ITB BERLIN CONVENTION 19 ITBBerlin Convention Keynote “Travel Micro-Moments” – Google’s VP outlines vital changes to consumer habits With the continued consumer shift to mobile, what will a seamless travel planning and booking process look like in the future? In his keynote at ITBBerlin Convention today, Google VP, Dr Oliver Heckmann will be sharing more about Google’s new Destinations product on mobile, helping travellers connect discovery with planning and booking. Dr Heckmann is Vice President Product and Engineering for Google Travel, responsible for Google’s travel products including Google Flight Search, QPX, Hotel Ads, and Travel in Google Search. His total organization is about 300 people based in Mountain View, Cambridge and Zürich. CONSUMERS ARE DOING RESEARCH IN THE MANY CONNECTED MOMENTS ON MOBILE AND DESKTOP THROUGHOUT THEIR DAY “It’s clear from our research, people are no longer doing long research sessions. They are doing lots of smaller sessions. Consumers are doing research in the many connected moments on mobile and desktop throughout their day. We’re thinking a lot about how we should be evolving our products to keep pace with this change,” says Dr Heckmann. Indeed, travellers face a dizzying number of decisions in the process of planning a trip. Increasingly people are turning to their smartphones for immediate answers to their travel questions. Looking for a hotel on a phone is known as a “micro-moment”: an intent-rich moment when someone acts on a need. At Google, they call these micromoments the “I-want-to-know moments, I-want-to-go moments, Dr Oliver Heckmann Google VP I-want-to-do moments, or I-wantto-buy moments”. In the past year, according to Dr Heckmann, mobile’s share of travel visits has grown by 48%, and, because mobile is helping people find what they want more quickly, time spent per session on mobile travel sites is down 7%, while mobile web conversion rates for travel sites have grown 88%. These data points are for travel sites across the web overall. On Google.com, mobile queries just within the travel category have increased more than 50%. KEYNOTE INTERVIEW: GOOGLE: TRAVEL MICRO- MOMENTS Category: ITB Future Day Date: March 9, 2016 Time: 1:40 pm - 2:10 pm Location: Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London Story & Social… Communicating experience and authenticity in the digital world In today’s eTravel Lab at the ITBBerlin Convention, Daniel Noll, Co-founder, Uncornered Market – along with Audrey Scott – his business partner - will be taking a fresh perspective on the digital positioning of tourism brands and travel product. We asked Daniel to tell us more… The average consumer faces well over 6,000 advertising messages every day. What’s the most essential technique to getting your message through the noise, and to achieving something we refer to as depth of impression? Effective storytelling. Studies have shown that the human brain retains messages better when information arrives packaged in the form of a story. Despite this, many DMOs and travel brands continue to use feature lists and itineraries as the go-to primary tool in their marketing and PR toolkits. Storytelling, when done well, can enable differentiation by communicating product experience as a journey of change. How can one resonate with and market effectively to demanding future-leaning demographics? Millennials and similar futurelooking demographics seek transparency and authenticity in the brands they support and the purchasing decisions they face. What’s important to them is the why — the values behind the brand. It’s not just the “what” or product that’s being delivered to them, but how their decisions impacts their lives – and might ultimately impact the world. Future-leaning demographics envision travel differently. For them, travel has fast become the path to meaning and personal transformation. Additionally, they seek experiences that are personalized, that they feel are unique and authentic. Ones they hope will leave deep impressions on them, their social networks and ultimately the places they visit. Honest and engaging storytelling that embodies trust has become the go-to marketing tool to tie it all together. In the end, people trust people, not companies. This is why consumers still look to friends and family for Daniel Noll & Audrey Scott Co-Founders, Uncornered Market IN THE END, PEOPLE TRUST PEOPLE, NOT COMPANIES. THIS IS WHY CONSUMERS STILL LOOK TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR RECOMMENDATIONS. recommendations. It’s why wordof-mouth marketing remains as relevant as ever. Accomplished bloggers are real people with a personal voice and perspective, yet they have large audiences, social media networks and communities to whom they openly provide access. In other words, theirs are like personal recommendations, yet effectively amplified to thousands or millions of people each month through their networks of influence. COMMUNICATING EXPERIENCE AND AUTHENTICITY IN THE DIGITAL WORLD Category: eTravel Lab Day 1 Date: March 9, 2016 Time: 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm Location: Hall 6.1, eTravel Lab ITB BERLIN NEWS • Wednesday 9 th March 2016
