Comments on: Is Web 2.0 killing travel brands?

By: A new breed of travel writer? | Travel Blather

A new breed of travel writer? | Travel Blather — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:08:08 +0000

[...] Social media spaces are not big-brand friendly Major travel brands might be looking to start really engaging with customers on a more personal [...]

By: Simon Mustoe

Simon Mustoe — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:09:36 +0000

Interesting post, Jeremy. I suppose an alternative take on the situation is that social media could actually help travel brands grow if they are able to be responsive to the needs people express in these spaces - either via a customer service function on Twitter for example or, even better, through adapting products and services in response to these needs.

American Airlines used James Gandolfini in its tv ads but, like you, I'm struggling to come up with any more examples.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:54:02 +0000

Probably what I would do in their situation is setup a facebook page get a small number of people to join then choose the one with the most friends and give them a free holiday. And announce at the same time that next week your going to do the same. Next week I'd do the same but with a couple of the "highest friended" and another few at random. Rince repeat and use the announcements to push the best offers I've got available that week.

People block out and ignore ads because they take actual time and mental effort to consume and even more so people are incredibly good at spotting what an ad is. However do as I suggest be completely upfront that your going to send one facebook msg a week detailing winners + the very best offers you've got and probably people will take an interest if they are ever going to take an interest at all.

By: Kevin May

Kevin May — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:06:31 +0000

Great discussion. If you have 30 minutes or so (err, yeah, right!), it is worth watching this episode of the Gillmour Gang from a few weeks back, when Dick Costolo (COO of Twitter) was interviewed by Michael Arrington. http://www.building43.com/realtime/2009/11/21/gillmor-gang-special-from-the-real-time-crunchup/ The subject of advertising within Twitter comes up a lot and you can almost feel in Costolo's responses that although Twitter needs to do it (to make money) it is reluctant and really not quite sure how it is going to be perceived. The American stock answer for everything, whether it is or not: "It's going to be awesome!"

By: Bookpacking

Bookpacking — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:02:30 +0000

One very possible result will be an increase in existing advertising/PR 'black ops', where employees masquerading as Joe Public pop up with recommendations, links and positive product reviews. This phenomenon has already been observed in the geopolitical arena, sometimes referred to as 'info wars'. In this case, newspaper comment boards sites are the battleground rather than online shopping sites or user forums. But we've all found reviews on commercial sites from Dave in Dagenham that are just a little too structured and a little too polished unless Dave does a bit of copywriting in his lunchbreak. On a freelance board, I read a guy talking about existing PR software which scans the web and records product mentions so they can evaluate brand perception. Surely it's only a short step from that to algorithmic-based auto-commenting, spotting mentions and placing fairly generic responses? E.g. "I have only had good experiences with my own Acme bagless vacuum cleaner cum-cocktail maker machine. I'd recommend it to anyone - in fact you should buy one for every room! Yours insincerely, Server unit QXp.1.17.07a" Or maybe we'll see discreet payments to blogging consumers who are 'unaffiliated' but just happen to like doing product reviews? Speaking of which, I'm just your ordinary man in the street; but I'd really like to recommend something which has revolutionised my life. Since I bought my Acme solar-powered salt dispenser on a website called...