Travel Trends – Twares, Women Heart Blogs, There’s More to Maine, Banner Ads, South Carolina v. Columbus

Enough! Enough with all the new twords!

The Good, Bad & Ugly of Twares – Sweet Lincoln’s mullet. Before we go much further, can we put out an official call to the travel industry to stop making up words.  Forget society in general, let’s just start with travel.  Really, United, Twares?  (Twitter + Fares = Twares) Please, Twitter is confusing enough to explain to @oprah, let alone with new Twords popping up all the time.

However, kudos to United for launching the aforementioned (we are not using the word) Twitter fares promotion on Twitter.  As we spoke about earlier in the week (How the Travel Industry Should Use Twitter), how can organizations take advantage of the infrastructure that Twitter has created?

A perfect comparison is the Southwest Ding Desktop app…granted, that was created several years ago, before the miracle that is Twitter came into being…instead of creating an app, promoting it and trying to build an audience for the app via advertising, United used Twitter and it’s community, reach, etc. to essentially run a similar promo.  In this case, with less investment (see $0), less advertising and less risk.  A brilliant use of an existing technology…instead of reinventing the wheel.
http://www.united.com/

Women Heart Blogs – A helpful study on how women use blogs.

From the article:

According to The 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, 64% of women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information, 43% for advice and recommendations and 55% for opinion-sharing, while they 75% are 50 percent more likely to turn to social networking sites as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family.

Of the 42 million women engaged in social media weekly:

• 55% of women participate in some form of blogging activity
• 75% participate in social networks such as Facebook or MySpace
• 20% use Twitter
• 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog

http://www.mediapost.com/

There’s More to Maine – From our friends in the far northeast, a new campaign from Visit Maine.  Typically, we don’t cover traditional campaign launches, but the connection between the print and website, visitmaine.com,  is quite refined.  Clean, uncluttered and showing the best of Maine…well, I assume the best of Maine, never been there…the homepage is a nice example of directing visitors to the key sections of the site.  The primary callouts acknowledge what the traveling public is looking for in a Maine vacation…Summertime, Cusine (lobster), Lighthouses and Fishing…honestly, what else is there?  Give the visitor what they want and Maine does.
http://www.visitmaine.com/

Banner Ads Are Relevant! – Interesting research that shows the display ad is not quite dead after all.

From the article:

When Internet users were surveyed to find out what actions they took when viewing a display ad on an ad-supported Website, nearly one-third said they clicked on the ad.

http://www.emarketer.com/

South Carolina v. Columbus – From the blog Mengel Musings, a social media smackdown between two friends of the Travel 2.0 blog, South Carolina and Columbus (OH).  The post evaluates the Twitter, Facebook, website and other social media marketing tactics used by the DMO and CVB.  Overall, a nice outsider perspective on the travel industry’s crusade into social media marketing.

From the article:

I’m comparing how two cities are using social media from a travel and tourism perspective. Both have their namesake from Genoa’s most famous navigator and both are home to college football teams I love to hate. Let’s see how Columbus, Ohio and Columbia, South Carolina are cultivating relationships with fans through social media.

If you want to skip right to the finish (spoiler alert!) Columbus wins on an anti-Steve Spurrier technicality.
http://www.amymengel.com/

Travel Trends – Visit My Baltimore, Dream Job Winner, IAB’s Social Media Metrics

Baltimore, the good, the bad and the ugly...or the cloudy.

