Amazing what can happen in just a few minutes.
STA Travel Buzz is following Travolution and they are also using Twitter in a very different way from lastminute.com's effort.
The page is maintained by "molly", a "travel-happy blogger gal who loves trains, planes and her EeePC" and obviously works for STA.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Listen to anyone from the Googleplex these days at an event and they talk endlessly about the benefits to travel brands of using YouTube for branding.
A campaign extolling the virtues of New Zealand is typically the example given - and deservedly so.
The Pure New Zealand page has had over 90,000 views. One particular video has been seen nearly 1 million times!
The organisation has uploaded 40 videos to its channel, with the top 5 all attracting over 15,000 views.
But how have some other major travel brands fared since giving some time and effort to creating a presence on YouTube?
Expedia UK has its own channel page and has uploaded a huge number of videos (103 videos) in just a few months, but its top-performer - the too-good-to-be-true hotels signs effort we featured a few months back - has attracted just 2,100 views.
STA Travel UK also created its own page in August 2007, but has just two videos on show. The TribeUnwanted video has 1,100 views so far.
Biggles The Bear, the YouTube nom de plume for Cheapflights, has faired much better. The channel page has attracted nearly 3,000 views, but its most popular video - Where The Hell is Biggles?, a pastiche of the infamous Where The Hell is Matt? montage - has been watched nearly 29,000 times.
Anyway, all this playing around on YouTube has revealed Travolution's skydiving extravaganza (and, no, for the last time, it isn't me in the video) has been viewed more times than 101 of Expedia's efforts.
And here it is again...!
Our sister title, Travel Weekly, has a ship tour video of the Norwegian Gem, which has an impressive 6,300 views against. Three times as many as Expedia's best performer.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
So while many were disappointed that the Google-Lastminute.com showdown didn't take place yesterday, Ian McCaig used his appearance to offer a typically heavy dose of, shall we say, balance to the Travel 2.0 hype.
The Lastminute.com boss is not known for his hyperbole, especially in the area of social media and how travel companies can engage with it.
The issue for McCaig is one of ensuring, as a travel provider, that you don't lose sight of the customer.
Given that the audience has just listened to Facebook UK supremo Blake Chandlee wax lyrical about the UK's biggest social media site, this a handy counterweight to the argument.
"This is all about customer behaviour, not websites," McCaig says.
He asks two reasonable questions:
* Is it important for your customers today that you engage with them through social media?
* Or is it a better employment of resources to drive through conventional media (SEM)?
Now some would argue that a clever mixture of the two might help travel companies target this enormous audience playing around with social networks.
But, McCaig says, and as we've been writing for a while (most recently here), consumers are not in a purchasing mindset when networking with friends over the web.
He brings up the old advertising adage: “Selling implies someone wishes to buy”.
This is not the case on a social network and interuption marketing does not work, he argues.
Most - including us - talk about STA Travel's efforts on Facebook, but the challenge for everyone else of how to use social networks continues...
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: facebook lastminute
Our latest column in Travel Weekly:
For many people in the industry there remains a big question mark over the value of using social networks to reach potential consumers.
At Travolution we have been unashamedly guilty of talking up the benefits of throwing increasingly scant resources at sites such as Facebook, MySpace and others in order to spread the marketing of a brand into these hugely popular new areas.
It is becoming clear to some marketers that traditional online advertising is not as rewarding – in terms of solid leads – as many would have expected, given the enormous volume of people using social networks.
One marketer said to us recently: “People use social networks to talk to each other, not buy products.”
This is a dilemma for travel brands and travel per se is one of the most experiential products.
Consumers appear very comfortable with using a social network to talk about their holidays – the planning process and, most importantly, what happened in resort.
Some travel brands – STA Travel in particular – have capitalised on this by creating simple applications within a Facebook page for people to visit, rather than traditional advertising slots.
Nevertheless, a new report by digital marketing agency Tamar suggests travel brands are still missing out on the goodwill factor often associated with a holiday.
There is a “great deal of consumer support” on social networks for travel brands, but only a few have registered their presence there.
But the most interesting fact to emerge from the study is this: brands that have tried to embrace social networks have a massive 59% more unofficial supporter groups than those with no presence.
It seems that just acknowledging the existence of social networks and creating some kind of presence is a good start.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Shock, horror! Hold the front page!
More pictures.
Interesting interview on E-Consultancy with Xavier Vallee, UK head of marketing for car hire giant Avis, about the WeTryHarder blog.
Vallee goes into a fair amount of detail about why the company launched a blog, its policy on comment moderation ("We don't filter negative comments - just spam" - which is encouraging, if its true 100% of the time), and costs.
The WeTryHarder blog was shortlisted at the Travolution Awards 2007 in the Best Use of Social Media category. It was eventually beaten by the STA Travel Travel Blogs.
