The Power of Out-of-Home Travel Marketing

Out-of-home advertising has evolved significantly in recent years. Traditional methods, such as billboards and transit ads, remain effective but are now complemented by lifestyle and experiential channels. These newer methods allow brands to engage with consumers in their everyday lives.

“It really is thinking about where the consumer is throughout their daily routine, understanding who your audience is and utilizing specific media formats within their everyday life, where it just seems like a very nonchalant way to put your brand in front of them.” – Frederick Strebeck, DOTL Episode 393, Elevating Travel Marketing through Out-of-Home Advertising

Here are some examples of new OOH methods that can integrate your brand into the daily routines of your target audience in creative and non-intrusive ways:

• Digital signage at convenience stores
• Gas pump ads
• Branded coffee sleeves at their local coffee shop

Planning Your Travel Marketing Campaign

Planning and strategy is critical to any successful marketing campaign, including OOH. Strebeck highlights the importance of taking the time to understand the goals and then strategize how to achieve them through the right mix of OOH channels. This process begins with listening carefully to understand the client’s vision and how it can be brought to life.

“When I say we listen to our clients, it is to listen to understand, not listen to simply respond in return. And what we take, learn, and utilize is through our expertise to build something extremely creative for them.” – Frederick Strebeck, DOTL Episode 393, Elevating Travel Marketing through Out-of-Home Advertising

Collaborative Travel Marketing

To stand out in a crowded marketplace, campaigns should be multi-layered and build strategies upon each other. Collaboration is a perfect way for marketing organizations and agencies to combine their expertise. As they work together, they can achieve a level of success that would not be possible on their own.

Case Study: A Creative Collaboration with Visit Seattle

A perfect example of creative OOH advertising in action is the “I Know A Place” campaign for Visit Seattle. EMC Outdoor worked closely with a full-service agency to develop a unique approach that went beyond traditional billboards. Instead of relying solely on signage, they introduced a branded treat truck that brought a taste of Seattle to key feeder cities like Dallas, Minneapolis, and Sacramento.

This mobile campaign featured Seattle Pops, a local ice cream shop. The treat truck was strategically placed at local events and parks, creating a memorable experience for potential tourists. The campaign gained significant attention, even landing a spot on “Good Morning Sacramento,” which showcased the truck in action.

This collaboration exemplifies how coopetition can lead to successful outcomes. By working together with their agency partner, they were able to amplify the message in a more creative and impactful way.

“When we think of coopetition, we could have definitely tried to work with Visit Seattle on our own and show them this idea that we had. But we wanted to work in collaboration with our agency partner, to make sure that it was an amplified piece to the overall campaign that they were running.” – Frederick Strebeck, DOTL Episode 393, Elevating Travel Marketing through Out-of-Home Advertising

The Changing Landscape of OOH Advertising

Adapting OOH to a Hybrid World Post-Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges for the OOH industry, particularly as public spaces saw less foot traffic. However, EMC Outdoor adapted by leveraging digital integration. They shifted focus to areas with increased traffic, such as grocery stores and local walking routes. This approach allowed them to maintain visibility and relevance during a time of uncertainty.

We collaborated with our clients to create messages that resonated with the times, focusing on community support, health, safety. This approach not only kept our clients’ brands visible, but also fostered a sense of connection and solidarity with the public in a time that it was extremely necessary. – Frederick Strebeck, DOTL Episode 393, Elevating Travel Marketing through Out-of-Home Advertising

As we emerge from the pandemic, the hybrid lifestyle—where work and life increasingly blend—has become the norm. OOH advertising has proven to be an essential player in marketing campaigns. It provides a non-intrusive and contextually relevant way to reach audiences both at home and on the go.

Strebeck explains that out-of-home has really taken on the role of supporting other media channels as a secondary amplification that helps get your message across to your audience in a meaningful way.

The Future of OOH: Embracing Artificial Intelligence

Looking ahead, EMC Outdoor is excited about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as a game-changer to enhance their business practices. The agency is actively exploring AI tools to speed up the creative process, from ideation to the development of mockups and renderings. By incorporating AI, they aim to stay ahead of the curve and deliver more efficient and effective solutions for their clients.

Make a Lasting Impression with OOH Advertising

Out-of-home advertising continues to be a powerful tool for travel marketing. Tourism brands are looking to connect with their audience in creative and impactful ways. By understanding the different OOH channels, focusing on thorough planning and strategy, and embracing new technologies like AI, brands can elevate their travel marketing campaigns and stand out in a competitive landscape.

