Destination-Marketing Webinar Presentation

Proprietary & Confidential. Copyright © 2014.1

Q4 2014

DEVELOPING NEW KPIS FOR TRAVEL


01 THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE


DMO CHALLENGESDestination Marketing Organizations face several challenges when advertising online:

• Lack of Strong KPIsWith no eCommerce action or “true” conversion in place to associate with the campaign, DMO advertisers lack a concrete way to measure whether the consumers exposed to tourism ads are actually traveling to their destinations, and at what rate.

• Poor Proxy MetricsAdditionally, proxy metrics for these—typically clicks, ad interactions, or survey-based measurement—do not show a strong relationship with travel.


POSSIBLE APPROACHESWe considered several methods to solve this problem.

GEODATAIdentify whether consumers exposed to DMO ads for a specific area eventually “show up” in that area later on.

PROs: Shows actual travel to destination

Cons: Difficult to measure; long time between exposure and conversion—no “real time” optimization possible

OTA/HOTEL/AIRLINE DATALook at how consumers exposed to DMO ads respond to OTA, Hotel, or Airline campaigns, see if they book travel to the target destination.

PROs: Shows actual travel to destination, easy to measure

Cons: Not “fool-proof,” difficult to separate business and vacation travelers


02 MEASURING SUCCESS


THE MEASUREMENT PLANBy tracking bookings with OTA and hotel advertisers partnering with Rocket Fuel, we can identify whether consumers exposed to DMO advertising later booked travel to the target destination through either source.

DMO Travelhaus

1. Identify consumers served DMO advertising

2. See if they booked travel to the destination being advertised on a hotel, OTA, or airline partner site

3. Measure effectiveness and set up automated optimization toward generating conversions


DEFINING NEW KPIs FOR TRAVELBy tracking bookings with OTA and hotel advertisers partnering with Rocket Fuel, we can identify whether consumers exposed to DMO advertising later booked travel to the target destination through either source.

Destination OTA Site Bookings Hotel Site Bookings TOTAL

California (state park) 22 0 22

Florida (city) 36 610 646

Florida (attraction) 292 3,905 4,197

USA (from Japan) 0 1,765 1,765


CASE 1: FLORIDA TOURISMWe looked at 2 tourism campaigns in Florida in our sample, one of which was focused on a city and the other for a major tourist attraction near that city. The campaign for the attraction actually did have a conversion pixel associated with sales, which accounted for 20,135 conversions during our observed time frame.

In this case, the 4,197 additional bookings we were able to measure for the attraction showed consumers who wanted to book separate accommodations after exposure to ads. For a single hotel, this meant 20% more measurable conversions for the campaign post-exposure!


CASE 2: US TOURISM (f/JAPAN)One of the clients examined for this study had several initiatives focused on driving tourism to the United States from other countries, including Japan. The campaign we examined delivered interactive banners to Japanese consumers, using ad interactions as the key measure for success.

Surveys were also placed in field, though at this time adequate data for consumers responding to the survey and also booking travel was unavailable.


DETERMINING LIFTIf we then look at the rate of “conversion” for consumers in the target audience exposed to ads (and those not exposed), we can generate a lift metric that shows the effect of advertising to a particular population.

# US Tourism Ads seen # Consumers US Bookings Conversion Rate

124,902,137 15,074,264 1,765 0.0117%

0 85,610,210 6,448 0.0075%

LIFT +55.5%

US Hotel Bookings among Japanese Consumers, June 2014 – July 2014

*Estimated based on % of Japanese citizens with a passport


CLICKS SHOW LITTLE VALUELooking at how the US Tourism click activity affected conversion rates (measured via US bookings on the hotel site) showed little correlation between the two. In fact, of the 1,765 conversions that occurred during our sample time, only 20 happened following a click on a US Tourism banner ad.

US Tourism impressions

Hotel impressions

US Tourism clicks Hotel clicks Hotel US bookings

29,026 7,327 20 8 1,765

0 2,481 0 4 107


AD INTERACTIONSAd interactions were a different story, however: 177 Japanese consumers who booked a US hotel stay following exposure to the US Tourism campaign also interacted with campaign ads, doing so at a rate 16% higher than consumers who just saw ads. On average, consumers who interacted with the banner did so 1.76 times.

# US Tourism ad interactions

# Consumers # of consumers booking US rooms

Conversion Rate

0 13,753,144 1,588 0.0115%

2,239,248 1,321,120 177 0.0134%

LIFT +16%

US Hotel Bookings based on # of banner interactions


03 ECOSYSTEM BENEFITS


THE PATH TO TRAVELConsumers seldom make travel decisions on impulse. Prior research shows that 90% of consumers planning a vacation do so more than a month in advance.

Even when identifying consumers in-market, it takes several days to drive a consumer from first exposure to final purchase, as most vacation travelers will research one or more digital sources in the week prior to booking. OTA

Airline

All Travel

Hotel

2.1

2.3

3.1

4.2

AVERAGE TIME BETWEEN FIRST AD EXPOSURE AND CONVERSION, BY TRAVEL CAMPAIGN TYPE


THE PATH TO TRAVELLooking at the time between a consumer’s conversion and the first day of their stay shows that while consumers most commonly book a hotel within 2-7 days of travel, half of bookings will occur 3 or more weeks (21+days) prior to the actual trip.

