7 basics for telling an authentic, effective travel brand story

Thirty seconds or less is the average length of time that consumers spend reading or listening to online marketing communications.

So if you haven’t caught a prospective customer's attention in that time, chances are that you will have lost them to the competition.

NB: This is a guest article by Pamela Whitby, editor of EyeForTravel.

The challenge, then is to connect with customers by rising above the background noise. To do that, three brands – Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Celebrity Cruises and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) – are honing their brand storytelling techniques.

1. Cross channel integration counts

Between 2010 and 2014, the time spent on smartphones in the US increased by 394%, according to EyeforTravel’s latest research—a trend that is being mirrored globally.

As such, there is no point spending money on a big offline newspaper splash if your mobile presence is non-existent. And, believe it or not, this still happens.

“Getting your message out across all channels - digital, social, media and offline - is central to a successful brand story,” says David Brown, AVP Marketing Demand Generation at Celebrity Cruises.

Being multichannel does three things:

• It amplifies the story
• Ensures greater impact from impressions
• Results in more conversions

Progammatic, or automated, buying, which lets brands serve a customer with a TV commercial and then follow this with a display or Facebook ad on a desktop or mobile device, is increasingly a focus for Celebrity. Says Brown:

2. Social content should be channel specific

At the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, content is developed for more than seven social media channels, such as Facebook, Vine, YouTube, and Tumblr. That’s down the extremely diverse range of people looking to visit the city.

“Each channel allows a different segment of visitors to experience the destination in a different way,” says Caroline Coyle, VP of Brands Strategy at LVCVA.

For this reason, it’s really important to keep the content specific to the channel, because not every photo or video is always appropriate.

Connor Smith, Senior Director Brand at Kimpton Group Hotels, agrees that social media channels fulfill different needs. He says:

3. Professional photography isn’t dead, but UGC has a place

At Kimpton, where each hotel is individually designed, positioned and branded—even down to the last detail of the bow tie on the bell man’s uniform—the aim of story telling is to immerse visitors in a visually beautiful experience, both on and offline.

For this reason, the brand is a strong advocate of professional photography. Says Smith:

Having said that, Kimpton recognises that carefully selected and curated user-generated content is a useful addition in telling a brand story.

Some travel brands are even using geo-fencing technologies that take location into account in order to make crowd-sourced content even more relevant and effective.

A note out of Kimpton’s photography style guide would go something like this:

• Have distinctive style buckets and use those strategically across channels
• Keep architectural shots uncluttered; use just a few accent pieces here and there
• Define a connective tissue that ties the hotel group together but not at the expense of losing the individuality of each hotel
• Be obsessive about design detail
• Don’t use crazy lifestyle shots

4. Copy: just another way to be compelling

Content can be compelling in a variety of mediums and copy is another way that Kimpton, which likes to position itself as ‘luxury without the attitude’, comes to life. Says Smith:

To achieve this, Smith’s team intentionally balances beautiful photography with quirky or cheeky, witty copy that, he says, you wouldn’t expect to find paired with such sophisticated interiors.

5. Be authentic: operate from the heart

Authenticity comes from experience. So when LVCVA tells a story, they approach it entirely from the consumer’s perspective. Says Boyle:

For Kimpton, being authentic is quite simply about using gut instinct to respond in a human way.

6. Colour adds charisma

Whether a brand is a fun, luxury, cheeky or slick, colour really does have an impact. TripAdvisor, for example, is associated with green, Virgin with red, Ritz Carlton (and Twitter and Facebook!) with blue.

At Kimpton it used to be turquoise, but that traditional palette has now been a band for a swathe of 20 colours. This is part of a strategy to help the group’s completely unique and different hotels define their own identity.

What the hotels are advised to do is to find an accent colour in the image and then identify one that pairs with that particular shade. “That way you pick on subtle colours and bring additional layers of colour into the brand experience,” says Smith.

7. Video: a great conversion tool that doesn’t have to cost the Earth

Celebrity, Kimpton and LVCVA all use video in branding efforts. At Kimpton, video is used on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook to show the irreverent, human side of this luxury brand.

The company says it doesn't spend a huge amount on glossy videos; rather it is used to show authentic and intimate vignettes of the group’s properties such as:

• A day in the life of a pet director
• An animated video of how a favourite hotel cocktail is made

Whether you choose to spend big money or not, Brown argues that video is one of the best conversion tools for brand messaging but warns that length of video can dramatically affect performance.

In Las Vegas, the diversity of video is something that LVCVA continues to explore. Says Coyle:

NB: This is a guest article by Pamela Whitby, editor of EyeForTravel. It appears here as part of Tnooz’s sponsored content initiative.

Join EyeforTravel in Las Vegas for TDS North America  (Oct 19-20) to hear more from the brands mentioned in this article.