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Why Digital Video and Influencers Are Shaking Up Travel Marketing

Last year, the Covid-19 pandemic kickstarted a generational shift in how people discover and explore travel experiences. Over this time, the industry saw a meteoric rise in digital video consumption and a burgeoning affinity for influencer content.

These two major shifts will redefine the next generation of travel marketing as they shake up years of reliance on transactional advertising tactics and a creative sea of sameness. Let’s look at what’s changing and explore some key tips to act on the opportunities on the horizon. 

The meteoric rise of digital video

Early in the pandemic, we saw video viewership behaviors change dramatically. According to insights from Warc, online video consumption jumped from one hour per day pre-pandemic to four hours per day in April 2020. A year later, it looks like this change is here to stay. Most of the people surveyed plan to maintain this viewing level moving forward.

Similarly, video on Facebook is also driving strong responses from consumers. As expected, video is boosting core metrics like brand awareness and ad recall for many brands while also driving consideration, intent and incremental bookings.

And with safety and flexibility becoming increasingly important to travelers, travel advertisers have an opportunity to leverage video in a more powerful way. In this environment, travel brands have a rare second chance to make a first impression, and video is a powerful medium to accomplish that.

A burgeoning affinity for influencer content

During the pandemic, travel influencers became more popular than ever. Sixty-three percent of people engage with travel influencer content more now than they did before the pandemic. And two in three consumers trust paid content from creators more than they do traditional advertising.

Although the influencer advertising space is still developing, many travel organizations already have relationships with celebrities or macro-influencers, which are people with 1 million followers or more. On the other hand, partnering with micro-influencers—who have 10,000 or more followers—also presents an opportunity for brands to deliver highly relevant, authentic content to consumers that current campaigns may not be reaching.

In a changing ad ecosystem, an effective influencer marketing strategy unlocks highly engaged audiences. Imagine no longer needing to solely rely on platform-specific targeting or intent modeling, and instead being able to bring your product to life via platform-agnostic people who consumers trust. In early testing with over 20 brands across CPG, retail, and ecommerce on our platform, we’ve seen improved sales lift when adding an influencer campaign to business-as-usual advertising strategies, and we expect this approach to also become the gold standard in travel advertising in the years to come.

Rewire your marketing to embrace change

Change is happening fast. To embrace it, brands need to act early and stay nimble. Here are some key tips to get there:

Enable creative agility within your organization: Creative success in this space requires a different muscle compared to a text ad or a 30-second spot. Keeping videos short, capturing attention quickly, using vertical or square video, featuring product or brand messaging early, and designing for sound off are critical. Consider how to build a better cadence between your marketing and creative teams. This will help you build assets that play to the strengths of different platforms and respond to what you’re learning on the fly.

Plan your influencer marketing strategy quarters ahead of execution: Pivoting from an organic strategy to a scaled-paid strategy involves a few steps. You’ll need to facilitate partnerships with micro-influencers, allocate budgets and teams to secure content from a wide array of diverse creators, and allow time for content edits. An option here is to work with an experienced influencer marketing firm, which can help you get from the briefing stage to a live campaign in a month or so. For those brands just getting started in this area, Facebook has a tool called Brand Collabs Manager that enables brands to find, learn more about and connect with creators who may be right for them.

Deploy multiple forms of marketing measurement: As consumer behavior continues to change, last-click attribution is no longer a viable measurement solution. People are spending a lot of time with video and influencer content. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to convert immediately, and they may see ads across various platforms. That’s why brands should deploy multiple methods of measurement anchored in true value—such as brand awareness, consideration and incremental return. And from a cross-channel perspective, it’s important to explore market mix modeling and geo-testing to help you determine the right investment allocation across channels.

Go explore and shape the future 

Right now, we’re in a travel marketing renaissance. Consumer behavior has shifted dramatically during one of the most difficult periods in the history of the travel industry. In a time when loyalty is up for grabs, brands are working fervently to respond effectively to change. Embracing digital video and influencer marketing can help ensure your brand is communicating with travelers effectively and bringing your value proposition to life.