e-book: the year of the mocal traveler
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THE YEAR OF THE
MOCALTRAVELER
Mobile and social media have now become inseparable. Smart hospitality and travel marketers can capitalize on this trend to
effectively increase sales.
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Impact of Mobile
on Travel-Related Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Impact of Social Media
on Travel Bookings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The Impact of Mocal on Travel Bookings . . . .6
Developing a Mocal Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Some Helpful Tips for Creating
Your Own Mocal Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
But What About Local? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Making Mocal Pay Off as Part
of an Integrated Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
First we had the mobile traveler, and the
way we market travel changed. Then we
had the social traveler, and our marketing
tactics changed again. This year is all about
the mocal traveler. And yes, you guessed
it —the way we market travel is changing
once more. This new trend will have major
implications for all travel-related decisions,
from hotel and airline bookings to sightseeing
activities to restaurant reservations, even
local transportation.
For those who haven’t yet encountered the
term, mocal (sometimes referred to as mocial
or so-lo-mo) denotes the convergence of
mobile device usage with social media—
specifically, accessing social media from a
mobile device. While both mobile and social
media have individually influenced travel
decisions over the past decade, this will be
the year the two trends converge to become
a single, highly powerful motivator. Used
appropriately, this anytime, anywhere access
to social media via smartphones and tablets
can have far-reaching consequences for
your travel business.
To truly understand the impact of the fusion
of these two trends, let’s first look at each
one separately.
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What we refer to singly as mobile actually
includes multiple devices, with most travelers
moving between screens during the booking
process. Ericsson estimates there will be
more than 50 billion connected devices in
circulation by the year 2020. This includes
laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones—
and it means marketers must optimize their
messages for all these different formats.
But according to Ericsson, the really big news
happens in 2014. In North America, this year
will mark a major shift when more online
access takes place via mobile devices than
traditional desktops and laptops.
This shift is particularly notable to the travel
industry, as these mobile travelers represent
a highly desirable market. All consumers who
use mobile devices for travel services tend to
have higher-than-average incomes, and 32%
of all business travelers have booked travel on
mobile. In addition, mobile plays a particularly
strong role in last-minute bookings, with
more than 70% of reservations through
smartphones coming within a day of check-in.
Here’s what you need to know about each
mobile device in order to effectively target
its users:
The Smartphone
Smartphones have revolutionized the world,
but nowhere more so than in the area of
travel. Smartphones and their apps are
now regularly used to search for and book
transportation and hotel accommodations,
substitute for traditional paper boarding
passes, replace paper maps for navigating
a new destination, make dinner reservations,
and translate foreign words. But perhaps
most important to travel marketers, apps
on smartphones can help them hone their
marketing strategies by collecting valuable
location-based data on users.
The Tablet
Tablet adoption among travelers has
skyrocketed in the past few years, with more
than 44% of the population currently owning
one, and another 40% planning to purchase
one sometime during 2014 (PhoCusWright
Innovation Edition report). As a result,
travelers now split their travel planning
between both smartphones and tablets.
The Impact of Mobile on Travel-Related Decisions
MO
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20% 37% 25%
Now that it accounts for 20% of all travel sales, hospitality marketers can no longer
afford to ignore mobile. In fact, 37% of consumers worldwide access the Internet
via their smartphones for travel purposes. And in 2013, a quarter of all travelers
used mobile to search, research, and purchase travel.
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But it’s not just a matter of adding another
device into the marketing mix. It’s the way
travelers use tablets that has marketers
rethinking their strategies. Mobile Web
usage nearly doubles with the use of tablets,
suggesting that less travel planning is now
taking place on a desktop. In addition,
travelers are choosing tablets over
smartphones for destination selection,
shopping, and booking.
In conclusion, JiWire reports that all devices
are heavily used for booking travel with the
process typically beginning on one device and
concluding on another. While smartphones
and tablets are frequently used for research,
the device most often used for the actual
booking is still the laptop. This means laptops
will continue to play an important role in the
marketing process, and that marketers need
to consider all three screens when assessing
their strategies.
For those who hope to use social media
successfully, it’s important to understand the
dynamics involved in the traveler’s decision-
making process. Social media gives people
immediate access to an entire network of
friends, making it easy to seek trusted advice
on travel purchase decisions. After all, these
friends already know their likes and dislikes,
and are more likely to provide honest
feedback than marketers with an underlying
motive of trying to sell them something.
In addition, messages relayed from friends
are more likely to be remembered. Recent
research shows that ads shared through
social media generate 50% greater recall.
