1

How travel bloggers

are shaping

destination marketing

Melvin Böcher: traveldudes.org& Keith Jenkins: iambassador.net

#TBDI2014

2

Let's..

have a conversation

#TBDI2014

Traditional advertising

One way conversation

#TBDI2014

4

Media Time spend per day

Source: Edelman as cited by eMarketer

Where is the audience today?

#TBDI2014

5

The internet is the leading source fortravel planning info

% of travellers who use this source for planning travel

Source: UKOM Netview

#TBDI2014

6

How are bloggers contributing to destination

marketing

- content

- social media

- interaction

- community building

- new marketing concepts

#TBDI2014

7

Travel bloggers

deliver both

immediate and long term value

Bloggers publish their itinerary and invite their followers to follow them on their trip.

Bloggers share their experiences via their social channels; the perfect opportunity for a real-time social media campaign.

Bloggers publish their blog posts, ending up to several months after the trip, ensuring prolonged exposure.

1

2

3

Post-trip campaign

Post-trip

During the trip

Pre-trip

4 Bloggers collaborate a few months later to organise a social media campaign. The campaign leverages their content and social networks to showcase the destination as well as the sponsors.

#TBDI2014

8

822,826

142,370

10,647,387

Simple comparison...

- Condé Nast total circulation

- one full page advert in $USD

- total exposure of 50 top bloggers

#TBDI2014

9

Social Media turns it into a two way conversation

#TBDI2014

Reach 46,352Likes 1161Shares 44

#TBDI2014

11

Searchable content

85% of travelers reported having used the Internet to research a trip.Source: Google (March 2012)

#TBDI2014

12

Influence decision-making

52% of travelers change their travel plans after reading blog andchecking social media.Source: 2012 State of Inbound Marketing; Mindjumpers, funsherpa, Four Pillars

#TBDI2014

13

Real-time marketing

Direct conversions

2,250 views4 bookings

#TBDI2014

14

#LoveWinter in Quebec

#TBDI2014

See online video http://vimeo.com/99019625 or http://youtu.be/JoI0ra_dWAM

15

3 years of Blog Vil le (12 months total)

- 150 bloggers invited

- 750 blogposts

- 7000 photos/videos shared

- 1,000,000 visitors to the different posts

- Publication of 2 BlogVille eBooks; +16,000 downloads

- Twitter: 8,000,000 people reached

- over 205,000,000 OTS (Opportunities-To-See) with #BlogVille

- estimated AVE: 3,260,000 EUR

(measured with BrandsEye)

#TBDI2014

- 40 of Europe’s coolest and quirkiest festivals

- In partnership with Expedia

- 17 bloggers

- Working with 9 tourism boards (Austria, Germany, Hague, Rotterdam, Finland, Slovenia, Ireland, Puglia, Malta + Meininger Hotels & Generator Hostels)

Must Love Festivals

#TBDI2014

17

- 11 bloggers

- promotion of the road show

- live Google Hangouts

- Twitter: 4,600,000 people reached

- over 121,000,000 OTS (Opportunities-To-See)

- 36,500 Instagram photos up to date

- estimated AVE: 1,923,000 EUR

#WeAreInPuglia

#TBDI2014

18

- 72 bloggers

- Twitter: 6,500,000 people reached

- 10,700 tweets from 3,100 contributors

- over 255,470,000 OTS (Opportunities-To-See)

- estimated AVE: 4,060,708 EUR

(measured with BrandsEye)

Blog Island Malta

#MaltaIsMore

- 2,338 Likes- 146 Shares- seen by 63,500- in 18 hours!

#TBDI2014

19

”It's Complicated” The New York Times July 2013

#TBDI2014

20

Well, it is... and it isn't!

Developments in the travel blogging

landscape

- Growing number of professional travel bloggers

- Travel blogger conferences

- Blogger associations, networks & initiatives

- The rise of niche/local language blogging

- Product development

- Innovative forms of collaboration

#TBDI2014

I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA

But do you understand the development of #hashtags?

WE LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA

#TBDI2014

Free exposure

Titlehttp://www.URL.com #travel #Berlin#food (category or niche)

Top quality content in a prime position

#TBDI2014

More to come...

Let's talk!

#TBDI2014