As Freddie Striebeck and the team at EMC Outdoor demonstrate, the key to success lies in innovation, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the audience. Whether through traditional billboards, experiential campaigns, or digital integrations, OOH advertising offers endless possibilities for brands to make a lasting impression.

The post Innovative Out-of-Home Strategies for Travel Marketing appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

This power might seem daunting, but this purpose also reflects its shortcomings. Due to its structure, AI is unable to provide the same level of nuance to its subject matter as a human would and can only work off already-existing content. ChatGPT itself admits that it lacks many of the qualities that make human-generated work unique, such as creativity, emotional depth, and personal touch.

The Inevitable Shift Towards Technology

Regardless of AI improvements, the movement towards the use of technology in the travel and tourism industry has been inevitable for some time. More and more, travelers are seeking the path of most convenience in their planning, with over 36% willing to pay more if there’s an easy and interactive booking process and 63% relying on technology to reduce travel anxiety and control health risks during trips. The use of technology at every step of the travel process also continues to rise, with 79% saying they plan their trips on the internet.

Whether or not AI exists, users are already drawn to online platforms to organize future trips. With this inevitable growth in the digital travel space, the most effective strategy is to accept these changes and grow alongside them. By understanding how AI and technology are altering the industry, the better prepared we will be as professionals for this certain digital future.

What Does This Mean for the Travel and Tourism Industry?

With the dawn of the age of AI, the inner workings of the industry are sure to change, but not inherently to its detriment. In a study conducted by the Journal of Tourism Futures, officials concluded, “AI certainly enhances tourism experiential services however cannot surpass the human touch[,] which is an essential determinant of experiential tourism. AI acts as an effective complementary dimension to the future of tourism.” Given the limitations of what artificial intelligence can do, its work will not replace that of travel professionals but rather supplement their efforts.

AI-Generated Itineraries

In fact, the rise in popularity of AI might very well lead to more efficient and successful operations. Chad Burt, a co-president of OutsideAgents, a Jacksonville, Fla., company with 8,000 advisers in its network, spoke with the New York Times about his experiences using AI in his work. He had used ChatGPT to plan more than 100 itineraries, asking for help to find activities and hotels across a wide variety of travel schedules. The results “can save some basic legwork,” he said, “but a good agent still needs to fact-check and enhance it.” Only a human touch can understand what travelers say they want versus what they really want, he says. 

AI-generated itineraries are flawed on a technical level as well, as it lacks an understanding of the personal desires of each client. Search engines often provide misleading hotel recommendations as well as create itineraries that are logistical nightmares, leading to results that are well below the quality of industry professionals. According to Fox World Travel chief information officer Sam Hilgendorf, “[AI] sometimes provides answers that are both credible and precise, yet completely wrong.”

While AI can’t answer every question or plan every trip, it can undertake some of the industry’s most basic and time-consuming work, granting professionals the ability to spend more time directly with clients. “While AI can’t handle every customer question, it often frees up travel agents to spend more time on more complicated problems,” says Imaginovation Insider, a leading consultant for businesses in the digital space. “If AI can handle the basic GDS skills that once required the time of travel agents, agents could devote their energy to ensuring that customers are investing their time and money into a trip they genuinely want to experience.” 

No Need for Fear

When professionals within the tourism industry understand the unique skill sets both they and artificial intelligence bring to the table, the more successful they will be in our new digital age. Although this new territory might seem tricky, human excellence is still irreplaceable—and with the help of systems such as ChatGPT, we might get an even bigger chance to shine.

The post Artificial Intelligence In Tourism appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

Artificial Intelligence

is Going to Change Everything. Paul Roetzer of Marketing AI Institute gave a keynote on marketing AI. “It’s just smarter tech,” he told us, and “you’re already using AI as a consumer.” It’s not as seamless in marketing, but the tools are progressing fast. In fact, he told us that AI writing tools are improving 2x every 6 months.

