Digital Media Was a Huge Change – But What’s Next?
What to Expect in the Tourism Crisis Post-COVID-19. The time to act and plan is now. Get up to speed with digital media and website branding now.
The question now is about survival and the trade is racing in with wise advise on how to cope and what to do.
Online advertising and marketing was a dazzling change and today almost everyone in tourism and hospitality is on the net. But the most challenging times are still to come. In the age of dynamic change with AI and Robotics taking over ever aspect of our lives, we now have COVID-19 and the rug has been pulled out from underneath our feet.
Be Prepared for the Tourism Crisis Post-COVID-19
The book WEBSITE is the first in the series on Marketing Hotels and Tourism Online. (short form: DigitalMediaeBook.com) This book will give you a good grounding in how to build your brand and market in the digital age. We are adding new blogs on the changes and trends for all book buyers.
Be sure you understand the basics with the book WEBSITE. Chapter 1 is a very brief illustration of how tourism became digital. Before, we were contending with dramatic change that made life almost impossible for hotel and tourism managers. It got better as a whole industry of technical types came to the rescue. Still, mangers needed a guide to understand and direct the help.
That was how WEBSITE started. It’s the right place to start. Today, hotels and tourism professionals understand that a website is the cornerstone of their brand strategy. The book WEBSITE is essential reading as it describes the basic principles which underpin all marketing today. Of course, it is just a start.
We are constantly writing about trends and strategies that build on the concepts.
Book buyers have access to all the membership sites with free update and blogs on latest trends.
An example of the kind of material you have access to is the update on Design Thinking. See the intro on TravelWatchNews
We share our own insights, as well as insights and research from noted authors and tourism masters. These may be whimsical and fun ideas, like how to entertain yourself to keep healthy and sane during the curfew.
We have recently shared excellent tips and guides from SiteMinderand others who provide insight into what to expect next with the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery.
We scour all sources for relevant information on trends and strategies for hotels and tourism.
I was recently leading a re-branding initiative for a hospitality business so this article caught my eye. Should have read it before the project perhaps but re-branding in the digital age is a long term project and we learn and adapt as we move forward. In the case of my client, formerly know as Poinsettia Apartments St. Lucia, they want to move from being an apartment holiday resort to more accurately reflect the reality of their target client who is the independent minded traveller. The new brand will see the url change to PoinsttiaVillas with the tag line of “St. Lucia Ocean view Villa Resort”. The lines between what is an an apartment and a villa are redefined today as apartments like those at poinsettia take on the attributions in space, privacy and services now associated with a villa resort.
The Digital Footprint is Ubiquitous
The digital footprint for Poinsettia, is however, deep with backlinks, Press Releases, videos, blogs and articles that anchor them in time and place as a holiday vacation apartment. It will take time to build the new identity and in the process we must preserve their first page ranking and authority of the existing brand. Even the best SEO experts and brand professional will fall into the history trap. We know a lot about SEO but their were some surprises that made the heart rate jump. We will share that with you in an upcoming post.
Branding Hot Buttons
To abandon a brand such as st. lucia apartment and change to “villas” would ignore the past and present and simple wipe the brand off the map long before you could build a new one. With all the best precautions you simple cannot be sure what will happen. In our case Google just did not re-index the site as we expected and the team had long hours of work to make that happen. I will share the entire story with you soon. For the re-branding job we called in one of the worlds top marketers, Deigo Rodriguez the founder of power marketing consultants a world wide association of some 200 specially trained consultants which AXSES all Cast Marketing joined in 2015. Diego was instrumental in helping define the target market more clearly and pin pointing the hot-buttons or triggers which motivate these buyers. All about that and the science of buying motivators will follow in a future article.
Branding Strategies & Tools
So now let let me share this article about re-branding with you. Its by Lisa MacKenzie founder of the MacKenzie marketing Group and the entire article is available on Weebly: How Does a Branding Company Re-Brand? Insider Tips from a Branding Expert – Weebly.com. Lisa talks about PrestoBox, which we will cover later also. Lisa says “PrestoBox offers a great process that helps you think about yourself as a company in a more personal way. Instead of relying on written briefs, PrestoBox articulates your core values through fun images. The interface is elegant and simple and the tools are really easy to use and thought provoking. It takes you through a very streamlined path to branding without a lot of meetings, reviews and discussion.”
Her article is based on her own real life experience of re-branding her own company. It is worth reading. Keep in contact with us on these pages as we put together a full analysis of our clients and other brand campaigns to give you the best insights on re-branding in the digital age, where SEO and history take on a significance and permanence you should not ignore.
