This graph shows the landscape of the merger. Basically linked in which has created a stellar positioning is business social network, suddenly has access to a entire new and huge database of business data. And its data that is currently not shared. For Microsoft it means access to a mobile platform that complements its business network. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Here is what the news item says:
“The LinkedIn acquisition gets Microsoft into social in a strategic way that complements the company’s existing, largely untapped user data. In Q1 2016, LinkedIn reported $154.1 million in ad revenue, a 29 percent year-over-year increase driven primarily by sponsored content. Bing Ads revenue rose 18 percent in the first quarter, which Microsoft attributed in large part to the adoption of Windows 10. And that brings us to the other pivotal piece of this acquisition — the foothold it gives Microsoft and Bing Ads in mobile, where it has been exceptionally weak compared to Google. LinkedIn’s mobile activity opens up doors for Microsoft that efforts like the Windows Phone and its search advertising partnership with Yahoo failed to provide.” And now “the LinkedIn acquisition would seem to pave a clearer pathway for clearer messaging and data integration.”
With this acquisition Microsoft is the defacto leader in “data on the professional world” – It has significant to advertisers:
What The Microsoft LinkedIn Deal Means for Advertisers
1. More refined targeting, particularly for B2B advertisers;
2. More reach with the addition of the LinkedIn universe of 433 million users; and
3. More commercial opportunities via Cortana, Micorosoft’s digital assistant, as it is positioned as “the professional’s” digital assistant.
As a hint of what’s to come, Microsoft outlined a vision for an Intelligent Newsfeed as a “new daily habit” in the acquisition deck.
I wonder what will be the impact on other businesses in the LI network, namely Slideshare, The Pulse and the Instant Cusomer Network which Pulse Engage took over from Mike Koenigs a while ago.
Instant Booking is not likely to Increase hotel Direct bookings
While the answer to the question, “Is Instant Bookings on Tripadviser good for hotels” is generally YES, it is not necessarily good in every respect. In this analaysis of the pros and cons of using TripAdvisors Instant Booking (TA-IB) Hotel Miraie in Barcelona Spain, says do not expect TA-InstantBookings to increase your total sales. It is an alternative distribution for the same channel that you will already have your OTAs competing in. It may be a more cost effective alternative as TA-IB commissions are 10-15% whereas OTAs may be 20-35%.
In their words “total sales will NOT increase with instant booking, but rather you will be able to distribute them through more coeffective channels. In other words, you will NOT sell more. The advantage is in the transfer of bookings through channels, in that positive cannibalisation from OTAs to your direct sale.”
The article concludes “As a hotel, you have two options: do nothing -and leave OTAs like Booking.com to make the most of the opportunity- or jump on the bandwagon yourself and compete with the OTAs face to face.”
More about Instant Bookings Evolution
For more on exactly what TripAdvisors instant bookings is and how it evolved see this article on Tnooz
Some of the significant point in the article follow:
TA-IB is a commission based “bidding” model for all partners like online travel agencies, hotel chains, global distribution system, etc. With trip connect it is also avalab to hotel who have thrir own branded booking engine approved by TA.
It differs from the standard metasearch model where “partners bid via a cost-per-click (CPC) value for each click that a user makes on their link. It is similar now to the agent model now popular with OTAs where they charge hotels a commission paid after a guest’s stay.
For a hotel ownerthe advantages are taht the CPA fees are tracked and paid on actual stay out of real revenue.
Useful Facts
Estimates are that TripAdvisor gets 13% commission on metasearch
For every $13 in bookings OTAs spend on TripAdvisor metasearch ads they get roughly $100 in bookings, on average.
Hotel pay about 13% commission to get top spot on metasearch
Small hotel pay about 15% for customers from OTA sites like Booking.com
Rates for TA-IB is expected to fall to 10% once the market is working well next year.
Starwood likes tecnology, They even have build their own application for Apple Watch that “opens hotel room doors and a robotic butler that assists hotel staff.”
But Starwood Cheif Brand Officer Phil McAveety says what they know is that “Technology is not going to win the hearts and minds of guests. Customers expect technology to be embedded before, during, and after their stay. They’re not going to thank you for it, they expect it. In the end, technology is not our business. Guests don’t stay in a hotel for an app.”
That is in fact one of 3 points that McAveety shared on stage at the Skift Global Forum in New York City, October 9, 2014. Skift
The ideas are not new and i tend to believe that technology is the new driving force of travel marketing. Right now we are sitting on an explosion of new techniques and system that automate marketing. We cant expect to market in t the digital age without this. We are expected to tweet, announce, share, engage, blog, video, communicate and publish on many platforms. It is simply impossible to do this without automation. And the tools are there.
What is the biggest problem now is understanding exactly what all the new tools do. This has become harder as most are opaque. There are writers networks that will will feature your articles but because Google is clamping down on Private Blog Networks they will not share the sites with you. Its hard to evaluate the platform but their are ways and that is all part of the new technology driven marketing. I’ll share more on this in my own blog in the future.
Its been a long time in incubation but IBM Watson is on the move and its heading for travel
Terry Jones, chairman of WayBlazer the first to use IBMs watson for a dedicate travel planning tool, first contacted with Manoj Saxena the GM of IBM Watson about 3 years ago and talked then about the an incredible business opportunity.
The idea was to bring Watson to travel and offer something new, as Jones says “Watson is very different from the kind of computers I ran at Sabre or previous startups. It’s a computer that speaks and understands natural language. It can make sense of unstructured data, like words on an internet website.”
Jones and Manjo believe that the the travel booking problem has been solved fairly well planning has not!.
“WayBlazer can change that, make planning a trip online as easy as having a conversation with a friend.We add Watson’s natural-language processing to a cognitive travel graph we license from another company in Austin, Cognitive Scale. That graph database allows us to relate concepts to each other — people, places, times, deals.”
It is also a highly visual solution along the lines of http://VisualBookingsTechnology.com. For this WayBalzer has sourced hundreds of thousands of open-source images on the web to supplement results with visuals, these include images of tours-and-activities.
– See more at: http://www.tnooz.com/article/startup-pitch-wayblazer-aims-travel-insights-service/#sthash.b5xRuYGt.dpuf
Glass presents an exciting opportunity to think about how traveling should work,” said Amy Jackson, director of public relations at TripIt, San Francisco.
Jackson says that tarvellers have to “carry multiple bags, pull out a boarding pass, move through line after line” – That where Google Glasses come in handy and can help in these moments and can guide you through your trip, without having to reach in your pocket or bag!.
What might the merging of the two biggest graphs of professional data mean for advertisers?