Artificial Intelligence tools are defined as going beyond machine learning, to deep learning and prediction. I loved his recommendation to look for opportunities to use AI to:

• personalize experiences
• intelligently automate
• enhance creativity

Those are certainly elements I’m comfortable with becoming part of tourism marketing of the future. Artificial intelligence (AI) can change everything about marketing, from the way we create content to the way we target and personalize messages. If you’re not already using AI in your marketing, now is the time to start experimenting. Here are a couple ways you can use AI in your marketing:

Image Generation

Dall.E and similar sites create images using AI and simple text commands. It won’t work for everything, and certainly can’t take the place of photos of your destination, but it can do better than a free stock photo. Below is an image I created with an experiment to use for a social post asking for testimonials for the Apple Tasting Tour. I searched for an image of a “heart-shaped apple floating in front of an apple orchard in fall.” It took a few tries, but we liked this result:

Content Generation

Anyone who’s used the swipe-to-fill feature on a smartphone has used AI content generation. I used AI to help me write this blog (a tool called Jasper). Not this sentence, but a few of them. It helped me figure out a title and even got me started on a few paragraphs.

Someday, will these tools write real and meaningful content? Will they connect with an audience? I have my doubts. How much can a computer “learn” about a destination? I don’t think artificial intelligence can replace human thought in tourism marketing, but I don’t mind trying it out to give us a head start on everything we want to do. Perhaps it’s a tool to enhance creativity or intelligently automate.

There are also AI-powered tools that can help with email marketing, customer segmentation and website design.

Branding

Brand Voice Is More Important Than Ever. That was my main takeaway from Ann Handley’s (CCO of Marketing Profs) welcoming remarks! She said it’s “the new logo” and conveys personality as a brand. Even though her talk was targeted to business-to-business marketers, she borrowed examples from B2C brands like Wendy’s and DuoLingo. Consumers like authenticity and fun – and a brand voice is a great way to communicate emotion and culture. So often, we fall into a “sea of sameness” when writing about travel. What can we do to step away from the conventional and be memorable?

My top tips from this session:

• Use short sentences
• Take out buzzwords
• Inject emotion
• Help voice reflect culture
• Convey personality

One of the most stand-out projects we work on that has a very distinct brand voice is the Haunted History Trail of NYS.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Sydni Craig-Hart of Smart Simple Marketing led a session on Inclusive Strategies. DEI is certainly at the forefront of professional development, and she did mention investing in training to diversify your perspective. Her other tips included:

“Expand your network internally & externally, intentionally. Build relationships with people who have different perspectives.”

Supply chain diversity is also important to consider. Even if you’re not hiring at the moment, you can diversify who you do business with. “A supply chain that incorporates small business owned by diverse individuals to empower economic equality and invite perspective.”

My favorite takeaway from Sydni Craig-Hart’s session was “We can’t have equity without empathy. Don’t wait to figure it all out or get your ducks in a row – Start applying it today!”

Web3 & The Blockchain

The future of marketing is being shaped by Web3 technologies like the blockchain. These technologies are changing the way we interact with customers at varying levels. In a lunch session, Tony Pham of SuperLayer explored the concept of Web3 for marketing, but honestly it is all going over my head still. It reminds me of when people started talking about “the cloud.” I did not know what this cloud thing was, what it did, or how to use it. Now it’s part of my everyday tasks! Hopefully with more learning and experimenting, Web3 and Blockchains will become more clear. Until then, I like the way Web3 is defined in this article from AdAge:

“Web3 aims to put people before corporations. It’s user-first, democratized and lets people control their own data. Web3 still has advertising, but it’s based on trust and consent. With Web3, users can make their own choices about tracking, cookies and how they want their data used.”

What does this mean for tourism marketers? We need to focus on the user experience and making sure that we are transparent about how we use data. We also need to make sure that we are providing value to the user, whether that be through great content, amazing customer service, or unique experiences.

Tom Pham gave examples of Web3, some elements are recognizable as experts say we’ve left Web 2.0 for a transitionary Web 2.5. Others are completely new concepts.

• NFTs (non fungible tokens – I had to look it up, too)
• Cryptocurrency
• Meme videos
• QR Codes
• The Metaverse
• Twitter Spaces
• Ethereum domains

The Future of Marketing

The future of marketing is the same as the past: all about the consumer. Now we’re using data to create personalized experiences that are valuable to the customer. We’re being transparent and authentic and inclusive while providing value to them. Marketing will also continue to evolve as new technologies emerge, so it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends. By now, the crystal ball is taking shape with these future marketing elements, 2023 tourism trends and an outlook on the DMO of the future.

(Dying to know what’s AI in this blog? Check out my “answer key” below)

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