Full interview with Vallee here.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: avis blog car
The winners of the Travolution Awards have been unveiled at a ceremony in London:
ADVERTISING AWARDS
Best Use of Online Advertising
• Love Creative for STA Travel
• Harvest Digital for Cruise Thomas Cook
• Harvest Digital for Cheapflights
• KitCatt Nohr for Virgin Holidays
• Agency.com for BA.com
WINNER: Love Creative for STA Travel
Best Use of Affiliate Advertising
• The Dedicated Partnership for UKSeries.com
• Affilinet for Paramount Hotels
• Buy.at for LateRooms
WINNER: Buy.at for LateRooms
Best Use of CRM
• CreatorMail for Thomson
• Lastminute.com (in-house)
WINNER: CreatorMail for Thomson
MARKETING & INNOVATION AWARDS
Best Use of Social Media
• Jumeirah Hotels – The JCast
• TravellersPoint maps
• STA Travel Blogs
• EnjoyEngland/Yahoo! Answers
• Avis WeTryHarder Blog
• Select World Travel Blog
WINNER: STA Travel Blogs
Best Agency for Search Engine Optimisation
• Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk
• Spannerworks for SN Brussels Airlines
• Tamar for National Car Rental
• Greenlight for Monarch Airlines
• BigMouthMedia for Superbreak
WINNER: Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk
Best Agency for Website Design
• Adams Creative for TravelOwl.co.uk
• Designate Communications for Wales In Style
• Five By Five for Island Cruises and Club 18-30
• Netizen Digital for various
• Fortune Cookie for Kuoni UK
• Nucleus for various
WINNER: Designate Communications for Wales In Style
TRAVEL AGENT AWARDS
Best Travel Agent Website
• RailChoice
• Travel Designers
• Isango.com
• STA Travel
• Expedia.co.uk
• WhyDontYou.com
• TravelRepublic
• PackYourBags.com
• Expedia Corporate Travel
HIGHLY COMMENDED: STA Travel
WINNER: Expedia.co.uk
Best Use of Technology
• DirectLine Holidays
• Door2Tour.com
• Comtec
• Dolphin Dynamics
• Touch Clarity
WINNER: Touch Clarity
TOUR OPERATOR AWARDS
Best Tour Operator Website
• Leger Holidays
• Thomson
• VisitBattlefields.com
• Voyages Jules Verne
• Sunisle.co.uk
• Kuoni.co.uk
• VillaPlus
• OnTheGoTours.com
• DirectSki.com
• ErnaLow.co.uk
WINNER: Voyages Jules Verne
Best Use of Technology
• Adventure Company/Netizen Digital
• Kuoni
WINNER: Adventure Company/Netizen Digital
SUPPLIER AWARDS
Best Hotel Website
• Paramount-Hotels.co.uk
• Jumeirah.com
• BestWestern.co.uk
• Hyatt.com
• Sheraton.com
• VonEssenHotels.co.uk
WINNER: Paramount-Hotels.co.uk
Best Airline Website
• FlySilverjet.com
• BA.com
• FlyBMI.com
• ThomsonFly.com
• VirginAtlantic.com
HIGHLY COMMENDED: BA.com
WINNER: FlySilverJet.com
Best Travel Insurance Website
• GoTravelInsurance.co.uk
• JourneysTravel.co.uk/InsureMore.co.uk
• 1StopTravelInsurance.co.uk
WINNER: GoTravelInsurance.co.uk
Best Car Hire Website
• USRentacar.co.uk
• TaxiTransfers.co.uk
• HolidayAutos.co.uk
• Avis.co.uk
WINNER: HolidayAutos.co.uk
TRAVEL INFORMATION AWARDS
Best Travel Portal
• TravellersPoint.com
• TravelGator.com
• WalesInStyle.com
• WAYN.com
• EnjoyEngland.com
• TripAdvisor.co.uk
• Viator.com
• Yahoo.co.uk/Travel
WINNER: TripAdvisor.co.uk
Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website
• Kinkaa.com
• Australia Travel Market
• Cheapflights.co.uk
• Sidestep.com
• TravelSupermarket.com
• Kelkoo Travel
WINNER: TravelSupermarket.com
Best Use of Technology
• Teletext Holidays Linguabot
• IfYouSki.com
• Cheapflights.co.uk Partner Portal
• Icelolly.com TV
• Online Travel Brochures
WINNER: IfYouSki.com
TRAVOLUTION SM@RT AGENT OF THE YEAR
• Mann Link Travel
• Sunmaster
• Coachtrips.com
• Select World Travel
• C&B Maddocks Travel
• Travelcare
WINNER: Coachtrips.com
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
• Isango.com
• TravelZoo UK
• Sidestep UK
WINNER: SideStep UK
ONLINE TRAVEL BRAND OF THE YEAR
Shortlist to be decided from winners of Best Travel Agent Website, Best Tour Operator Website, Best Airline Website, Best Hotel Website, Best Car Hire Website, Best Travel Portal and Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website categories.
WINNER: Expedia.co.uk
TRAVOLUTION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Brent Hoberman
Further details and comments from the judges are available on the Travolution website.
Interesting meeting today with Celia Pronto, the new marketing director of student specialist STA Travel.
Not only is the company embracing the web with enormous gusto - both from a consumer-facing point of view and with its digital marketing - but it has withdrawn the majority of its print advertising from UK national press.
Open any travel supplement over the last ten years or so and an STA Travel classified ad would have screamed out offers for the latest Round-the-World trips and cheap flights to Bangkok.
Not any more. Pronto has pulled most of the ad campaigns from the inkies in favour of pay-per-click advertising on the usual suspects.
It might be expensive on certain keywords, she admits, but the ROI for press campaigns was negligible, or at least nigh on impossible to measure.
Pronto also says the reaction to the decision from the market has been decidedly mixed.
More on this subject in the December of Travolution
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