The Real Side of Baltimore – From our friends at the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, comes visitmybaltimore.com.  An innovative site that aggregates the social media conversations about the city into one location.  Pulling in videos, photos, and tweets, the site attempts to show how locals and Baltimore fans feel about the city, giving potential visitors an unfiltered look at life in the Charm City.  However, as visitors to the site will see, the content is not exclusively tourism focused, which, again, seems to be the point.  A model that would probably not work for most CVBs / DMOs.  Even with the random tweet here and there, visitmybaltimore.com is an inspired look at the possibilities of social media integration.
http://www.visitmybaltimore.com/

British man wins Australian island dream job – Just to follow up on the Travel Trend from a couple months ago, ‘Travel Trends: Australia Goes Viral,’ Tourism Queensland has named a winner for the Best Job in the World.’  Sorry, you did not win. ‘Ben Southall, 34, of Petersfield…a bungee jumping, ostrich-riding British charity worker was named the winner Wednesday of what’s been dubbed the “Best Job in the World” — a six-month contract to serve as caretaker of a tropical Australian island.‘ Ugh, Petersfield? Everyone knows that the bloke from Basingstoke should have won.  Anyway, Ben starts ‘work’ on July 1st with a series of blog posts and videos.  The PR value has already paid for the campaign, now will anyone watch Ben work?
http://www.islandreefjob.com/

IAB Brings Us One Step Closer To Real Social Media Metrics – From the people who tell you what size to make your banners, the IAB is proud to present Social Media Metrics!  In all seriousness, the announcement of a, let’s say outline, for social media metrics has been a much needed benchmark for anyone in the interactive marketing space.  While certainly not perfect or final, the outline does present several deep metrics for measuring social media in 3 categories:

• Social Media Sites
• Blogs
• Widgets & Social Media Applications

A great start and something that any interactive marketer should be paying close attention to.
http://www.iab.net/socialmetrics

Trident Finds It Hard to Go Viral

Sorry Jerry, we just don't care about you and your teeth.

Some brands, like Dove soap and Levi’s jeans, have created a lot of buzz with online videos so compelling that millions of people shared them with friends or posted them to their favorite Web sites. But so-called viral marketing is a tricky business, as is clear from the campaign for a new Trident gum touted for its ability to strengthen and rebuild teeth.

Trident launched the product in May with a conventional ad campaign. Then, two months ago, seeking to make a splash with Web-savvy young people, it started planting online videos that featured fictional brothers Jerry and Wendell Tucker from rural North Carolina, testing the strength of Jerry’s teeth.  >>Full Story

Thoughts// First, kudos to Traci for spotting this article on the Wall Street Journal last week.  The story is an excellent tale of a viral campaign that never went viral.

Why?

Because you don’t create viral campaigns!

Anyway, the story talks about how Trident seeded specific websites and blogs with videos of two North Carolina brothers who have amazingly strong teeth.  Specifically, seeded the content by ‘sent emails to dental hygienists and to bloggers who are fans of Mr. Mull.‘  First impression, does that seem odd to anyone else?  Trying to launch your viral campaign to dental hygienists and Martin Mull bloggers?  We know it is gum, but still, odd.

Then, Trident or more accurately, the ad agency, created a show and accompanying website titled, ‘That’s Not Fake,’ about a fake, video exposing show (I know, ironic! Probably the point, but we missed it) that features the brothers, yada, yada, turns out he was chewing Trident the whole time. Fail.

The highlight here is that while the site is obviously not legitimate, it is presented and pushed as a real site and TV show.  No where on the site does it mention that this is really paid for by Trident gum.  Regardless of what you think about the videos, execution, etc., I think the real issue here is that most people are not falling for this ‘show’ and just don’t care.  Seriously, 8-10 videos about teeth and gum? Who is going to watch all of that?

Better solution, sponsor any and all funny, humorous or scary videos relating to people either having or not having strong teeth on YouTube.  Dad gets hit in mouth with baseball by son, overlay ad reads ‘Good thing he was chewing Trident gum this morning.’ Done, campaign launched, success, I am heading home.

For readers of the Travel 2.0 blog, how does this relate back to travel?  Well, in some really basic terms:

• Don’t over think or overspend on interactive/social/viral campaigns.
• Anytime your agency says the word ‘viral,’ you should be concerned.
• Just because it can be done (an online show with Martin Mull), does not mean it should be done.

Now, let’s see if we can get this post to go viral.

