eyefortravel

Henry’s Helpful Hints – Industry Tips for Revenue Management

by Portál the Penguin on September 28, 2011

Henry: Hi, Henry here with Henrys Helpful Hints and this week we have Gil Keinan, he’s our vice president of business development. Gil spent last week in Las Vegas at the EyeForTravel conference and he’s coming to bestow some of that wisdom upon us. Gil, give us the hi-lights.
 
Gil: Thanks a lot Henry for taking the time to talk to me. EyeForTravel was really well organized and they did a fantastic job of concentrating on 3 key trends in our industry. Distribution, revenue management and mobile. The 2 key denominators in all 3 tracks was the emphasis on differentiation and the social experience.
 
Henry: We’ve heard that before. Differentiate, social; what does it all mean? Can you break it down for us?
 
Gil: Well let’s start with distribution. The best practices were presented from a variety of players. And the first speaker was Melissa from Expedia. She did a fantastic job of listing down some must do’s. At the head of those must do’s was the fact that you have to have good photos, virtual tours and videos to present yourself online.
 
Henry: Haven’t I been saying that for years. Rich media is very important, but also talk to us about the social media.
 
Gil: Well, another fantastic panel; Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Linkedin and Maxymizer. The comment that came out of that for me was that you have to adjust your approach depending on the clientele. Companies that will do well are the ones that understand to how to segregate buckets of users and speak to them individually. Social is social but it’s not always social.
 
Henry: it is to some people. So we’ve talked about the distribution, the social media. Any takeaways for revenue managers?
 
Gil: Lots. Revenue management is really getting complicated by the day, by the year with the addition of new analytics and loyalty metrics. I was on a panel that talked about innovation and I was accompanied by the airline and the destination management folks and differentiation really needs to start at the core of the experience. You have to present a customized product for the customer, not for what the company needs to sell and it’s all about visually appealing packaging.
 
Henry: I couldn’t agree more. There is lots of information here, if you’d like to chat with Gil feel free to give us a call here at ICE Portal he’d be happy to help and I should have him back because there’s a lot more information there. Thanks for joining us, we’ll see you next week on Henry’s Helpful Hints.
 
For more information on the features and benefits of our rich media production, please visit our HD360 page to see what we can do for you, and feel free to give us a call at 1-954-893-6778.

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EyeForTravel Talks Allocating Video Budgets

by Portál the Penguin on August 31, 2011

“Professional video production can vary in price from under $1,000 to over $50,000 and regardless of quality it needs to have the same objective: increase awareness of the product and drive consumers to purchase, says, Gil Keinan, VP Business Development, ICE Portal. Keinan recommends few do’s and don’ts when it comes to posting video content.”

By Ritesh Gupta
“Travellers today expect more information to be readily available at their fingertips.
Consumers also expect transparency throughout their planning and buying cycle. In case of hotels, the decision making is multi-faceted taking into account exact location, amenities, quality, as well as price. Consumers also want to be reassured that the rooms and amenities viewed online are what they really get when they arrive. The industry is also focused on making hotel room information transparent as the underlying foundation to empower travellers to create better travel experiences.
Today’s consumer is influenced by visuals, so the role rich content plays in marketing hotels, cruise ships, and destinations is critical.
Excellent visuals – or the lack thereof – have a dramatic impact on consumers’ perceptions.
Assessing the role of visual assets featuring on travel sites when it comes to enhancing travellers’ planning and booking process, Gil Keinan, VP Business Development, ICE Portal, says, “As you look at the various travel websites, most of the content is commoditised and it is very hard for hotels to distinguish their offerings within a one inch high listing. Visual media is the only instrument to communicate the experience and acts as a review to support descriptive text.”
“We encourage hotels to highlight their unique attributes in their visuals. Many hotels have beautiful rooms, but some might have the TV hidden in the picture frame, others may have a Jacuzzi tub on the terrace, or simply the best location in town. These are elements that will capture the user’s eye and ultimately drive conversion,” added Keinan, who is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit North America 2011, to be held in Las Vegas (19-20 September) this year.
Keinan spoke to Eyefortravel’s Ritesh Gupta about the latest trends. Excerpts:
Considering the number of screens and gadgets in our lives and various content forms especially video, how should travel companies go about video content? What factors should they take into consideration while allocating budgets for video content?
Gil Keinan:
The importance of video is increasing with faster Internet connections and the drop in bandwidth costs. I speak to multiple channels on a weekly basis that want to incorporate more streaming content in 2012 & 2013. Professional video production can vary in price from under $1,000 to over $50,000 and regardless of quality it needs to have the same objective, increase awareness of the product and drive consumers to purchase. Equally important are the channels that the supplier might use to distribute the video to a target audience. Social Media and review channels might raise ‘follower’ numbers, but the amount of ‘noise’ through sponsored advertisement might be distracting from the material.
To come back to your question, besides producing videos, travel companies should budget for distribution of their rich visuals to get their “investment” to as many eyeballs as possible- it is not expensive but it usually only comes up when IT asks Marketing who will see the video and how it will be distributed?”
To find out more about ICE Portal, head over to our homepage for the latest and greatest.

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