2018 partnership survey summary - cloudinaryres.cloudinary.com/simpleview/image/upload/v... · ads...

In July, 2018 Travel Manitoba conducted a partnership survey to gather partner feedback for planning purposes. Surveys were sent to

1,476 industry contacts and were completed by 20%, or 300 industry members.

KEY FINDINGS: y 76% of respondents are currently partnering with Travel Manitoba.

y Of the 73 non-partners, 53% indicated that they want to be contacted to learn more about Travel Manitoba’s

partnership opportunities.

y 62% of respondents find the 2018 partnership opportunities valuable or very valuable to their organization or business.

2018 Partnership Survey Summary

> Each year, Travel Manitoba sends out an invitation to our entire database to attend

the roll-out of our Partnership Plan and Opportunities. This is followed up with an

email with a PDF of our Partnership Opportunities guide. We also plan

an online webinar to show the presentation to those who could not attend the

roll-out in person. A member of our partnership team will connect with those

who express interest as well as reach out to new partners.

> Our Partnership Opportunities guide is also hosted on www.travelmanitoba.com -> Our Sites -> Tourism Industry -> Partnership -> Partnership Opportunities

> Travel Manitoba puts out the daily Tourism Industry News sent directly to your

inbox. This compilation of news articles also includes relevant information on

what is going on at Travel Manitoba – including Summits we are hosting, AGM

and partnership information, Manitoba Tourism Awards information, education

and training opportunities, etc. If you are not receiving this e-newsletter, we

encourage you to subscribe. Again, head to www.travelmanitoba.com -> Our Sites -> Tourism Industry -> Get to Know Us -> TI Daily News

> Travel Manitoba has heard that there is a need for new businesses to have better and quicker access to our partnership

information once they have made their initial contact with Travel Manitoba. Our team is working on a plan to offer that

access to partners within a much shorter time period and in a much more accessible format.

QUESTION 1: Do you currently partner with Travel Manitoba? YES: 227 out of 300 responses (76%)NO: 73 out of 300 responses (24%)

Of the partners surveyed, some expressed that they were not aware that there was a partnership program in place and that they

have never been asked to partner or participate. In addition, respondents identifying as a new operator or business owner, indicated

it was hard to know where to find information regarding partnership.

TRAVEL MANITOBA RESPONSE

1

Some partners communicated that our Partnership Opportunities are too expensive and that they do not have the budget to partner

with Travel Manitoba.

> Travel Manitoba is very conscious of the fact that our partners have varying budgets, and to that end, have created

a number of Partnership Opportunities ranging from $150 - $500.

> There are also FREE opportunities available through our Partner Extranet. These opportunities are also outlined in our

annual Partnership Opportunities book. Some of those opportunities include: free listing on www.travelmanitoba.com,

inclusion of the “add to itinerary” option on our online Travel Planner, listing placement on related content pages, the

option to order Travel Manitoba publications for use at your business, the ability to promote your festival and event on our

events page and inclusion of your photos in our asset library.

> The Partnership Team connects with partners with varying budgets and will happily work to create a plan that best suits

their needs.

Commendation from partners:

y The biggest value for us was probably the opportunity to buy advertising in some publications that we could not otherwise

afford on our own.

y I believe that Travel Manitoba has become an exciting, imaginative and successful ambassador for our province. I really like the

direction it has gone in the past 5 years. I feel they are essential to growing and nurturing tourism in our province.

y There are a variety of partnership opportunities and price points – online and print – and available seasonally.

y Travel Manitoba has developed a very good reputation over the past few years so the partnership opportunities have a higher

value. A larger audience is reached.

y We need to deliver a strong brand message. This is done better collectively as a group.

y Partnering with Travel Manitoba allows us to leverage our marketing funds and gain exposure in the marketplace we would

otherwise be unable to access.

y Travel Manitoba acts as an aggregator for advertising and promotion, saving us money. Its own proactive efforts on our behalf have

also increased awareness of our attractions.

y The quality of the product is fantastic. But most importantly is that Travel Manitoba recognizes the value and importance of

hunting opportunities in Manitoba and is supporting and promoting the professional outfitters/lodges in the province. With

continued partnerships, Manitoba can earn a well deserved place as a top destination for traveling hunters from across the world.

It is refreshing to have Travel Manitoba in our corner as we have individually been trying to put forth all the great aspects Manitoba

has to offer.

QUESTION 2: On a scale from 1 – 5 how valuable did you find the 2018 Partnership Opportunities? Please tell us why.

Average number: 3.8 – 207 out of 300 responses


2

Concerns from partners:

y We need more analytics from varying opportunities. We want to see the ROI.

> Travel Manitoba is able to provide some basic data on all digital and social media opportunities: reach/impressions

(the number of people who see your promotion) and clickthroughs (the number of people who click directly from one of

our promotional or campaign pieces to your website). We are currently working on a more efficient way of reporting this

data so that it is readily available to our partners. Please know that at any time you are welcome to connect with one of our

team members to see how a campaign or ad is performing on our end. As with all digital data, translating those numbers

into metrics that are meaningful to you depends on the systems you have in place on your end to make traffic trackable.

y Clients don’t say where they heard from us, so we don’t know if our Travel Manitoba ad was useful. The success is difficult

to measure.

> The best place to start is to ask them! If you have an inquiry come in, asking how they heard of you is a good idea. Print

ads offer no form of analytics as to how the ad performed. There is no way to track a print ad unless YOU make it trackable.

