‘‘THE INDUSTRY BUZZWORD ‘REVENGE TRAVEL’ IS COMING TO FRUITION, WITH CONSUMERS SPLURGING ON BUCKETLIST VACATIONS.”
Island, has succeeded in capturing interest and raising awareness of Yas Island across India. Our global campaign with Kevin Hart featuring him in the coveted role of ‘Chief Island Officer’ in a series of humorous films from around Yas Island has spurred interest and engagement in global markets. To launch such major campaigns with high levels of investment so early in the postpandemic period was a risk but has already paid off by taking consideration of
Yas Island beyond where it was before the global pandemic.
It is important to note that we are not yet operating in a ‘normal’ environment. Traditionally, when planning a marketing calendar and investment we would have usually looked to historical data and trends. While broad seasonal trends are still consistent, there has been a disruption in traditional dreaming, booking and travel patterns. At Experience Hub we are looking to model of short-term data to predict influxes in travel intent and quickly shifting marketing investment accordingly. Speed has been key to capitalise on opportunities as restrictions have been lifted across regional and international markets. Predictability will eventually return to the market; in the short term we have been forced to be market-driven rather than marketing-calendar-driven.
The other major impact on data has been the measures resulting from an increased privacy focus from the likes of Apple and Google. Consumers have more choices about the data they are happy to share and more transparency over how it is being used. Even though GDPR is a European regulation, the impact on profiling and targeting data is being felt across the Middle East as many of the sources of travel intent data, hotel or flight metasearch, for example, apply GDPR-level restrictions across their sites. Third-party travel data aggregators have for a long time been a staple in performance marketing media plans to target travel intent. While these aggregators continue to provide value, media partners who generate their own travel intent data are quickly gaining an advantage. Unless marketers have a handle on their own first party data, they will quickly feel the impact of the industry’s over-reliance on third party data.
Marketers who are data-savvy and use market data and consumer insights to their advantage to build bold, creative campaigns are those who will succeed in the brave new world of travel and tourism marketing.