Updated: Competition suspended yet again!
Over the past few days I have been following the ups and downs of a social media campaign by iTrek, an Australian travel insurance provider.
The idea is to submit a YouTube video (max 30 seconds) around the theme "The Travel Agent is Dead".
itrek travel insurance brings you an exciting new film competition: "The Travel Agent Is Dead". Amazing prizes to be won and all 10 finalists will be invited to attend the finalists film showing at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, Sydney. It's going to be very big indeed.
We believe that the travel agents days are well and truly numbered. A large percentage of their margins are made by "bolting on" travel insurance products to customer's flight bookings. Some travel agents have been known to make margins of up to 50% on Travel Insurance policies. The time has come for the public to see that there is an alternative. By going online and taking your travel agent out of the equation completely. This 'alternative' could save you up to 50% on the costs.
More and more people are going online to purchase their flights, hotel accommodation and now, their travel insurance too.
The travel agent is dead.
Umm - I can see this being unpopular in certain quarters. I mean social media is meant to be warm and cuddly right? If you are going to do a video submission competition it should be around something amusing and shareable such as the Jamaican Tourist Board's Dad Dancing. I like that one.
The competition has got trade people agitated. One industry colleague emailed me (cc Travel Guard, the company behind iTrek) saying they had personally emailed over 12 tour operators and agents in the US to stoke up feeling against the competition.
And they are not even an agent! Assuming they are not alone it looks like trouble.
Travel Weekly US reported that the competition has been terminated. However, as I write, it appears the competition is back up and running again. Catch it while you can.
The premise that travel agents are dead (or dying) makes an unlikely consumer facing competition. Now if they asked me to create a video about the death of travel agents I could go on and on about desire building vs service oriented travel agents - and why only in the business travel sector will service oriented travel agents remain useful to consumers (companies).
Leisure travel agents have to be generating reasons to travel and product desire rather than servicing existing demand in order to retain a role within the industry.
But iTrek didn't ask me to create a video. Instead they want consumer generated videos such as this:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q96Z0cm7Xgo
Not sure this story is over quite yet.....