For example, consider designing your ad with an offer – that way when it comes back to you, you can tie the redeemed

offer to a specific print ad.

> In terms of web traffic, tracking users who come to your site via Travel Manitoba’s website (or Travel Manitoba’s cam-

paigns) is easy to do through Google Analytics. By monitoring referrals and campaign traffic, you are able to see what sent

users to your site and what they do once they get there. Our team is working on a “Tips and Tricks” section to be included

in our 2019 Partnership Guide that will outline this information.

y We don’t have the time to use the services or find out much about them.

> The good news is that we are here to help! Travel Manitoba executes all of the opportunities offered. All we require from our

partners are the materials to do so. We don’t want anyone to try and figure things out on their own – the partnership team

is willing and ready to talk to all of our partners to see how we can help them best.

y Some of the programs are out of my reach.

> As previously mentioned, we do offer a good number of opportunities for $500 or less – and even some for free. We want

everyone to feel included in the Partnership Program and will work with budgets of all sizes to ensure that you are

connected to Travel Manitoba.





3

QUESTION 3: What were your thoughts on the following 2018 partnership opportunities? Social Media Opportunities – Live Influencer Campaign, Destination Spotlight Video Feature,

What’s Hot Feature, Social Media Star, Facebook Boosted Posts, Instagram, Insta-Meetup and Consumer E-newsletter.


y We particularly enjoyed the social media opportunities, as it freed up quite a bit of our time and we knew it was being handled by

professionals.

y With Travel Manitoba’s large Facebook audience, the boosted posts are a great idea.

y Well done! The reach was not what was expected.

y Absolutely insane return!

y Social media campaigns have such a wide reach. Articles from Live Influencers enhance the content. Instagram is a great way to

boost visual content – it would be nice to also have access to the Travel Manitoba content for our own promotional materials.

y As a millennial, these are my favourite partnership opportunities to utilize with Travel Manitoba. I can see the value of them, and

having utilized a few of them I am able to show my board and council their value with hard numbers.


y Success is difficult to measure.

> The beauty of social media opportunities is that they are all trackable and we are able to gauge their success. Again, we are

working on a more efficient way of reporting these stats to our partners but do know that you can connect with any of our

team members at any time to ask for this information.

y We were not aware of the above opportunities.

> Approximately 10% of the partners who responded in this survey expressed concern with the fact that they are not aware of

our partnership program. Travel Manitoba reaches out via numerous outlets. If you are among the 10% that responded that

you are not aware of the opportunities, we encourage you to let us know how you want Travel Manitoba to get in touch

with you to provide you this information.

y Social media is very important, but we can access these on our own for significantly less dollars.

> We understand that in today’s world almost everyone gets how social media works. When you are buying into Travel

Manitoba’s social media opportunities, you are buying into our network…our reach. We have over 100,000 Facebook fans,

the second largest business page in the province (only the Winnipeg Jets have a larger audience) and over 70,000 followers

on Instagram. By partnering with us on these initiatives, you are getting in front of an audience, a huge one at that, that you

alone would not have access to. Therein lies the value.




4


y Digital Campaign landing page placement has high value!

y Enhanced Listings are always a hit.

y As an operator that is in partnership with Travel Manitoba you have to try and own it all. Be everywhere Travel Manitoba is because

they are in the top searches.

y Digital is the way of the world now.

y We utilize some of these opportunities as they provide a higher profile.

y Custom ID Page is a must.


y Your website is poorly set-up and not easily navigable.

y We do not see huge return on these opportunities.

y Not seeing the direct benefits through Travel Manitoba…what are we doing wrong?

QUESTION 3: What were your thoughts on the following 2018 partnership opportunities? Digital Opportunities – Block Ads, Digital Campaign Landing Page Placement, Travel Packages,

Feature Package, Enhanced Events, Enhanced Listings/Custom ID Page on www.travelmanitoba.com.



> Staying connected to our team and communicating regularly is key.

> Websites are constantly evolving, they are never “done”. We are continually reviewing how users interact with our site,

taking in feedback to ensure our site is functional and useful for our visitors and partners alike.

y We can do this on our own.

> Our partners’ ability to understand and execute marketing initiatives is fantastic. So why partner with Travel Manitoba?

Travel Manitoba has a recognizable brand and is often the first place people look when considering a trip or planning

their vacation or the first result on the page in a Google Search. Partnering with us gives you reach that otherwise may

not be attained. We invest in markets that are tough for our partners to access on their own, opening up the opportunity

to connect you to more people. We offer co-operative marketing – meaning we buy in to bigger initiatives and give

partners the opportunity to buy in at a much lower cost. The exposure and reach that you can obtain by partnering with

Travel Manitoba is of the utmost value.

5

Tricia Woikin Coordinator, Sales

& Corporate Services 204-999-9885

[email protected]

Samantha Bason Specialist, Partnership & Visitor Experiences

204-296-9735 [email protected]

Lindsay Egan Coordinator, Partnership

& Visitor Experiences 204-228-3435

[email protected]

Tracy Dandeneau Senior Manager, Partnership

& Visitor Experiences 204-296-6918

[email protected]

Do you have further questions or comments? Please reach out to our Partnership & Visitor Experience Team.

2018 partnership survey summary - cloudinaryres.cloudinary.com/simpleview/image/upload/v... · ads...

Documents