rates surge or change. So all travel digital platforms are probably going to
benefit from that.”
Klein says options such as paid search, SEO and other
digital formats have gained traction both because of the ability to “throttle
up or down” spending in those formats, as well as because consumers stuck at
home have been using their computers and mobile devices more than ever.
“You saw a huge spike in social media engagement ... and
binging on connected TV. Consumption numbers were off the charts,” Klein says.
“We were gravitating toward those channels because we had a
captive audience, and you could release content that was more tailored toward their
mindset. You could try to foster inspiration and engage consumers.”
Andre says she has seen a correlation between
advertising strategies and COVID data.
“We saw a pretty huge increase in searches on our site and
interest from advertisers around the time when the vaccine news came ... and you
see a drop-off in searches and also potentially in advertisers’ interest toward
late December when we saw cases surging up again,” she says.
“But we’ve also had a lot of advertisers come to us when
things are pretty dire in their destination, because they want to be in this
safe space of a travel platform to connect with travelers and make sure people
remember their destination or brand.”
Content strategy
TourRadar director of partnerships Iris Serbanescu says she
was pleasantly surprised when the company tabulated business at the end of 2020
that destinations had spent 15% more on marketing with the travel marketplace
than they had in 2019. The Austria-headquartered company also brought on eight new DMO partners.
“After March and April the shock had worn off, so our
destination partners – old and new ones – started being more receptive to getting
their message across to travelers while they are in the dreaming phase,” she
says.
One such client is ProColombia, the South American country’s
tourism agency, which increased its contract with TourRadar in 2020 by 25%
year-over-year.
“Typically we are seen as a conversion partner – we send
them passengers. But the nature of campaigns we were running with them in 2020
were really awareness focused, educational, talking to the traveler about what
it is they think it will be like to travel to the destination post-COVID,
re-inspiring them, without a pushy sales message,” Serbanescu says.
The shift to digital has really accelerated during the last year.
Jennifer Andre - Expedia Group Media Solutions
“We’re a digital-first company, so these destinations saw
our value to help them get their message out because we’re not now having to
shift our business model to an online business model. We already have the audience
with a million email subscribers and 700,000 website visits per month –
although that was a lot higher pre-COVID.”
For Colombia, one strategy was a contest that ran for a few
months at the end of 2020 and awarded the winner an eight-day trip through
the country – and established a relationship between ProColombia and the people
it hopes will be its post-COVID customers.
“We were able to communicate information about Colombia, gather
interest from people that were sitting on their computer bored and dreaming of
their next trip, get them excited about where to travel to next and get their
email addresses. So later on, down the line as things get better, we have this pool
of consumers who’ve expressed interest in the destination, and we can come back
to them and say, ‘Colombia is ready to welcome you,’” Serbanescu says.
Alvaro Concha, ProColombia’s North American Hub director, says messages of solidarity and empathy have been the organization’s
focus throughout the pandemic. Campaigns using the slogans “Let’s take care now
so we can meet again soon” and “We’ll meet soon” began last spring, and
Concha says they have garnered 245 million impressions worldwide across all
channels.
To reassure consumers that the country is prioritizing
health and safety, in June Colombia launched a voluntary biosafety
certification to recognize tourism companies that are complying with the
country’s protocols. To date, more than 300 companies have been certified.
“We want to be cautious with the messages we are putting into
the market,” Concha says.
“We are sensitive to the situation, and the country is being
very cautious in preparing itself in order to come back.”
Looking ahead
With many consumer surveys showing that desire and future
intent to travel remain high, coupled with suppliers now offering broad
cancellation and rebooking options, Serbanescu says messaging is taking on a “book
now, travel later” tone.
“We are seeing that capacity on tours will be a lot smaller
than they were in 2019, so there will be a sense of urgency in messaging - book
now, secure your spot and feel comfortable you have cancellation or rebooking
options,” she says.
As optimism builds around vaccination efforts and subsequent
reopenings, Andre says savvy marketers are getting out appropriate messaging
now because if they “aren’t getting in front of the consumers that are dreaming
right now, somebody else will.”
There is also consensus among those we spoke to that collaborative
campaigns – destinations partnering with airlines, airlines partnering with
hotels, etc. - will be more important than ever to maximize ROI and present a cohesive
message of trust and safety.
Of course, unpredictability remains. With COVID
infection rates still unstable in many countries, and short booking windows
still common, Klein says marketers need to remain nimble.
“Typically in years past you’d do an annual marketing plan
and maybe readdress it every quarter,” he says.
“What we’ve had to do for our clients is create monthly marketing
plans, and everything we’re doing is very flexible and very targeted, and it’s very
intent based. Those short-term strategies from 2020 will continue, but we do
think longer-terms strategies that have been proven to work in the past will
fall back into place.”