The Digital Traveler: Getting to Know Your Customer

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Named by Forbes Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Most Influential CMOs, Kevin Krone led Southwest Airlines’ marketing initiatives for 25 years. Recently retired, Kevin remains one of the most respected names in the industry and joins us at the Digital Travel Summit for the first time to share his insights.

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Words matter. And they matter now, more than ever. Eliciting emotional investment and brand engagement in the Age of Bot is critical to the success of a digital campaign. Learn how to retarget without making your audience think they have an online stalker or feel they are a victim of identity theft.
• Overcoming digital deafness
• Conversing and connecting with the person in a data deluge
• Humanizing your brand for sales conversion

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Jennifer Andre of Expedia Media Solutions will share the findings from a recent study – which examines travel booking habits for British, American and Canadian travelers – to help marketers understand how they can influence the decision-making process. The session will explore how marketers can leverage audience insights to develop targeted, technology-driven creative campaigns that can be implemented at both a local and global level to drive engagement.
• Insights revealing how the buyer’s journey impacts marketing strategies
• Exploring creative and technology-driven marketing campaigns that use audience insights as a foundation
• Understanding how digital marketing insights should be used to adapt a creative campaign for a global audience

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Travel brands are changing their business to focus first and foremost on the customer. Travel operators act as a vehicle to help drive the traveler’s story forward – sometimes quite literally! Our executive panelists from top airlines and hotels discuss their best practices in building a core digital foundation into their personalization model by:

• Constructing a 3D model of personalization to gain an in depth understanding of the customer journey and helping to create a narrative for the traveler
• Addressing the top five mistakes when rolling out personalization
• Knowing your customer: who are they? Where are they? And what do they want?
• Utilizing customer data to inform decisions

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Using cookies and segments to connect to your audience? Then you’re missing out on accuracy, reach and measurement. Learn the new way to target travelers, and discover how to:

•Understand your audience based on individual-level profile attributes

•Know when they book—even when they do it through call centers, travel agents and onsite

•Measure your campaign’s true incremental return on ad spend

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Video isn’t going away. This session will focus on the impact of YouTube viewership in an iOS environment, and most importantly, how marketers can take advantage of this trend. Discussion points include:
• Converting views into bookings and recognizing what truly inspires the customer to book
• Preserving visual content on your site to keep a competitive edge over shared content
• Partnering with agencies to tell meaningful stories with video content
• Does video really work? Taking a look at the data behind it

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There are endless untapped distribution channels out there, and the industry often turns a blind eye to these opportunities. During this Q&A, Mathias Eichelberger shares how he’s leveraging new and untapped channels for Korean’s Air’s affiliate marketing program, why it’s working, and why you should try it.
• Marketing where your customers are: gauging which best partners to allocate distribution
• Evaluating the role of agencies, meta-search and OTAs in partnerships
• Measuring KPI and ROI for affiliate programs

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Search and display are key in capturing the customer’s attention, and it’s what ultimately drives their decision to break out the credit card. But the industry can’t seem to agree on what’s best for the brand: investing in new technologies to boost direct bookings or elevating your online presence through meta-search and OTAs. Panelists from Virgin America, Trump Hotels and DayUse.com share strategies for staying at the top of search and how to drive bookings from disrupters.

• Are direct bookings always the most profitable bookings?
• Assessing which platforms are best to invest in for exposure
• Leveraging meta-search and OTAs for exposure, and re-directing to brand website
• Analyzing keywords to be at the top of search, and which keywords are best to bid on
• Showing your brand will give you the best service with direct booking
• Sweetening the deal: what offers that don’t cut into your bottom line to win the direct booking

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Integration across all digital channels is key, especially during mergers. Sebastian Riedle, head of online sales for Lufthansa’s Swiss & Austrian Airlines, offers insight into how he merged platforms for three airlines into a cohesive redesign.
• A look at what this means for the digital landscape and its commercial impact
• Walking through the process of a redesign and what that looks like post-merger
• Defining and establishing a roadmap for all digital channels and mobile strategy

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Hotels are investing in new talent and technologies in order to drive direct bookings from their web and mobile property. Our panel of hoteliers from the world’s largest brands share what their companies are doing to win the booking, including:
• Strategies for incentive programs and exclusive, member-only rates to generate direct bookings
• Improving the way we use data to cultivate customer loyalty
• Understanding trends in the hotel booking war

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