Destinology have just taken delivery of a new City Break product from IT. The product has been delayed and now needs to be implemented into the business asap.

What actions would I take as Head of Marketing to make this product work?

Assumptions

most if not all of the actions I would take would have been planned in / initiated prior to delay with delay putting some of this activity on hold

We have 400 more city breaks ready to go live asap

Budget has been agreed for online and offline launch

An integrated online and offline campaign promoting the new city breaks range and our expanded product offer

1 Offline element will focus on brochure mailshot to existing customer base plus key media placements promoting new range

2 Online element will take the extended product offering and use a combination of recruitment channels to engage with our audience profile to recruit new customers cost effectively

3 Social media will be a big player in the campaign and activity will be co-ordinated across all platforms

4 Campaign long incentivised competition will drive qualified new customer leads

5 RAF discount given for any customer whose friends purchase a city break

Website Dev changes may be required for the campaign however depends if we can add to dev list in time – may be a nice to have

The Campaign – City Breaks

- Easy to implement, minimal IT resource, minimal cost- Personalisation and localisation will be key in next few years - Provides great info from customers which we can use to expand / improve offer

Main message Competition message

Over 800 city breaks now available from Detsinlogy... Win a luxury break for 2 worth x

Whats the competition doing?

Inspiring and good graphics with clear price points and savings = live chat also visible

Whats the competition doing?

Again inspiring and a different take on city breaks

Let us inspire you – music cities, national parks, China for exotic explorers etc

Provides inspiring solutions for travellers

Whats the competition doing?

Trade homepage well – good functionality

What are we doing?

Slider needs better trading

USPs?

Savings, Price points etc – do we want to be shouting?

Main content is buried BTF

Ned to improve how we trade category

Why do I have to select somewhere – inspire me!

What may we need to address on site pre launch?

Mobile – no switch to mobile on desktop site Live chat – buried / in top nav – not prominentSlider – too many options – can we trade offers betterFeefo – add overlay Category images – not clickable Star ratings – clarify / change colour / lost a little Search filter – need more attributes longer term to provide better UXEmail signup – do we want more prominence / incentivised overlay?UGC on hotel pages – great content and good SEO / staff answers Awards – TTG 2014 awards not listedMeet team page – cant find / do we have / got a question – ask one of our DestinologistsHoliday Extras – shout more / buried / we take care of everything Testimonials – can we start collecting / if even manually from FB to start Discounts – can we make more prominent / add as attributeSort filters – need to add more options in line with competition Sort filters – why do I need to enter a destination?

What does the cotemporary luxury traveller want in 2015? “A new breed of traveller” Report by HVS highlights 3 major factors

Rising Affluence / changing attitudes - Rise of the Millenial – modern travellers no longer focused on 5 star experience but more on time experiences. .

Globalisation - The world is getting smaller – people want their own unique experiences. Luxury travellers are looking for their own “Finds” - how can we help the? Come up with truly unique finds

Technology

The selfie, social media, connected world etc brings technology into every stage of the experienceConnect with your customer regularly and provide technology to do it

Again and again unique experiences, new destinations, technology and sharing come out strongly – I would be looking at these longer term

Given this research I would look ta trying to integrate into City Break launch campaign ….

Understand the Product Functionality, price, quality, margins etc – staff need to fully understand

Understand the Competition SWOT – us vs them, how can we get a steal, what is missing, what is additional

Targeting our audience Best customers, existing city break customers etc

Unique Value Proposition Why buy from us? What is special? USP?

Marketing Strategy Online and Offline, consistency of message, TOV and relevant channels

Internal briefing All staff handout, Pen portraits, targets, inform staff weekly

Timelines and Rollout All parties have been advised and testing complete re tagging/ KPIS agreed etc etc

Product launch SEE NEXT SLIDES

Before launch, following work to be undertaken for staff handouts etc

Offline Collateral Online Collateral

Test DM mailshot to top customersTest DM brochure to top customersPress / Affiliate / PR / Blogger handouts Insert campaign – conde nast traveller etcAd creative – spot media buys

Banner creative re GDN / AffiliatesEmail creative plus retargetting Email RAF creative PPC campaign – ad groups set up Social imagery – all channels Rich media video – Youtube rollovers etc

Industry influencers - who are our influencers and how can we use them effectively on launch? 3rd party partnerships, CEOs, top tweeters etc

Customer base – who are top customers? Can we get their testimonials on site and use them for endorsements etc. Exclusive discount – for 1 month only – off all City Breaks identify and offer 'exclusive” discounts for any RAFs. Who engages a lot with us on Social – get them more involved..

