The Role & Impact of Destination Marketers - Just in time for your summer reading, PhoCusWright has released a report examining the role and impact of DMOs. Described as one of the largest reports on the subject, the study, includes a major consumer study into travelers’ use of DMO resources, a survey of 176 Destination Marketing professionals, 50 in-depth interviews with DMO CEOs/senior marketing staff and an analysis with Compete Inc. into online behavior on 15 benchmark DMO Web sites (at the time of this writing, we’re not able to discern which sites were picked or the criteria used to pick them). Best practice recommendations covered includes:
- Perennial favorite…how influential are DMOs are in the decision-making process of U.S. travelers?
- When do users contact DMOs in their travel planning and booking process? (The report finds that DMO Web sites and other resources reach an approximately equal proportion of travelers who are still planning and deciding vs. those who have already booked)
- Content – Consumer expectations of DMO sites and their need for “for in-depth, current and complete information on everything from events to hotels, special offers to restaurants.”
Measuring the Impact of Silent Clicks - Yep, we’re still obsessed with engagement and how to measure the effectiveness of digital campaigns; while we’ve written in the past about who clicks on banners, this time we are intrigued by a new Online Publisher’s Association (OPA) report that examines the value of the “Silent Click”, i.e. the impact of branding and online campaigns beyond the click. While it can be easy to dismiss this as an attempt by the industry to protect a dwindling asset, doing so however would just be a disservice to a study that examined the visitor behavior across 200 of the most trafficked sites. Moreover, the results appear to support other similar studies and reflects our own experience running display campaigns, namely, don’t judge a campaign by its clicks. According to the study, of those visitors who were exposed to display advertising:
- One in five conduct related searches and one in three visit the brands’ sites
- Users spent over 50% more time than the average visitor to these sites and consumed more pages
- Users spent about 10% more money online overall, and significantly more on product categories related to the advertised brands
The full report will be available on Thursday, June 25th at http://www.online-publishers.org
Go See DMO Social Media Research - A few months ago, we encouraged you to participate in a survey conducted by our colleagues at GoSeeTell about the current state of the industry and use of social media by DMOs. The results of the survey were just released and is available from our friends at MilesMedia. Some key findings include:
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The majority of DMOs are using Facebook and Twitter to engage with travelers and state that Twitter has provided them with the most success; conversely, Flickr & YouTube were cited by most as their favorite photo/video tools respectively (no surprises here)
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Building awareness and engaging with consumers are the top two goals for using social media; DMOs reportedly spend 1-5 hours specifically on social media
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Philadelphia, Chicago, Oregon, Columbus, Portland, Arizona and Pennsylvania were cited by our peers as destinations using social media most effectively (We’re honored to be named in that company)
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In a possible sign of the next wave of DMO site evolution, it is notewothy that the overwhelming majority of respondents (75%) think that social media should be integrated to their main site
The full GoSeeTell study is available for download at www.MilesMedia.com
14 Comments
June 23, 2009 at 7:20 am
That’s interesting that Twitter is a more effective platform for DMOs than Facebook.
I wonder about how they “engage with travelers” — is it simply tweeting promotions or is it something else?
June 23, 2009 at 7:41 am
Thanks for the comments Jeff.
I certainly can’t speak for everyone who participated in the survey, but from past observations and conversations, it appears that CVBs and DMOs simply have more interaction on Twitter.
Sure, you have a good number of people as Facebook fans, but if those 600, 800 or 1,200 people don’t respond or talk to you…just join a group and never return…then the value of that group is reduced.
Part of that equation is the conversation from the CVB / DMO, but as we have said before on the Travel 2.0 blog, frankly, most people don’t come to Facebook to communicate with brands.
And just like Facebook, I would agree with you and hope that most CVBs ‘engage with travelers’ beyond a simple promotional message.
- Troy
June 23, 2009 at 8:01 am
Jeff, I’d echo Troy; I think DMO’s just have incrementally better quality conversations with consumers via Twitter vs. FB. Most likely because FB is a tool many of use to stay in touch with friends/family.
As for Twitter, it’s used for way more than sending out special deals; many of us (e.g. Denver, Travel Portland or Travel Oregon) are really extending Twitter to be more of a customer service tool where we’re not only answering specific traveler questions but also actively helping plan trips.
