Two items of interest to travel marketers have come out of the Facebook news feed this week: Facebook Home's popularity and updates to the company's advertising product.
Facebook Home a complete failure?
Statistics coming out of the first months of Facebook Home are not good.
As TechCrunch reports, downloads of Facebook Home have steadily declined since the launch buzz earlier last month. The app debuted at #72 in the worldwide rankings, and has since dropped out of the Top 100 in all countries - and has yet to return.
The app also averages 2 stars in the app store - most users hate the loss of their other apps and folders, basically highlighting a miscalculation on Facebook's part. Users don't care enough about Facebook to sacrifice the functionality of the rest of their phone.
AT&T, after lackluster sales of 15,000 units, has also aggressively dropped the price of the HTC First handset to just 99 cents, down from the launch price of $99. While this is not necessarily a sign of impending death (although some outlets are reporting that the phone has been discontinued), the price drop indicates a severely underperforming handset with high levels of inventory that need to be depleted.
Travel marketers had some interesting opportunities with the immersive experience of Facebook Home - however, without traction, the ability to leverage the immersion will be non-existent.
Facebook, for its part, touts nearly 1 million downloads and an increase in time spent on Facebook of 25% with users on Facebook Home. The company also announced recently that they will be updating Home to allow users to maintain the customization of their homescreens than currently possible.
Only time will tell if this is only an initial hiccup or a misfire from Menlo Park as the company attempts to dominate the mobile space.
Facebook to offer 15-second video ads in the news feed
Couple with the full-bore Facebook experience of Home, this could have been a double-whammy of news: starting in July, Facebook will offer advertisers prime real estate for 15-second video ads.
The ads will be limited to the 15-second time frame, will automatically play on mute, and will restart from the beginning if a user clicks on the video. Facebook says that they will limit each brand to one video per day in a user's news feed.
The product is going to literally change the face of the service, as engaging ad units are now going to be front-and-center.
It's a minefield for a company already struggling with user defections, and lower session times. How will users react to these new ad units?
For travel marketers, however, the opportunity is extremely exciting. Spending on digital video is set to increase by more than double in 3 years, with over $4 billion set to be spent this year alone.
By coupling the platform's deep demographic targeting with engaging video units, destinations, airlines, and other travel businesses have the opportunity to redefine the way they market at various levels of the funnel.
Drive markets can be targeted with short videos inspiring a visit; direct video promotions to specific demographics could increase conversions; hobbies, interests and other affinities can allow activity-specific targeting of deals and destinations. Video advertising as generally been limited to larger brands up until this point - only those who can afford a production budget (and subsequent ad buys) would spend money on a :15 or :30 spot.
There have been relatively few low-cost ways to disseminate short videos, and so the addition of video ads on Facebook will be a watershed moment for video-as-marketing. Imagine the possibilities: 15-second testimonials from happy customers, profiles of interesting staff members, action-packed videos for adrenaline junkies, showcasing a new cocktail menu, offering a quick overview of a newly re-designed hotel, showcasing destination-specific highlights - all of these things are soon-to-be de facto advertising narratives.
The golden age for video continues - does your brand have someone on staff that can help take advantage of these new ad units? If not, now is the time to start thinking about how video advertising fits into your travel marketing strategy.
NB: Palm tree image from Shutterstock.