Offline – good old fashioned letter to top customers – Tweets wear off but a letter ...Online – who are our best advocates online? Bloggers – Who are our top bloggers? Do we know? We should engage more with them and nurture relationship offer them same discount as above for 1 month – possible London session for bloggers? Get them on board – Luxury Travel Bloggers / weekend away bloggers

Media targets – press pack for media contacts etc. We are a luxury brand and this should be reflected in brand look feel in press packs with selection of top hotels

PR -what PR are we creating in the industry? Do we have PR agency to nurture relationships?

Staff – Use staff – we have an engaged workforce who love the brand – how can they use Social Media etc Young workforce therefore SM savvy – use them

Made by OriginalsCoolhunterFour Seasons MagazineHoosta MagazineLuxique TravelFive Star Alliance InsiderParidizoKuoni i-travelSLH BlogLuxury Travel VietnamArtisans of LeisureKiwi CollectionGourmet ChickOur Man on the GroundGloboratiLuxury Travel MagazineSupertravelPret a voyager

Ask them to follow you on social media and comment on and share what you post.Ask them to write positive reviews and testimonials on your site, review sites like Citysearch, or their blog and social media profiles.Ask them if you can film them talking about their experience with your brand.Ask them to contribute to communities or forums.Ask them for referrals.Ask them to write blog posts or create images for you.Ask them if you can use their experience as a case study.Ask them to speak directly (over the phone or via email or chat) to potential customers.Ask them to come up with FAQ questions and answers or identify improvements for your website

How could we use these advocates to improve conversion?

Eg embedded content at checkout? In return we give discount options at checkout?

How can Brand Advocates help us?

Offline campaign Online Campaign

DM mailshot to top customersDM brochure to top customersPress / Affiliate / PR / Blogger handouts Insert campaign – conde nast traveller etcOffline ads

AffiliatesPPCRetargetting Email VideoSocial

All Affiliates emailed re competition, new creative, new City Breaks addition to inventory etc

Most affiliates are London based – perhaps a launch evening for the new campaign – what we are aiming to achieve etc (something I did for Jacamo launch)

Driven to City breaks landing page – email capture overlay for competition entry

Are we competitive? (Sandals – 4-6%, Luxury Link -same).- review rates and adjust if margin - if not, provide stepped targets and bonuses for each affiliate based on ave sales- if no margin for comm changes, run affiliate competition – for most improved sales during campaign – prize being City Break for 2 of their choice

Affiliates

Landing pages ad specific but not apparent Improve CTR by moving slider? Eg weddings – does not show engaging wedding image / offerReview campaign set ups and review UX for CTR improvements

Paid Search – revise current

Luxury Hotel Cape Town

Paid Search – revise current

Review match types – Luxury hotels cape town is broad matched on luxury – going to homepage BUT have 21 Cape town hotels and better landing page – big opportunity here for bidding at destination level

Paid Search – City Break reach

Paid Search – City Break reach

In Beta in US – real time price inventory fed through Googles API

In effect an adwords for the travel sector Trial performing well – great opportunity for

City Break recruitment

Revise DGN creative and introduce most popular city breaks creative

Add competition details Add price savings test creative

Optimise each Ad campaign for each destination

Ensure each destination landing page have sufficient offer (eg 10 hotels)

Ensure the landing pages are optimised for each ad group (esp image and UX)

Video

Travel industry in particular has seen rise of customers using more video to source holidaysCoupled with improved technology to distribute AND luxury branding and imagery

With video ad networks, we can get across the luxury element of our offering

..

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Competition Lots of opportunity to drive new customer traffic

Have we done before? If not then at least test

Traffic may be less qualified than normal however ROI may prove worth it in long term

Email add capture and follow up asap with City Break offers

Data drops into ECRM program

Bulking up new customer recruitment

Launch offering / competition across all social channels

Integrated creative / message across all channels

Daily updates – today's top city break and why

Make it quirky for better engagement eg

– these are the 5 most unusual things to do in Palermo – create stickiness and get great feedback / engagement

– 5 places the locals suggest in .….