Travel Trends – .youarecrazy, Social Media Survey, Consumers Don’t Trust Blogs*

.youarecrazy – Finally, a few more rational individuals, and in this case organizations, have begun to question ICANN’s absurd recommendation of additional top level domains.  Domains such as .delta, .motel or the ever-popular, .courtyardbymarriott.

The Association of National Advertisers is sounding a big warning about a proposal to open up top level internet domain names from the current ones like .com, .net and .org to a wide assortment of character strings.

…the switch would create an expensive nightmare for marketers, raising cyber-squatting and copyright issues that could cost marketers considerable money to fight.

Hopefully comments and concerns such as this one will cause ICANN to reconsider the current domain extension plan.
http://adage.com/digital/

Social Media Usage in the Travel Industry – Our counterparts at GoSeeTell are currently surveying members and peers within the travel industry on their current usage, strategy and thoughts on social media and social media marketing.

Numerous studies claim that social media sites like the ones mentioned above have a huge impact on buying behaviors, especially for travel products.  How are destination marketing organizations (DMOs) reacting? What are best practices? Is this a fad or is social media here to stay? To find out answers we have put together this survey. It is being sent to over 100 DMOs all over the United States.  The purpose of this research is to determine the current use of social media in the US tourism industry.

So, if you are a CVB or DMO within the US, please consider taking the survey.  Data and reports such as this one will benefit the entire industry as we develop new marketing channels.

People Don’t Trust Company Blogs – Crap.  Really?  Only 16% of you trust our company blog? By this point, most of you have seen the report from Forrester that consumers don’t trust company blogs.  Thankfully, Forrester went on to explain that stance:

Make no mistake. This is not a plea to give up on blogging.

It is a plea to be thoughtful in how and why you blog.

…This means that if you blog, your goal should be to create a blog about which people say “I like that – I don’t think of it as a company blog…

Perfect.  Honestly, who wants to read a blog that does nothing but praise the Duracell battery company (for example) and how innovative it is?  No one.  Consumers want some kind of value in return for their time spent reading the blog.  Quality content.

If you have hordes of fans, blog for them. For the other 99% of brands it doesn’t apply.

The same idea of passion that we have talked about in relation to SMS marketing and Facebook also applies here.  Hordes of fans = passionate.  Or, they will read a blog about your product.  Case in point, the Coca-Cola Conversations blog.  A blog dedicated to Coke history and memorabilia.

Blogging is still an excellent medium to connect, market and converse about your product, but only becomes truly beneficial with quality content and conversation from a consumer point of view.

As for the *, while the statistic of 16% is a headline maker, it does not tell the whole story.  So, don’t plan on breaking out that little chestnut of knowledge at your next board meeting…unless you have time for the rest of the story.
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/

Random Thoughts: Show Me the Money

It finally happened, Cuba Gooding Jr. made the Travel 2.0 blog.

Everyone’s budget is getting tighter, regardless of industry, organization, etc.  Each of us are examining costs, marketing plans and ROI.  Future projects are being put on hold, including anything dubbed ‘new’ or ‘experimental’ in nature.  We are quickly becoming much more discerning with our expenditures.

However, we all know that the market and the economy will turn around, it always does.

In the mean time, I would encourage you to resist the temptation to cut, scale back or delay your social media marketing efforts.  Unfortunately, for most of us, in times of stress, we revert back to what we know…TV, radio and print.  Understandable, but in the current market, there are numerous reasons to stay competitive and continue innovating, especially in social media.

For those of you who have yet to start a social media campaign or jump into one of the social sites that we talk about frequently on the Travel 2.0 blog, I would suggest simply listening or, better still, start participating.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Create a YouTube account / channel and begin posting videos.
• Join TripAdvisor and create content in the Before You Go section.
• Sign up for Twitter, create your account, follow people and just listen.
• Start reading local blogs about your area, connect with those bloggers and introduce yourself.
• Fire up that Flickr Group, or better yet, find a Flickr group that is already focused on your destination.
• Give in and sign up for your (personal) Facebook account.  See what happens, who is there, what are they talking about, would this make sense for your destination / attraction.
• Add your events to Eventful or Upcoming.  Distribute your content beyond your own site.
• Sign up for Google Reader, subscribe to some RSS feeds and understand what RSS really is.