June 23, 2009 at 10:32 am
You can get a good sense of who is using what through this social media map we’ve created – http://usatourism.sidestreet.com/
It’s not just using something but how you use it, i.e. For Twitter, Indiana has their’s linked up to Flickr uploads, some use it to “socialize” about their destination while others use it for pure promotion. Then there are destinations like Hawaii who don’t seem interested at all in social media and you wonder why…
YouTube channel development is definitely on the rise (will the new iPhone create even further acceleration) and Facebook needs to figure it out soon or it will be left in the dust. Why? As you stated accurately above, next evolution will be to pull social media back into the site, no more portfolio of Flickr/YouTube/Twitter/Facebook icons at the bottom, but Facebook is by far the worst at enabling their content outside of Facebook… I digress.
June 23, 2009 at 11:20 am
We agree that Twitter is a better engagement tool than Facebook as you become part of bigger conversation and are able to help out more travellers. Facebook is a good tool to leave comments for your friends or a simple “like” to let them know you’re there, interested and following their world as well. We agree with Mo that you need to be doing more than just tweeting promotions. Twitter allows you to be actively assisting travellers in planning their trips, sharing local news and activities.
http://twitter.com/AuthenticCoast
June 23, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Great thoughts all. Thanks!
- Troy
June 23, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Solid post, love the blog guys. Up front disclosure: I work at Compete.
We contributed to the PCW study and also just wrapped up a Destination Travel-focused webinar with Google that has some complementary research. Check it out at http://www.slideshare.net/guest9900ca2/compete-google-destination-webinar
One takeaway on engagement: while DMOs capture a fair share of search clicks during early-stage research (10% of total research ~2-4 weeks before booking), time spent on them post-click is comparatively tiny. Both clicks and time spent tend to decrease quickly the closer users are to booking, then pick up a bit post-booking.
It feels like the disproportionate relationship between clicks and time spent indicates opportunity not obscurity for destination marketers, though. On twitter, they’re some of the best travel resources out there because of the conversation that develops and the naturally engaging interaction.
June 23, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Thanks for the great info, really great to see how things are panning out across the country with various efforts. I agree, that direct level of one-to-one interaction afforded by sites such as Twitter can be huge for consumer engagement and building an immediate impression around your state’s brand. Hope to continue to push things along here with our work in Illinois with the Bureau of Tourism.
June 23, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Great comments Scott, thanks as always!
Mike, that comment could be a standalone post. Great stuff! Travel 2.0 readers, if you skipped by that comment, go back up, click the link and study the presentation.
Seriously, people, free research!
- Troy
June 24, 2009 at 8:55 am
@Troy, that is a really good presentation from @Mike Redbord, thanks for posting and linking!
BTW, this sort of information is why I read this blog, it’s such a great resource for fresh and current ideas in the travel industry online. Thanks all for participating and adding.
June 24, 2009 at 9:02 am
Thanks Eric. All the kudos goes to Mike, Scott and the team at Compete.
We were flattered to hear they are big fans of the Travel 2.0 blog as well, and wanted to add a little something to the post. The research provided is spot-on…again, people, click the link and check out the presentation.
Stay tuned, we might be able to get even more of this great research from the Compete team in the coming weeks.
…and this is why we write the blog…because of our readers!
- Troy
June 25, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Nice comments about DMO use of Twitter. There are so many ways to make it work. In no particular order (and grant it, not necessarily all directly relevant to the traveler, but important just the same):
- Promotion (the obvious one)
- Media engagement
- Building local ambassadorship
- Visitor service
- Industry networking
The list goes on. And on. And can vary, depending on how you use Twitter, staff it, etc. Our use evolves constantly, particularly as more staff join in.
We too, are honored to be in the company you mention above.
June 26, 2009 at 8:44 am
[...] Why Travel 2.0 Travel Trends – Impact of Destination Marketers, Silent Clickers & Social Media [...]
October 9, 2009 at 9:26 am
[...] who’ve not and that display ads are stronger when paired up with search. This reaffirms the silent clickers study we reported on a few weeks ago. >>Full [...]