Marketing

Just back from ONE Travel Conference in Orlando, which was geared to cultural, heritage and shopping tourism. Kudos to conference producers, Rosemary McCormick and Sheila Armstrong, for a fun, well run and informative conference. We tweeted some intelligence, interesting facts and figures, and social media tips, but in case you missed it, here’s a roundup:

While the vacation rental industry isn’t new, it’s segmenting more by price point (Airbnb on the budget end, and Quintessentially Villas on the high end), by destination, destinations within a destination, and by special interest (the obvious ones being golf, photography, and mainstream outdoor activities such as skiing). We’ll see even more differentiation by alternative interests such as paddle boarding, geocaching, quilting, triathlon training, writing/studying, species specific nature watching to name a few. Its also segmenting by level of exclusivity….starting at $3000, you can rent a mountain for one weekday of personal use, giving you private access to trails, rental shops and on-site dining through Liftopia.com’s new full-mountain rentals.

Social media: is this a function of PR? Ecommerce? Advertising? Management? Its part of all the above. And as digital marketing and e-commerce are converging, Facebook can be both a marketing AND a distribution channel with “f-commerce” capabilities on fan pages.

The essence of content strategy is that instead of pitching products or services, you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, making them more intelligent. You also engage, reward and entertain them with the overall business goals of customer conversion and customer loyalty/retention, thus creating passionate subscribers.

Hotels will need to ratchet up offerings that entertain, educate and transform for special interest groups. Some of the more original offerings include The Dorchester’s Niemierko Wedding Academy for those aspiring to a career in wedding planning. Because the décor by famed designer Dorothy Draper is so much a part of The Greenbrier’s identity, those keen on interior design can enroll in its new Dorothy Draper School of Decorating. We’ve created a Mommy Bloggers Camp at Mexican client Velas Vallarta, a mini-conference/ getaway for professional and aspiring parent bloggers to learn and get professional blogging tips and advice from expert speakers.

But take care. The tide will change by year’s end as certain buzzwords become adopted by the mass market. When Domino’s introduces “artisan pizzas” and Burger King rolls out burgers on “artisan buns” you know it’s the end.

Miami is the latest destination to get a scent: At Scent World Expo, the Scent Marketing Institute unveiled a new fragrance “Miami.” A great way to express what Miami as a destination is all about – it has that sensuality, it’s the sun, sea, the spirit of Miami. The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau will be using the scent to promote the city at events, in promotional items and as a personal fragrance.

The example: Apple and its system of suppliers, telecom partnerships and independent application developers to support the iPhone. As Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO wrote to his staff, “Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.”

Deal hunting needs to amuse, to be fun. Look for more gamification as brands will have to engage and entertain to build brand loyalty. Jimmy Choo created a virtual scavenger hunt to introduce its first sneaker collection – “Catch a Choo” – a quasi-scavenger hunt around London. When followers saw that a pair of sneakers had “checked in” somewhere in the city, the first to arrive there before the sneakers “left” could pick a pair in the style and size of their choice.

AFAR magazine, a relatively recent entrant in travel publishing, is attracting a new kind of advertising that appeals to psychographic profiles (psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles). In my opinion, advertisers are doing a great job – many ads were compelling and engaging.