Regardless of your budget situation, marketing plan, etc, etc., you can start researching, listening and experimenting with social media, even with a struggling economy.

And you won’t have to play catch-up once the economy rebounds.

Travel Trends – TripIt and LinkedIn ‘Connect’, Racy Sites, NASCAR Blindness, Gen X

TripIt and LinkedIn launch new social travel service – Travel planning service TripIt, reviewed on the Travel 2.0 blog about a year ago, has announced a partnership (along with several other companies) with LinkedIn, the business connection social network.  For those of you who missed the original post, TripIt allows you to email confirmation plans to the site and then will build a custom planning page / guide for you.  A great idea.  Now, with the LinkedIn partnership, you can add a TripIt widget or app to your LinkedIn profile and keep track of your upcoming travel plans.  Better yet, because the app is ‘talking’ with LinkedIn, it can find out which of your connections (assuming they also are using TripIt) are traveling…and, if they are close or in the same airport, let you know so you can connect in real life!  Ah, one giant circle, go online to find connections offline.

This is a logical step for both companies and a great example of future collaboration between ‘web 2.0’ sites that will not only present these sites in a relevant way (finally answering the question of ‘why?’), but also begin to highlight the value of each offering.

For additional reading on the trends in business travel social networking space, including the site TripLife which follows a similar idea (use social to connect with business travelers on the road), check out our post Business Traveler Advice From Strangers.
http://blog.tripit.com/whatsnew/

Ads for Respected Brands Hit Racy Sites – Good article from Mediaweek on how some brands are advertising on ‘racy’ sites.  We have covered this subject in the past, when buying spots on a network, news site or blog, there is a chance that your ad will show up next to or be associated with less than desirable content.  For the most part, I would say media buyers and organizations know what they are buying at this point and the surprise factor has been reduced.  However, this article is making the argument that some brands are willing and are advertising on sites that ‘know how to border the gray area and not turn into full-fledged porn sites.‘  If the audience is there, advertisers will follow.
http://www.mediaweek.com/

The Pitfalls of Nascar Blindness – Another good article today, this one on NASCAR blindness.  The idea that if no one else in your group, division, organization is using, belongs to or blogs about ‘X,’ than no one else, especially your demo, does.  Or:

This reaction is a common symptom of something that greatly afflicts people in the advertising community: Nascar blindness. This disease is the strongly held belief that if no one in your little bubble of upscale, artsy Bobo friends is into something, then clearly no one else is, either.

Why ‘NASCAR Blindness’?

It’s what led advertisers to completely ignore Nascar for so many years, dismissing it as some bizarre redneck affectation akin to eating squirrel meat, thereby missing the opportunity to bond with the millions of middle-class fans who enjoy auto racing.

I would argue that NASCAR Blindness was cured a few years ago, but for some sponsors and members of the ad world, they still don’t understand why people would watch cars drive in a circle.

But, let’s take that idea and apply it to the interactive world:

We can find Nascar blindness in our own industry in the complete dismissal of MySpace as yesterday’s news. Which is yet more blindness to the actual size and passion of the audience that uses the social-networking Web site. Listen to digital (and other) agency types, and you’d think that the only reason people are still on MySpace is that they’ve just been too busy to migrate over to Facebook.

But as cultural anthropologist Danah Boyd has pointed out, the split between MySpace and Facebook is often a class-based one, and those on the lower end of the class divide tend to favor MySpace. Which doesn’t make it worthless or on its way out. It just makes it different. And those MySpace users (whose numbers still far outweigh those of Facebook users) are every bit as passionate about MySpace as Nascar fans are about Nascar. Caveat emptor.

