Most people agree that in order for
a company to stay in business, you need to market it. Marketing helps position
the business, bring new customers in, and extend the reach of your current
customers. But can one market a location, such as a city, state, or country?
That’s where your local Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) comes in.
And on this World
Tourism Day, we believe it’s important to understand the role of DMOs in representing
destinations and helping to develop their long-term travel and tourism
strategy.
Sitting at the intersection of government and the private
sector, DMOs act as the brand ambassador for anything and everything that
encompasses the destination. Whereas a DMO is held to the same KPIs as many
marketers, they are uniquely different. DMOs are part of the government issued
organization. However, DMOs can also rely on the private sector to help
increase funding. Where DMOs do look at return on ad spend (ROAS) similarly to other marketers, they
main goal is increasing incremental visitation to drive economic impact for the
destination.
Sojern not only looks at the search and booking trends for a
destination, but also looks at the overall trends that can impact a DMO.
How digital technologies can help DMOs
There’s been a massive migration from offline media to
online. DMOs have historically spent the majority of their budgets offline.
Based on the efficiencies that online marketing provides, DMO are now starting
to spend more online.
Through the use of online signals, DMOs can now look at
traveler intent signals - gaining visibility as to where and when travelers are
searching for flights and/or hotels to the destination.
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The job of a marketer hasn’t changed in hundreds of years - it has
always been about getting in front of buyers in the moments that matter.
Through data, DMOs can efficiently reach travelers in these moments.
Understanding traveler intent data is key to driving efficiencies through
digital technologies.
Destinations historically have not had any level of
reportable attribution metrics. For example, a hotelier might run an online ad
campaign with an attribution metric of 100 percent credit on a click through to
book and 30 percent on a view through with a 14-day look-back window, and if you
hit those metrics, the hotelier will increase their ad spend.
Attribution metrics for DMOs
It’s only been in the past few years that DMOs have had the ability to use analytics and insights that prove attribution metrics. Today DMOs can see who they have reached through search and book signals and what type of economic impact those travelers had on the destination. DMOs can prove out direct impact to their stakeholders through this cause and effect.
Every DMO has a particular value they place on an in-market traveler based on their daily average spend. Here’s the easy calculation we use to prove ad attribution:
- exposed travelers x average spend per traveler (shared by the tourist board) = estimated traveler spend generated by ad
- ROAS = ad campaign spending ÷ estimated traveler spend generated by ad
ROAS shows the amount of traveler spending estimated to have been generated for each campaign dollar spent. This ROI is what government listens to—the economic impact of a campaign carries a ton of weight.
You will also want to look at the incremental value of ROAS. For example, we exclude the client destination among our targeting cookie pool. This way we can show real-time incrementality that is brought by advertising showing the value generated from an audience that wasn’t looking at that specific destination.
Every dollar counts, especially for DMOs. The beauty of data is proving how an ad campaign works to directly impact the economy. It provides validation for a DMO’s spend.
DMOs: providing inspirational opportunities
One of the key ways that DMOs can capture the attention of
travelers is by providing inspiration. We’ve seen a DMOs do this in a variety
of ways. For example, Visit Houston created a digital marketplace to increase
awareness of all the fun Houston has to offer to leisure travelers and
families. The state of Vermont runs a Twitter program, called @ThisIsVT, where they
invite Vermonters to post on the handle, showcasing all that is great about the
state.

DMOs can do themselves a disservice when they focus on traditional demographic targeting versus following the story data is telling.
Richard Black - Sojern
Video ads are also great for capturing traveler intent
through inspiration. Videos are right at the intersection of technology and
personalization, so they are a perfect way to target travelers within the
moments that matter.
Another tip is to focus not on the demographic data of a
traveler, but instead focus on the intent of their travel. Focus on the why!
DMOs can do themselves a disservice when they focus on traditional demographic
targeting versus following the story data is telling. When ads are personalized
with the why, DMOs can capture the right traveler early in the thought process - leading to more incremental bookings in their regions.
After you capture their intent with a wide focus on the
reason they are looking to travel, you can optimize as you learn. Machine
learning can be applied to help you drill down into that data - allowing a DMO
to add sequential storytelling as a campaign runs. Where a Sojern data driven
campaign starts is never the same as where it ends as we combine machine
learning with dedicated account management to optimize towards best results.
All of this allows a DMO to make every dollar count.
About the author...
Richard Black is general manager of tourism at
Sojern.