SEO ‘fast overtaking traditional means of travel advertising’

Sunday, 11 Feb, 2009 0

The world of search engine optimisation and brand tracking is fast overtaking traditional means of advertising and marketing in the travel industry, visitors to the Travel Technology Show heard.

Where once mass media was the only means of production and distribution, now anyone with a laptop can influence how a brand is perceived, they were told.

These were the words of digital media agency iCrossing’s head of business development David St John Tradewell whose global company is employed by a raft of big hitting travel companies including Virgin, Cosmos and Marriott.

He said that the traditional, simple marketing funnel that turned lookers into bookers via TV, radio and print advertising was now a much more complex beast which involved the millions of people who aired their views about products online.

Tradewell said: “The majority of our clients are telling us that they are spending more of their budget on digital then press, TV or radio advertising. In these times they have to demonstrate a solid ROI on their marketing spend.”

He added that IT analysts IDC statistics showed that in three years time 70% of online content will be created by individuals in the shape of blogs, reviews, Flickr photos and other means of social networking – potentially containing positive or negative messages about brands.

Added Tradewell: “Big companies know that they now have to be connected to all that. Be aware of the conversations going on about your brand, then address it in a helpful way. This will make people trust you and link to your site.

“It’s about engaging with the networks of people talking about you and learning how to be useful to them.”

by Dinah Hatch

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Dinah

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