There’s also something particularly
comforting about having friends to consult
when confronting the unfamiliar aspects of
travel. Travel is an expensive and emotional
decision. Social media helps overcome a
traveler’s fear of the unknown. Even before
the decision of where to go is made, would-
be travelers are influenced by others posting
The Impact of Social Media on Travel Bookings
SO
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L44% 75% 4/5
Compared to mobile, social media is a relative newcomer. Nonetheless, it has
become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives in a very short time. Penetration has
now reached 44% of the developed world. A recent survey of travel technology
professionals suggests that 75% consider establishing a presence on social media
networks “essential” to their business, and four out of five cite social media as their
most successful tool in attracting new clients.
The Year of the Mocal Traveler | Page 4Share this e-book! mdgadvertising.com/hospitality
comments and photos of their own travels.
They see something they like and think,
“I want to go there, too.” It’s immensely
reassuring to know that someone familiar
to them has been there before.
Instant dialogue via social media also makes
it possible to stand out from your competitors
by quickly addressing complaints before they
spiral out of control. Recent findings by
Edison Research show that 42% of consumers
posting a complaint on social media expect
a response within 60 minutes. To avoid
negative publicity, marketers must stay on
top of posts about their properties, and
respond quickly and appropriately to
criticism. Expedia keeps a multi-lingual team
available 24/7 to handle its customer queries
and complaints in real-time.
Another key trend in social media has been
the shift toward more visual content. This
seems to be true regardless of the platform,
but may explain the rapid rise of sites like
Pinterest and Instagram.
In general, how you use social media to
promote your property depends upon your
brand, your audience, and the message you
hope to convey. Here’s a look at some
popular social media channels with tips on
how to best utilize them for your purposes.
Although the proliferation of new social
networks has increased competition,
Facebook still reigns supreme in the social
media universe. According to the 2012 Social
Media Report from Nielsen, Facebook
received 152.2 million visitors via PC, 78.4
million via mobile apps, and 74.3 million via
mobile web.
Even more important, 42% of the stories
shared on Facebook were about travel. This
site’s high level of engagement and overall
market penetration make it a particularly
powerful medium for conveying inspirational
and aspirational content.
Twitter is all about immediacy and real-time
responsiveness. You can learn a lot about
your market by listening to travel-related
conversations and by monitoring mentions
of your brand. Consider the example of a
diner at a London Halkin Hotel who tweeted
a picture of her main course along with a
positive comment. Just minutes later, the
hotel’s manager came into the dining room to
personally thank her. This kind of spontaneous
interaction is where Twitter excels.
More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube
and over 6 billion hours of video are watched
every month. As a travel marketer, you can put
this popularity to work by posting high-
quality video content that showcases your
property or travel-related business. Consider
giving viewers a tour of your destination’s
most interesting aspects and encourage
them to post their own videos by offering
incentives or rewards.
Pinterest has rapidly gained a loyal following
since its public debut in 2010—making it well
worth a marketer’s time and investment to
capitalize on this visually dominant social
YouTube
The Year of the Mocal Traveler | Page 5Share this e-book! mdgadvertising.com/hospitality
media platform. Many travel brands now use
Pinterest for marketing tactics like posting
offer boards, encouraging customers to share
photos from their trips, and aiding future
guests in their trip-planning activities. To
make it easy for travel planners, businesses
need to ensure that their website content is
pinnable and create travel boards that
maximize the aspirational aspects of travel.
The use of photography has always played
an essential role in travel marketing. So it’s
no surprise that an app that focuses on photo
sharing would soon earn a place in the travel
marketer’s portfolio. What is surprising is the
phenomenal growth of Instagram.
New figures published by GlobalWebIndex
show that Instagram is the fastest-growing
social media site worldwide. Purchased by
Facebook, it has now followed in its owner’s
footsteps and begun selling ads through
sponsored content. To make the most of
the visual nature of Instagram, brands
should focus on high-quality, compelling
photo content.
For those targeting businesspeople, LinkedIn
remains the obvious choice. This social network
is geared to business professionals and one
of the few social networking sites favored
more by men than women. UK-based East
Coast Trains took advantage of the business
nature of LinkedIn to target commuters along
its mainline. As a result, it quickly increased
the number of followers from 700 to 4,000.
There’s no question that customer reviews
influence consumer buying behavior. In fact,
recent research suggests that consumers
overwhelmingly prefer reviews over
aggregate ratings when forming an opinion
about a potential purchase.
The uncertainty associated with travel makes
hotel reviews particularly influential. Favorable
reviews can go a long way in swaying potential
guests. Even bad reviews can be mitigated
with a quick and appropriate response, thus
demonstrating a high level of customer care.