We touched upon this exact idea a couple of weeks ago with our post ‘Travel Trends – Bloggers, Moms.’  Don’t simply dismiss or minimize a group, site or opportunity due to a lack of understanding and knowledge on your part.
http://www.adweek.com/

Where Is Generation X? – Finally, from eMarkerter, where is Gen X online?

http://www.emarketer.com/

Travel Trends – Blog Now!, Social is Mainstream, Internet Users

Just a screen capture, nothing happens if you click me...

Let’s hear it for the blog – A great clip from the recent Open Forum series, brought to you by American Express, Tom Peters and Seth Godin discuss, or more accurately, celebrate the blog.  Anyone who is or is thinking about blogging needs to watch the clip:

http://www.openforum.com/marketing/video_hearitfortheblog.html

Another note, this is a good example of creating valuable, relevant content that drives consumers back to your site.  As you will see by the Open Forum site, the goal here is to get small business owners to view the content, which is surrounded by the AMEX brand and then sign up for the Open card.  Notice, we could not embed the video on our site, usually a death-sentence for a viral video, but in this case the content is so good we are linking to it anyway.

Something to think about prior to your next video / commercial shoot.  How do we not only create a commercial for TV, but how can we pull out additional, valuable (!) content for online?

And, thanks to the Happy Hotelier and Michael Chaffin for spotting the video.
http://www.openforum.com/

Social is the Mainstream – From the depths of the research file comes this little quote that you are now free to throw out wildly at company meetings…social websites are now mainstream!

A consumer poll done in the second quarter found that 75 percent of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

Adoption rates vary by the type of activity. For example, Forrester found large growth in participation among those reading blogs and writing product reviews. “Spectator” rates jumped from 48 percent to 69 percent. Likewise, those identifying themselves as “critics” increased from 25 percent to 37 percent.

Yet other areas saw more modest increases. Maintaining RSS feeds and tagging Internet content remain far from the norm. Just 19 percent fell into that “collector” category, up from 12 percent a year ago.

Rates of content creation have slowed considerably. Those publishing a blog or personal Web page saw incremental growth: 21 percent versus 18 percent. In fact, blogging grew just 10 percent, well behind the 39 percent growth in starting a social network profile. Still, blogs remain a highly popular form of social media: 48 percent of respondents said they have read one, a nearly 50 percent increase from 2007.

In another sign that social media has gone mainstream, Forrester found the participation gap narrowing among age groups, though younger demographics still rate higher. Forrester found 35-44-year-olds increasingly entered the ranks of critics, joiners and spectators.

Some great stats in there.  Keep these top of mind: 75% of internet users are now participating in some form of social media.  The next time a co-worker says ‘who does this?’ you can reply, 75% of us ‘do this.’

The collector category is always an interesting one for me.  I think RSS can be more widely adopted, but the current way RSS is presented to the consumer is confusing.  RSS, feeds, readers…it all sounds like work.  However, utilizing RSS technology and presenting it in an understandable package (i.e., Google Alerts) will result in much greater adoption.  Tagging is just a few more years away…for tagging to really experience growth, consumers have to be educated on the technology primarily from large providers such as Microsoft.  Once you can save your Word files by tags, instead of the folder system, the adoption rate will increase.

Finally, let’s touch on blogs.  Since we confessed our undying love for blogs in the first trend, it seems a bit odd to tout a report that shows only modest growth.  However, understand the commitment required with a blog vs. a social network profile.  Again, bloggers have to be dedicated, working daily to update, refine and cultivate their blog.  While updating a social networking profile is a one-time set-up, with the occasional update.

Bloggers are educated, passionate individuals with the social power and desire to influence, speak to and engage with others.

I could not have said it better myself.  Oh, wait, I did.
http://www.adweek.com/

US Internet User Update – A quick graph from eMarketer on US Internet adoption:

http://www.emarketer.com/

Travel Trends – Bloggers, Moms

Blogging Becomes Mainstream – Typically when I present or talk about any social media related site or app, the ubiquitous question, comment or joke is always ‘who has the time for (insert social media brand name here)’?  Are they just high school drop-outs with no job and a computer sitting at Starbucks all day?