Social Catacombs of Palermo

Email

City breaks email to customer database

Add more USPs to email – awards, Feefo rating etc

Show discounts on creative – save up to X

Price needs to be more visible

RAF email and social offer on all emails throughout campaign

Refer a friend and get X off your next booking with Destinology

Logic – high end market / better experience / happier with service / more likely to recommend

Email – abandoned basket

Travel companies one vertical which is not chasing up lost sales effectively.

Improve contact frequency and logic behind contact

Improve creative message re existing contact – not sufficient

Combine phone with email also – and test uplift in conversion

EG High value abandons get phone call and follow up email

Lower value abandons receive improved email creative

Co-op travel started converting 30% of abandons after dropping off site

Change subject line to more relevant – Can we help … Is there a problem etc

Can we personalise at base level – eg I assume this is simple site re-targetting and not basket?

Basket should be pulling holiday details / name etc

I would also be adding other offers from that category – millenium do good job here

Add more USPs / trust signals and add / trial tel number

Show more city break options (eg in same country or by biggest discount?)

Email – site retargetting

Can we work with VE Interactive to start pulling in more dynamic content into both email creative (ie someone looked at break in Vienna – we pull Viena specific content) and dynamic ads?

Dynamic Content

Partner Advertising

Lots of opportunity to drive brand awareness working with luxury travel partners – blogs, review sites etc. What do we know re our consumer? Pen Portrait profile – match against selection of relevant inventory....

Essential for the success of City Breaks is that we have our post contact strategy lined up and we are doing all we can to get that conversion. In the absence of a proper CRM strategy this is what I would concentrate on..

1 Can we improve on retargetting emails – content, more city breaks, more deals etc better offers

2 Can we make sure we can handle any site visit enquiries in sufficient time and test messaging – christopher ford

3 Wilmslow store not emailed out my package to Sri Lanka – customers need initial greeting and adequate follow up

4 Retargetting segmented by high and medium value – calls made to high value followed by email

Basic ECRM program to be mapped out with above touchpoints as base – suited for luxury travel market – including “HAVE A GREAT TRIP' and 'POST TRIP FOLLOW UP EMAIL

Crowdbooster – focusing on social media engagement FB / TW and helps improve presence

Klout – “Scores” media performance and looks at engagement across all platforms

Reporting - 3rd party tools

Customer base health and trading trading rate YOY – would look at some form of this to esatablish health of database and impact of ECRM

Reporting - trading rate YOY

Channel Specific reporting to agreed KPIs showing YOY growth eg

Traffic, Call Centre enquiries, Email signup, Competition entries, Data capture, Bookings

Reporting – Channel Specific

Ultimately all our city break activity should be fed into overarching Customer lifetime value models – giving us a good idea of how the base is trading and if our acquisition and retention plans are working each year

Reporting – Lifetime Value

Post launch Review

Perfomance – review initial weekly sales vs budget / KPIs and assess good / bad / how can we improve?

Delay – did it come out when we said? If not, why? What can we learn?

Timing – could it have better? City Break apetite in January?

Response – how did market respond? Positive / negative / lukewarm Did we do all we could to push the product? If negative – why? Customer engagement essential

Sales force – how was product perceived / could it have been improved • Feedback -sales tea• Promotional material • Marketing materials • Feedback from customers

Customer Support – products fail regularly due to poor support

• Customer service – educated sufficiently• Product information – did we have enough?

Website – load balancing, server capacity handled etc

TrafficAudience Channels Recruitment AcquisitionBrand reach CPAChannel mixThe Offer

TradeOffers , Deals Merchandising / buyersRange planning Descriptions AttributesPlugins P and PReturns The Offer

ConvertCheckout Multi channel funnels Analytics CRO testing Streamline Make purchase easy

RetainRe-engageECRMCustomer contact Build engagementUpsellCross Sell 2nd, 3rd orders etc

Devices - Across all devices – DT, mobile, tablet, phone etc

Channels - Across all channels if MCR – stores, concessions etc

RETAIL TRADING MODEL

Thank you for your attention!

Dominic Smith Ecommerce Consultant

Www.redleafdigital.co.ukE / dominic@redleafdigital.co.uk

T / 07849259033