Equally important, by monitoring reviews of
your competitors’ properties, you can glean
valuable information to help you successfully
market against them.
As of January 2014, 45 million people use
the mobile app, Foursquare, to “check in” to
businesses around the world. But Foursquare
goes well beyond the simple check-in feature.
It also provides personalized travel tips based
on other user recommendations. These user
recommendations are particularly helpful
because they’re provided by others, including
personal friends, who’ve actually been to the
same destination. One way businesses can
utilize Foursquare is by posting offers which
are buzzed to a user’s phone whenever they
check in to your location.
Although Google+ was slow to take off,
the network has quickly gained momentum.
Yelp
Foursquare
Google+
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Google+ Communities, in particular, has
garnered a great deal of interest, with
key implications for the travel industry.
Communities are groups of G+ users with
similar interests.
Many of the G+ Communities trending in 2014
are travel themed. They range from general
topics like Places to See Before You Die to
niche categories like Family Travel and Budget
Travel, as well as geographic topics like Travel
South Africa and Miami and South Florida
Events. This well-defined segmentation
makes it easy for travel marketers to match
communities to their target demographic and
develop outreach efforts to effectively
address these communities.
Although TripAdvisor is more of a review site
than a true social media platform, it’s worth
mentioning here in terms of monitoring.
Online reputation management is an essential
element in any mocal strategy to make sure
negative reviews don’t derail your well-
planned marketing efforts.
TripAdvisor
The Impact of Mocal on Travel Bookings
MO
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Now that we’ve explored these two powerhouses separately, let’s look at how
they work together. Mobile-originated content dominates social media. This
content is then shared by other mobile users, multiplying its reach exponentially.
Any shared content that mentions, tags, or hashtags the brand name becomes
linked to that brand’s identity, positively impacting conversation around the
brand as well as its discoverability and search rankings.
Think of mocal as sticking a microphone
(aka smartphone or tablet) into the hands
of the public and asking them to broadcast
their thoughts about your brand. It’s word-of-
mouth advertising at its most powerful. Every
comment has the potential to be broadcast
and heard around the globe—impacting a
brand either positively or negatively. Your
goal is to control the conversation and
make sure the broadcast has the desired
consequences. Whether a post is in the form
of video, photography, or micro-blogging,
these broadcasts need to be channeled into
your pre-approved marketing plan.
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Marriott International Plays Games with Guests
To engage customers and attract a younger
audience, Marriott International has
developed a mobile travel game for iOS
devices. Xplor takes players on an adventure
through five major global cities as they
attempt to track down their missing Aunt
Sophia. In the process, they solve puzzles,
interact with characters, and explore each
city’s sights. “Social gaming is part of our
innovation strategy to engage customers and
attract the next generation of social, mobile
travelers and employees to Marriott,” says
David Rodriguez, chief human resources
officer for Marriott International.
British Airways Conquers Rome in a Day
British Airways recently capitalized on the
instant interaction of mocal when it sent a
travel blogger to Rome for a day. The
blogger, armed with a smartphone, explored
the city using only tips from followers on
Twitter. According to Kim Willis, British
Airways’ content strategy advisor, “Twelve
hours, 1,600 tweets and 13 locations later,
we’d found and shared parts of Rome that
most guidebooks never talk about, with many
followers contacting us to say it inspired
them to book.”
Four Seasons Melts Hearts with a Mobile Ice
Cream Social
Last July, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
hosted a digital ice cream social titled, “The
Summer of Ice Cream Love.” Hotel guests
and local residents were invited to events at
17 properties worldwide. The “Insta-Meets”
showcased the luxury chain’s culinary
prowess by featuring mouthwatering content
and encouraging guests to post photos via
Instagram. Felicia Yukich, manager of social
media marketing at Four Seasons Hotels and
Resorts, Toronto, says, “This initiative serves as
another way to create significant culinary buzz
for the brand within the social media realm,
keeping us in the ongoing food conversation.”
Developing a Mocal Strategy
TR
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While both mobile and social media have reached the
radar of most travel marketers, few have learned to harness
the powerful combination of mocal. By integrating the two,
and treating them as one entity, brands can explore the full
range of possibilities inherent in this new medium.
How your destination utilizes mocal will largely depend on
your marketing goals and your budget. But here are some
examples of how other travel brands have successfully
employed mocal to achieve a wide range of objectives.
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Holiday Inn Express Gets Edgy with Smart Thinking Campaign
Many formerly conservative brands are now
looking to social media to establish their
brands among a younger, edgier audience.
