Justin Reid, senior director of global partnerships solutions at TripAdvisor, questions if brands are making the most of the opportunity being presented
With Christmas around the corner, travellers are gearing up for their seasonal getaways, presenting a prime opportunity for brands to capitalise on this seasonal travel demand.
Whether seeking winter sun or snowy slopes, holiday-makers drive a significant surge in travel activity year after year. In fact, recent Tripadvisor data shows that 95% of travellers plan to travel at least as much this winter, if not more, than they did a year ago.
But are brands really making the most of the opportunity being presented?
Understanding audiences
With the sheer number of consumers that get away each winter, there are multiple avenues through which brands can reach audiences. However, this also brings about increased competition.
As consumers embark on their travel journey, guidance platforms become central to their research process. This goes beyond simply searching for flights and hotels. They actively read reviews, compare destination options, and seek out expert recommendations. These trusted reviews offer travellers confidence, influencing their decisions as they explore various winter destinations and experiences. For brands, this makes an ideal platform for engagement at every phase of the journey.
To stand out from the crowd, the business must fully understand the audiences it’s attempting to engage with and adapt to each of their unique needs. This understanding can be leveraged to deliver targeted, personalised campaigns that meet the consumer at every stage of their buying journey.
As consumer preferences constantly evolve, brands need to join customers in that evolution, creating personalised marketing content that aligns with their needs – whether they’re looking for holiday inspiration or ready to book their dream trip.
Addressing their needs at every turn
We all know what it feels like to be on the travel booking journey and the different waves of excitement and stress involved in that process. A successful brand adapts to these changing needs in real-time, adjusting its strategies depending on where each consumer is in their travel journey.
During the research and inspiration phases, consumers aren’t just daydreaming about potential destinations—they’re actively seeking trusted reviews to validate their choices. Brands can leverage this by showcasing their offerings with high ratings, detailed customer testimonials, and visually rich destination guides.
For example, consumers in the dreaming (or inspiration) phase should be met with emotional storytelling and aspirational content, sparking their interest in the brand and laying the groundwork for building a lasting connection. They’ll also be researching the best-rated destinations and experiences to guide their decision-making. It’s critical for brands to appear in those reviews, offering trusted recommendations that help solidify the emotional connection.
Delivering this relevant, phase-specific content through the right channels will enable brands to maximise engagement, create long-term brand recognition and increase sales.
Meeting the consumer with creativity
Reaching consumers during their holiday journey doesn’t have to be an opportunity that’s exclusive to travel-specific brands. Non-endemic brands, such as those who specialise in luggage or fashion, can leverage ads that highlight how their products can enhance the travel experience.
Adopting creative marketing strategies is key to driving engagement for both endemic and non-endemic brands. This means taking a three-pronged approach to content: storytelling, visual, and user-generated content (UGC).
Having a narrative around the travel experience, sharing customer stories, or showcasing aspirational travel moments will help to capture the hearts and minds of consumers by creating an experience they can connect with. This story should be backed by high-impact visual content that furthers the narrative, showcasing what the product or service being offered is like in action. And it can all be tied together by UGC, where customers are encouraged to reinforce the wider ad strategy by sharing their travel experiences, creating a sense of community and building trust.
Importantly, these creative approaches to content should be leveraged in multiple ways to maximise reach and precision targeting.
Brands should utilise advanced targeting on search platforms to reach specific demographics while retargeting should be deployed to re-engage with those who’ve previously interacted with content or shown an interest in products.
Whatever the strategy, every campaign served should be built on consumer data, enabling brands to serve hyper-targeted, relevant, personalised content that resonates with traveller preferences, such as location, interests, or previous travel history.
Winning out in winter
As darkness descends earlier and the days grow colder, it would be remiss of brands to miss out on the opportunity presented by the annual winter travel surge. Competition is fierce, but understanding consumers and meeting them with relevant, personalised content will ensure the brand comes out on top.
This personalisation should be served to consumers at every stage of their holiday journey and across touchpoints. Got that in order? The brand can expect to benefit from winter success and beyond. By tapping into trusted reviews, showing up in search results, and providing targeted content based on consumers’ specific travel interests, brands will not only win the winter travel surge, but also build long-lasting consumer relationships.