Baidu is the most popular search engine in China and the fifth-largest website in the world, based on average daily visitors and page views.
NB: This is an article by Aaron Stewart, a foreign correspondent for China Travel News.
Han Dong is the company's director of destination marketing, a division that deals with destination-specific advertisers, so has a vast knowledge of the opportunities and challenges facing brands.
Out with the old, in with the new
Some basics, first of all... Destination marketing is the practice of promoting a city, region, or country to attract more visitors. Until recently, most destination marketing was done with traditional media: print, public transportation, and television.
But the continued growth of travel on a global scale has forced destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to come up with new ways to attract visitors.
Dong says:
"In the last year or two, the rise of the fan economy, the revealing of WeMedia, the diversification of internet advertising, all brought a new way of thinking to destination marketing."
TV shows for example became a new form of destination marketing. “Where Did Daddy Go?” – a documentary/reality series that puts Chinese celebrities in challenging parental situations – was behind increased visitor numbers to locations featured in the show, such as Snow Village in the remote northeast and Jiming Island off the coast of Shandong.
Selby in England saw a spike in Asian visitors after Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou was married in the town's abbey this January.
Using pop culture to promote a destination highlights the shift away from traditional media and towards connecting consumers with more personalized experiences.
"Ten years ago income was lower, information was incorrect.
"When people were making their travel decisions, more relied on advertisers passing on information. If I said, ‘We have the most beautiful scenery, come here and you’ll enjoy service fit for an emperor,’ users had no choice but to believe me, because so few people around them had been there before, and there were no other channels to obtain additional information."
"But with the way information is flourishing like it is today, consumers are smarter. You say your scenery is the most beautiful and the service is good, they’ll ask what you are basing it on."
Offline to online: Baidu and SEM step in
As consumers get smarter, their demands get more specific, and that makes attracting them to your city or region even harder.
Dong explains:
"[Baidu] wants to use new forms of display to help destination advertisers raise their ads' visibility and click rate, such as creative writing, graphics, and direct telephone bookings.
"Travel decisions aren’t only rational, there are also emotional factors. Stirring up sight (pictures and video), sound (music), and other senses will improve marketing results.
"Search engine marketing (SEM) is the root; surround this root to continually get stronger, and one day it will grow into a towering tree."
Users spend only seconds on a given website, giving advertisers precious little time to make an impression.
More than two billion ads are displayed on wireless devices per day in China, and Baidu alone works with over 800,000 active online advertisers. The result is that users are presented with an overabundance of information, leaving very little time to sift through it all.
Destination marketing from beginning to end
Another new trend for DMOs to address is that consumers are now engaging with travel information during their trip.
Dong says:
"Now destination marketing can’t just stop at promoting a brand and attracting visitors.
"It has to add faster and more convenient services, help travelers make better decisions before the trip, worry about everything they might worry about, think of everything they might think of, and offer solutions for needs during the trip.
"Only in this way can you better accomplish the goal of attracting visitors."
SoLoMo hits the ground running
Destination marketing in China is an endeavor of epic proportions. China boasts a staggering 1.25 billion cell phone users – over 90% of the population – and over 850 million mobile internet users, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
So how do destinations reach them all? The key to connecting those consumers with the information and services they need is SoLoMo - social-location-mobile. This a mobile-centric way of displaying local entries in search engine results, made possible by the GPS technology built in to smartphones and tablets.
In practice it’s simpler than it sounds. One recent example was when Baidu teamed up with McDonald’s for a “Parkour Crazy Cherry Cone” promotion, which harnessed the power of SoLoMo to reach consumers on the ground level – literally.
"Baidu Maps would automatically send a push notification to users who were three kilometers or less from a McDonald’s Dessert StationUsers could then initialize a search and click the cone image to instantly take part.
"After you got your cherry cone and shared it on a social website, it inspired the next person to take part in the event. The event got really good results, and succeeded in combining with SoLoMo."
Mobile vs. PC and beyond
Mobile will be the next disruptor in destination marketing. Last July, mobile search volume passed PC in China for the first time.
And according to Baidu, 93% of Chinese travelers use their cell phone while traveling to keep in touch with family and friends, and 60% use their devices to find destination info before departure. But only 21% use their mobile device to book and pay for their trip ahead of time.
Tapping into that potential, and continuing to integrate information and services with travelers’ mobile devices, is the key to taking the next step forward.
In the ever-expanding world of mobile technology, Dong sees lots of room for improvement. Scenic digital museums, music with local characteristics, and more 360 degree panoramas are a few things he’d like to see in the near future.
As for destination marketing in general, his advice is simple: listen to the people.
Dong says:
"My biggest suggestion for content marketing is follow the consumer, listen to their hearts, satisfy all their travel demands.
"Any reason can inspire a trip. You don’t have to limit your content development; diverge and think more, that will produce better results."
NB: This is an article by Aaron Stewart, a foreign correspondent for China Travel News. It is an edited version of a longer article which you can read by clicking here.
NB2: China image via Shutterstock