As part of its “Smart Thinking” campaign,
Holiday Inn Express invites young travelers
to show how smart they are by posting
humorous advice on any topic via Vine,
YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The chain
chose Daily Show comedian Jason Jones as
the spokesman for the campaign and enlists
websites such as CollegeHumor and
Buzzfeed to spread the content.
KLM Finds Mocal just the Ticket for Bookings
and More
With more than 5 million Facebook fans,
it’s not surprising that KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines is now allowing passengers to use
mocal for everything from booking flights
to seat selection, to arranging for extra
baggage. Now the airline has added
payments to the list. The airline sends a
link to customers through a private message
on Facebook or Twitter. The customer then
selects the preferred payment method to
complete the transaction. The airline also has
130 social media agents working around the
clock to answer the approximately 35,000
queries each week that arrive via Facebook
and Twitter.
East Coast Trains Employs Mocal to do
Damage Control
In addition to its use of LinkedIn to attract
commuters, East Coast Trains harnessed
the power of mocal to assuage passengers
during recent transportation delays. When
angry passengers posted complaints on
Twitter, the UK-based railway responded
by posting images of affected areas. Social
media manager Nick Wood explains, “People
are a lot more sympathetic to delays if they
can see what’s happening.”
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There are many ways to increase bookings by using mocal. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Target travelers within a 50-mile radius of
your property to increase last-minute bookings.
Share exclusive content, behind-the-scenes
information, and news about your property
specifically targeted to mobile behaviors
and situations.
Provide incentives to encourage user-
generated content (UGC) and the sharing
of content with others.
Use social networks to post updates
to your rewards and loyalty programs.
Urge guests to post live tweets while
staying at your property and to post about
their positive experiences on Facebook.
Invite guests to share photos of their visits on
Instagram using a campaign-specific hashtag.
Consider offering a prize, such as a free room
night, for the most intriguing photo. This tactic
also works well with posts and tweets.
Enlist guests in a scavenger hunt for
“treasures” around your property, and ask
them to post their findings on various social
media sites.
The most important thing to remember is
to engage your audience in a two-way
communication. Social media should promote
dialogue, not simply serve as a soapbox
to deliver your message. Encouraging a
conversation will be easy to do if you mine
the real-time location data you gain, and use
it to market to the specific tastes, needs, and
preferences of your audience. For example,
if a prospective customer is discovered at a
4-star restaurant, consider promoting your
hotel’s own gourmet menu.
Social media sites like Foursquare are ideal
for this purpose. Hotels can monitor when a
guest checks in via the app, and then review
the guest’s social media profile. By learning
more about guests, hotel staff can tailor the
guest experience to personal preferences.
Some Helpful Tips for Creating Your Own Mocal Campaign
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As with any form of social media, it’s important to not focus on the short-term
direct sell. Instead, use mocal to create a loyal following and encourage user-
generated content (UGC). The goal is to keep your brand top-of-mind when
travel decisions are made. And remember, it’s equally important to listen, too.
By monitoring what people are saying about your brand, you’ll gain valuable
insight into how to better market your property to them.
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We’ve already touched on some of the ways
this location-based data can help you hone
your marketing strategy in our infographic,
The Future of Proximity & Micro-Location
Marketing. For example, many forward-
thinking marketers are already providing
customized suggestions and targeted ads
based on a customer’s location and buying
habits. You’ll no doubt discover more ways
as you consider the specific needs of your
business or property. Just be sure to make
location-based data an integral part of your
planning process.
But What About Local?
LO
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Although we’ve mostly focused on the social media and mobile aspects of mocal,
there’s a third component of the mix that shouldn’t be overlooked, and that’s the
“local” aspect. Thanks to GPS-enabled devices and apps like Foursquare, brands
can now use real-time location data to refine their communications. A recent article
in Inc. magazine suggests that companies will soon provide relevant information
personalized to what a customer needs, when they need it, wherever they are,
and without asking.
Making Mocal Pay Off as Part of an Integrated Strategy
Given how powerful mocal has become, you
may be tempted to forgo paid advertising
altogether. In a word, don’t. The best results
are obtained from a coordinated effort using
both paid and non-paid mocal efforts. Most
advertisers seem to understand this. Facebook
passed a major milestone, with 53% of its ad
revenue now generated from paid mobile
advertising.
Regardless of the ratio you assign to paid
vs. non-paid efforts, mocal has earned
a prominent place in a travel marketer’s
overall strategy. Look for creative ways to
incorporate this dynamic medium that are
unique to your brand. A knowledgeable
marketing partner can provide valuable
guidance. Most of all, don’t wait. The first to
recognize the potential of this powerful new
trend will move leaps and bounds ahead of
their competitors who choose to ignore it.
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