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My question is this:
If you were, for example, a forward-thinking director of a small or mid-size town's tourism department, and you realize in 2001 that the public was going to use the web as their preferred and primary information gathering source in 2003, what changes would you make in your other marketing efforts? Continued search engine promotion is a given, but it is only part of the overall campaign; THE key player, but there are other supporting media.
I'm particulary interested in how print campaigns should be modified. I've had several meetings with marketing and PR types and one recommendation is to switch print to branding, i.e., "implant the keywords for the search when it occurs." Another good suggestion has been to make the print literature more "timeless" -less dated- to increase shelf life and allow the web sites to handle the specific details. More ideas?
Edited by: rcjordan
That sounds like a wise proposition.
Print will be with us for a while yet to come and by coordinating your efforts to maximize the strong points of both mediums so that they point to each other in certain cases you can create a campaign that is both a trawl net, so to speak, and target specific in nature. You see this in real estate already.
Not everybody will use the web. Some people will require literature. I beleive we have two distinct sets of marketing demographics here.
The opportunities however, in the marketing efforts on the web will continue to increase and the print will probably decline into a more "niche" type application.
I think the web video thing has incredible potential in the tourism categories. And also don't forget the coming TV/websurfing boxes that are inevitably coming our way.
It is obvious with this in mind that print will evolve. At present, I think we all can agree there is a tremendous amount of waste in the junk mail, pamphlets and catalogs. (paper waste)
In order for the present situation to change, the companies producing the materials themselves will have to evolve into a web based companies. And learn web based marketing techniques. With that evolution in place they could provide "portals" for their advertising efforts. The money they save in paper based production will no doubt be eaten up in positioning and online branding efforts.
Perhaps pointing from a print article to a web address with an offer for "free stuff" or whatever will work to bring the visitors in from the print campaigns.
"More than $3.5 billion was spent online in March 2001, jumping 35.6 percent from $2.6 billion in April 2000. Two product categories accounted for more than half of this growth. Online travel spiked 58.5 percent to more than one billion dollars in March 2001, while clothing and apparel jumped 122.3 percent to $368 million.""Jupiter Media Metrix Travel Highlights
According to a February 2001 Jupiter Consumer Survey, the Internet continues to play a significant role in consumers’ overall travel-shopping experience: 29 percent of US online consumers research and purchase travel on the Internet; 29 percent research leisure travel online but ultimately purchase off-line; and 42 percent are not yet using the Internet for travel shopping.""Online travel sites captured one-third of all e-commerce in January with $1.2 billion in monthly sales, according to a study by Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive. Online travel sites stimulated another $681 million in offline revenue in January. These sales were generated by online operations, but purchased through the phone, fax or in-person."
"Travel is the only category out of the 14 we track that grew from December to January. Consumer spending on online travel has increased four consecutive months,"
"Online travel is one of the more efficient vertical industries online, routinely completing 64% of transactions on the Web while many other product categories see only 30 to 40% of revenues actually transacted through the cost-efficient online interface,"
"A recently released report from Scarborough Research found that a growing percentage of the online population are decreasing their other media consumption due to internet usage. 23% say they have watched TV less since going online. 20% report spending less time reading print magazines, and 15% read print newspapers less."
"Move over, Magazines...
A 2001 study by Lyra Research's Content Intelligence Group finds that US consumers favor the internet over magazines as an information source. 48% reported that the net was their favorite source for business and work-related information, compared to 7% who preferred magazines. The difference was even wider for personal and special interest information -- 63% chose the web as their preferred source, while just 18% chose magazines."
go for the web audience that's already there FIRST
>remaining 20-25% of the non-surfers
where did that # come from?
"29 percent of US online consumers research and purchase travel on the Internet; 29 percent research leisure travel online but ultimately purchase off-line"Starting with the above, we're at 58% in early 2001 and the projected market share acquistion rate is high. Based on the growth since 1999, hitting 75% by 2003 appears slightly conservative.
<added>
Note that the above stat is for online population, but by 2003 web availability for the core travel demographic is projected to be extremely high. Some markets, like Seattle are already at 70%. Travel planning (not necessarily travel buying online) ranks as the most popular online activity, I think it comes in right after email in some surveys.
This is the way I would go at this time, sticking everything that is likely to change within the next 3-4 years into branding type handouts containing the exact address where details can be obtained and where updates of the printed brochure itself can be found. (Lonely Planet does this for their guide books.)
I don't believe that the day is much more than two years away, when you can safely place everything on the web and forget about expensive print and its distribution. Not to mention the call centers to handle enquiries.
I would also cut down on advertising and try to target good keywords instead.
In fact, a lot of this is already going on in Sweden, due to the high Internet penetration here (>50% of the population). New fancy tourist information sites see the light everyday. Today's crop:
[siljan-dalarna.com...]
Do those in Sweden book travel to the USA on sites in Sweden? If they wanted a flight from Year York to Orlando, would they book that through a US based site?
just wondering
Hoo Boy! I can see me reading that quote to this group of tourism pros, Jan. (But I'll do just that! ;) ) They're having a tough time coming to grips with the web blind-siding their 'traditional' advertising.... Really, they're in a state of denial, the web is unsettling to them, it disturbs the way they've always gone about marketing.
Take a look at the State of North Carolina's tourism tracking stats for 2000 [nccommerce.com] (YTD column, this is the Dec report). Look at the percentage from the web; 70.8%
Kind of hard to justify call centers...
Probably not. There is any number of local sites backed by respected and well branded Swedish outfits, so I guess that that's where they book. Brand names are more important than ever, now that any Tom, Dick and Harry can set up a virtual travel agency - and do.
>State of North Carolina's tourism tracking
Very, very interesting - never seen such high figures before. But.... I told you so.
Source:
[washingtonpost.com...]
at the VERY bottom
That could prevent publicly funded agencies from optimizing reach vs cost and going 100% web. They would have to have something on paper. But that something doesn't have to be in full color on thick glossy paper, so there would still be substantial savings. Print-out on demand from pdf-files will work just as well, without disciminating anybody.
Pandamonium breaks loose as the crowd surges forward to see the man hisself.....the quintessential definition of relevancy....Bob.
Since they saw him last he had grown much wiser and could type much faster. He had news for them. Revelation from the bowels of the internet.
He steps to the mic....no one moved...no one spoke....silence.....the entire stadium was electrified.
Bob raises his hands into the air and says "Print is dead. You must move most of your efforts to marketing on the web."
The crowd is stunned at first, no one completely understands this 'newfangled thang' the internet and they become restless.
Bob speaks again.
"Convergence is around the corner, you must adopt a web based ticketing system now."
The crowd grows angry. "Convergence! Why we was baptized as young uns. What's this convergence stuff. That's blasphemy."
They start chanting "String him up! Boil him in oil!"
About that time Bob whips out the handy WmW communicator and says "BT beam me up".
:)