Alas, this is a common misrepresentation of the social media user, typically applied by someone who is not an active participant in the social media space.  ‘I don’t have a Facebook page, it does not relate to me, so this would not relate to our audience.’

Many of you are nodding your head and agreeing with your computer right now.

However, thanks to a new report from Decipher and sponsored by our friends at Technorati, at least in terms of blogging, these misrepresentations can officially be rejected.

According to the article and chart from eMarketer, blogging is becoming mainstream.

“Blogs are now mainstream media,” said Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, in an interview with eMarketer. “We’ve certainly seen that with the number of professional, semiprofessional and passion/enthusiast bloggers who are creating real media experiences. At the same time, you’re also seeing mainstream media come the other direction to add blog content.”

Take a look at the chart above.  74% of bloggers are college grads, 56% are employed full-time, 51% have a HHI of $75k+.  Not exactly a high school drop-out.  And it should be noted that a solid percentage of the respondents are still in college, meaning that they would not be employed full-time or enjoying a $75k salary just yet.

Bloggers are educated, passionate individuals with the social power and desire to influence, speak to and engage with others.

And sometimes they blog from a Starbucks.
http://www.emarketer.com/

Where Moms are Online – Another quick chart from eMarketer, where moms are online.  Pay close attention to the ’email,’ ‘playing games’ (who knew?), and ‘travel planning’ percentages.

http://www.emarketer.com/

Travel Trends – Ambient Awareness, Politicians in Your Browser & Experience WA

I'm so digitally close to you (Source: Peter Cho, NYTIMES.COM)

Ambient Awareness – For those of you who’ve invariably been asked the questions: “Are blogs the CB radio of our time?“, “What’s the big deal with Twitter?“, or “Why does social media matter?” Clive Thompson’s article in the recent Sunday NY Times is a must-read.  The article is a fascinating look at human behavior and our innate need to connect with one another and introduces the concept of “Ambient Awareness”.  Clive argues that much like the pointilist paintings made popular by Seurat,  while each individual Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr/Doplr/ post on its own can be insignificant and mundane, over time, these little snippets of information paints an incredibly sophisticated portrait of your friends and family members’ lives, thus strengthening the already existing ties with your “inner circle” and brining you much closer to acquaintences and co-workers.    In this sense, the article concludes that this “constant connectivity” is actually taking us back to “a more normal place” much like living in a village, where everyone knows you and you never have to lose in touch with friends.
http://www.nytimes.com

Why Are McCain & Obama Following Me? – As a political junkie, I can honestly say that there can never be too much news about how campaigns are reaching out to voters.  The Washington Post recently published an article that provides further insight into how digital technology has completely transformed the way voters are being talked to.  The article details both the McCain and Obama campaign’s increasingly sophisticated use of networks (Microsoft, Yahoo & Specific Media) to do both “behavioral targeting” and “retargeting” based on the articles you’re reading on news sites and/or blogs you’re visiting.  For example, if you read an article about McCain’s energy policy on his website and never signed up to receive communications from the campaign, you’re “cookied” with those behavioral tags and are “followed” as your surf the web.  You will no doubt be served up an ad that might entice you to come back and sign up for information on how McCain can solve the energy crisis.  Or perhaps if you’re reading stories on the Irag war in the NYTimes, you’re no doubt going to be served Obama ads.  Finally, an answer to the age old question of “Is the media fair and balanced” ;).
http://www.washingtonpost.com

Experience Washington – Our fellow Northwestern buddies in Washington just launched a Beta 1.0 version of the new ExperienceWA.com.  Built on an elegant user interface than tells the story of all there is to see and do under seven experiencial themes, the site employs Microsoft Virtual Earth (I wonder if Bill paid them to do so) and allows folks to search for experiences near a particular zip code, city or place of interest.  In case you’re wondering, there appears to be two microbreweries near Pike’s Place market.
http://www.ExperienceWA.com