Travel marketers must be increasingly outfitted to address an omnichannel world, using the multi-screen reality of content consumption to their advantage, says compelling new research by analysts Hudson Crossing.
The crux of the reality facing travel marketers is that travelers are far more likely to use multiple screens, both during their travel and in their everyday. As travelers trend towards being more engaged across screens, travel brands must be more savvy when it comes to marketing across channels.
This omnichannel media strategy is essential not only to thrive - but to survive, as more and more travelers move towards tablets-as-laptops and live a mobile-first (or even mobile-only) life.
From the research, entitled "Travel's Mobile Centric Future:"
Travel brands must recognize they operate in an “omnichannel” world, where the traveler will expect to research, buy or interact with the brand through any given channel at any given moment for any given purpose. The implications of this? Travelers will expect the state of a transaction they initiated at home on a tablet to be available at work on a laptop and during their commute on their smartphone.
This cross-channel session expecation means that travel brands must de-emphasize silos and ensure proper communication across discrete groups.
Consistent user experience must be matched with sophisticated, seamless cross-device communication in the background, to ensure that the customer can pick right up where they left off on a previous device.
The separation between devices is being bridged, meaning that brands must catch up to their customers if consumers start to just see one "online experience." The consumer doesn't care about technological hurdles or organizational challenges - they simply want it to work right, all the time.
They also want to have engaging experiences that allow them to enjoy the benefits of an experience on multiple devices.
One of the most compelling concepts is the way that travel brands may return to television advertising as they can "sideload" content onto a viewer's device as they are consuming a program.
And from a group of folks that spends more time on their devices than others - the research points to 7 hours per week for tablet owners and 5.9 hours for smarphone users, in addition to their online time via other sources - this is a lucrative co-marketing opportunity.
The importance of this affluent demographic is repeatedly highlighted in the research.
Not only does the mobile traveler - the report's term for the overwhelming majority of travelers that tote a smartphone or tablet - almost always take one or more devices on a trip, they also generally spend more: Smartphone owners spend 11% more than the average household on travel, while tablet travelers spent 31% more a year.
These travelers are also more brand loyal, eager to make purchases via their devices and are much more likely to see travel as a core tenet of their identity.
The keys here are to address the key needs of the mobile traveler by empowering them to enjoy and create the best experience for themselves - what Hudson Crossing names "Customer Managed Experiences:"
A core component to being a mobile centric travel business is rethinking the number of steps required for each customer-facing process – remember, small space must be smart space.
Equally important in a mobile centric travel organization is data. Whether you call it “big data,” “little data” or just data, a mobile centric strategy increases and intensifies the need for a travel company to have access to data that can guide critical business decision-making.Smartphones and tablets are among the most intimate technology devices travelers own.
The convergence of consumers’ data will – within limits of course – enable travel companies to create more intelligent, more relevant experiences for mobile travelers.
Hudson Crossing defines Customer Managed Experiences as: Enabling travelers to use their channel/platform of choice to discover, create and buy data-informed offers for relevant “direct” and “third party” products and services and use them, as logistically and practically allowed, when and where the traveler chooses.
Overall, the onus is on travel marketers to ensure that the multi-screen cohort is engaged with the correct services for their omnichannel existence.
Revenue is left on the table by those not committed to providing a thoughtful, well-executed strategy across devices - revenue that is also increasingly competitive, as more brands begin to compete for all available growth during the growing economic upswing.
The research is available here.
NB: Devices image courtesy Shutterstock.