Rebrand to Preserve SEO
As Lisa say branding is “more than just the logo. A brand should include all of the parts and pieces: your website, your business card, even the patterns and colors that you put on your wall!” to which we add “a Brand on the internet that is already ranking on search engines will loose its entire history and place if you do not phase it well. More on that soon. In the meantime have a look at a work in progress on the rebranding of Poinsettia villa apartments for rent in St. Lucia – Click here for the least work and check out the carefully crafted video on what the Independent traveller wants>>. http://PoinsettiaApartments.com St. Lucia – moving to Villa Aparments and finally to St. Lucia Ocean View villa Resort.
Here is one of the re-branding videos
re branding
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This video says it all.. You may have seen it already as it dates back to 2012 but it is totally relevant to today. Technology is making it possible to interact with markets in a way hardly imagined. In this video the most famous script writers and advertising gurus all well into senior age sit at the table with Google’s brightest minds and technology experts to bring to life the best in creative genius. Like; “I Want to give the world a Coke” – And now You can! Just watch it it is very inspirational and all to do with the new move to NATIVE advertising and the new brand culture taking the initiative away from the traditional media.
In this project “Google partnered with five of the brightest “old-school” legends from advertising to re-imagine their most iconic creative work from a half-century ago for the modern web, for 4 global brands – Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer, Avis.”
You will meet and enjoy Harvey Gabor (Coke music ads fame), Jan Jacobs, Howie Cohen, Bob Pasqualina, Amile Garano, Paula Green and many more!
This is a great adjunct to our series on Brand Culture. It highlights the merger of journalism, blogging and online media in the travel market. In addition to pointing out the changes in the media, the article offer useable advice on how to find writers to cover your story and how to select the ones that best fit your own style and markets.
Mark says you need “writers, bloggers, social media types — who are good at building high-quality followings and influencing their followers’ decisions.” These are the influencers who publish and post a lot about travel, and help other people to make up their minds about what they want to do when they travel.
He also suggest you join the Travel Bloggers Exchange. “Their annual conventions — which take place in Asia, North America and Europe — attract some of the most active travel bloggers, with workshops, presentations and the chance to network.”
Related -Content Marketing Case Study: Marketing Tourism with Horse Whispers. It shows how a simple moment can multiply your marketing reach and brand visibility. In this case the story is published and promoted by Press Releases, videos, blogs and articles across a network on social media, video sites and web properties. All tactics are detailed in the article. Traffic is driven to an information page with a special offer of “Beach Villa Holidays” for the independent minded traveller. The sort of person who will find beach living and the HorseWhispers article appealing. It is all part of the new Brand-Culture where destinations, hotels and tourism operators are taking the initiative to tell the story of their own brand and destination.
We have mention Brand Culture a few times in 2014 and speculated how it might be applied in tourism. Well here is the detailed example of just what Mariott is doing to create its own Brand Content.
Marriott is targeting the “next generation” of vacationers (the Millenials). It is using digital video marketing as the prime medium to reach the new market.
Its new global creative content studio will be publishing and distributing original video content across multiple digital platforms Including TV.
Some of the talent lined up for 2015 are “Sonia Gil, of YouTube channel Sonia’s Travels, YouTuber Taryn Southern, the “What’s Trending” team, and Substance Over Hype.”
It will showcase several new series including “Two Bellman” and “The Navigator Live,” which is currently distributes by AXS TV in partnership with AEG and Renaissance Hotels.
Karin Timpone, Mariott’s global marketing officer adds: “The studio will consist of three groups, a creative agency, entertainment, and live — all focused on developing multi-platform content to engage consumers across all screens and formats worldwide.”
For the full deatails see the article at VideoLink
Featured below are a few videos on Brand Culture offerings and initiatives at Mariott
In our ongoing series of the new digital brand culture, this is a perfect example of the trend we discussed on the recent blog on new brand culture in the digital age.
The Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia along with many tourism destination marketing authorities are now in the business of self publishing, and one of the best ways to do this is via your own magazine. Tourism destinations are looking for quality publication where they can also sponsor editorials and have professional journalist tell their story. Some bypass the media altogether and create their own publications which they put in multiple channels.
Above: Travelersinsight Magazine Publication 3 D representation of the new brand culture self publishing for tourism.
TI Magazine has created several publication on tourism destinations all with the theme of presenting real and interesting people, culture and heritage to travellers. The Latest edition on Barbados holidays for The independent Traveller is no exception read all about it here >>>
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The book WEBSITE is the first in the series on Marketing Hotels and Tourism Online. (short form: DigitalMediaeBook.com) This book will give you a good grounding in how to build your brand and market in the digital age. We are adding new blogs on the changes and trends for all book buyers.
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