Blog
10 June

High-flying: Personalised Ads Revolutionising the Travel Industry

To gain an edge over your competitors in the fierce digital travel industry, it’s essential to stay updated with the latest innovations and adapt business and marketing plans accordingly. The travel industry is one of the fastest growing and significant industries in the world. The industry grew 3.9% in 2018, and it accounts for around 10% of global GDP. In 2017 passenger traffic at the world’s 20 busiest airports grew by 5.2% with almost 1.5 billion passengers passing through.

The industry has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Today we use – and take for granted – innovations that didn’t even exist over 10 years ago. We routinely find inspiration for our next big adventure on Instagram and benefit from the convenience of booking via apps. Along with digital transformation our preferences have also evolved, creating a space ripe for market segments to be disrupted by innovation, with private accommodation and ride-hailing services having surged in popularity.

Savvy Consumers and Cutting Edge Tech Solutions

Despite the significant growth and impact, the travel and tourism industry is not left without challenges. The market is full of options, and price-conscious consumers are taking full advantage of the situation: the online booking abandonment rate is as high as 81%.

This is no surprise given we are constantly bombarded by all kinds of travel ads. Consequently, adventure seekers are not willing to lock themselves into a deal until they have found the option that really constitutes the best value.

In particular, small and medium sized travel companies are becoming increasingly anxious that global tech giants will enter the travel market. Google is a prime example of a global leader who has already created tools for travellers including a flights tool, so this worry is not unfounded. In a more traditional way operating SMBs have limited resources, and in order to stay in the game they should consider partnering with the right Creative Tech Partner that can help them leverage brand creatives. Spirable, the personalised video platform, is used by leading global brands to significantly reduce their advertising costs and create data-driven, highly engaging, personalised video ads for large audiences.

The New Normal: Online Booking

The days of the high street travel agent are dwindling, and online booking has become a new normality: 60% of leisure and 41% of business travel arrangements are now made online. It’s hardly surprising news given how effortlessly we can scroll through an endless amount of deals and reviews from the comfort of our sofa.

Social media has become a crucial channel for marketers – especially when targeting Millennials and Generation Z who are looking for “instagramable” destinations. Service providers should not ignore these segments; according to Nielsen the millennial audience accounts as much as 50% of the shoppers in the travel retail market and more importantly, they travel more than any previous generation. Moreover, this audience love video: 85% of Millennials have purchased a product or service after watching a video. Still, many companies ignore the amount of influence a sophisticated video ad campaign has. Cisco estimates that video traffic will account for over 80% of internet traffic by 2022. Furthermore, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it, and nearly 50% are more likely to read email newsletters including links to video.

Future Forward: AI

AI-powered tech innovations bring previously unexplored opportunities to the table and empower users with greater customisation and convenience. The Spirable platform is a great example of this as its capable of creating data-driven personalised videos within minutes based on single online template for millions of people, never before has this been possible at such scale. British Airways partnered with Spirable to increase customer loyalty with personalised travel guide videos, which helped the airline to experience a two-fold increase in its email click-through-rate.

Dynamic pricing and audience-based ads are due to become commonplace. Some airlines are already updating their fares every 15 seconds. Including these types of valuable data sets in your ads is a surefire way to increase conversions, and not only does it put the information consumers value at their fingertips, but adds to a more holistic customer journey.

Chatbots are another powerful tool to bring a new deeper, more personalised angle to the customer experience. Watch our successful case study video with Captain Morgan and find out how hyper-localised videos and personalised Messenger conversations with the Captain attracted consumers.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Digital Marketing with Personalised Videos

Personalisation is no longer just expected during the travel experience – it needs to be extended to the direct online booking process and after-travel retargeting campaigns via CRM systems. Consumers expect companies to offer individually tailored experiences and want to be recognised as individuals with specific needs. According to a report by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognise, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations, and 83% are willing to share personal data for personalised experiences.

The Spirable platform is an efficient way to reach vast audiences with individually customised content. Spirable helps to bring the campaign production in-house and keep the marketing budget under control.

Contact us to find out how you can generate personalised, dream travel content for customers with Spirable!