017

142128354249566370778491

More

29,26534,403

118,34771,599

47,17233,817

26,37420,088

16,14413,295

11,4169,421

8,0106,6835,904

49,176

Frequency of Hotel bookings by number of days in advance of start date, June-July 2014


EFFECTS OF DMO EXPOSUREWhen looking at U.S. OTA bookings among anyone exposed to a DMO campaign for a US location, we can see the impact of how exposure to both improves efficiency for OTA advertisers and any other effects that exposure to both ads might have.

DMODMO

DMO

OTA = +147%


EFFECTS OF DMO EXPOSURECompared to converters who only saw OTA ads, OTA converters exposed to both ads took nearly half as many OTA impressions to drive to a conversion. Essentially, we can think of DMO ads as a type of ‘added-value’ impression for OTA advertisers.

OTA ImpressionsDMO

ImpressionsOTA

ConversionsOTA Conv

RateOTA Ads per

Conv220,286 0 37,188 16.88% 5.92

251,920 705,815 105,127 41.73% 2.40

LIFT +147% -41%

OTA IMPRESSIONS PER CONVERSION BASED ON AD EXPOSURE


EXPOSED CONSUMERS STAY LONGERBy looking at the bookings, we can see how long travelers plan to stay and how much they are spending. Consumers exposed to DMO advertising prior to converting on an OTA campaign booked trips 81% longer (+2 days) and spent 50% more on average when compared to consumers only exposed to OTA ads.

Group # ConsumersAvg. DMO ads seen

Avg. OTA ads seen Avg. Spend # Days

OTA ads only 21,443 0 10.3 $261.88 2.46

OTA + DMO ads 65,488 24 18 $390.32 4.45

LIFT +49% +81%

OTA TRIP LENGTH AND AVG. SPEND BY AD TYPE EXPOSURE, APRIL 14 – MAY 14


BENEFITS ON BOTH SIDESThus, OTA/Hotel/Airline advertisers benefit from the additional ad efficiency when their ads reach consumers already exposed to DMO advertising, and they can reap the benefits of additional incremental revenue from these exposed consumers even when they aren’t advertising.

On the other side, DMO advertisers benefit from having potential concrete measurements of success to point to and optimize toward when this data is shared. DMO advertisers can also potentially use this data to further optimize to different traveler types, such as families vs. business travelers.

DMO

OTA


04 LOOKING AHEAD


NEXT STEPS

IDENTIFYING TOURISTSAnother major concern for DMOs is reaching tourists and not business travelers. By using information about the trip itself—such as duration of stay, the day of week of the trip (weekdays vs. weekends), the number of beds in the booking, and the number of travelers—we can identify likely business travelers vs. tourists, and train an AI to separate them accordingly.

PREDICTING SPENDBy using information about the number of travelers, price and location of the booking, and profile data about the consumer, we can develop a model to predict how much they are likely to spend at the target destination, and optimize accordingly.

This analysis isn’t definitive! Here are a few ways it might be improved in the future:


GOING FURTHERBetter models can be developed with the addition of actual spend data at the location and geodata for consumers who see DMO advertising and then visit the location later. These too can be incorporated into ad-serving and optimization decisions.


NEXT: THE FULL ECOSYSTEMFinally, better measurement can be developed by folding in additional partners, such as other Hotel brands, OTAs, and airlines to create a full picture of the ecosystem that allows for optimization along the entire funnel.

DMO

CRUISE

HOTEL

AIR


05 PARTNERING WITH THE DMAI


A TRUSTED PARTNERTop DMO’s find success with us:~50+ DMO’s & CVB’s active with Rocket Fuel at any given time

COMMON DESTINATION KPIs

• Completed Video Views• Click Thru Rates• Key Pages Visited

EXCITING NEW WAYS TO ATTRIBUTE SUCCESS• Audience Guarantees • Credit Card Spend in market• Mobile location


ROCKET FUEL’S PARTNERSHIP WITH DMAI• Rocket Fuel is committed to the destination marketing sub-vertical

has partnered with the Destination Marketing Association International in an effort to share knowledge, data and best practices

• We’ll be co-producing white papers, webinars and coordinating round tables– On panel @ DMAI CEO Summit– Spoke at DMAI 100th Annual Convention

• Working with DMAI to provide unique offerings to DMO and CVB clients globally:• Bundling DMAI membership fees and products with media buys • Unique advertising products that will help attribute marketing spend that drives visits and

in-destination spend


WHY JOIN DMAI?• Connect to a community of 600+ official DMO marketing

professionals worldwide representing $2B+ in annual budgets

• DMAI is a passionate advocate and definitive resource for DMOs

• Powerful research, reporting and benchmarking tools

• Professional development and education for DMO professionals (i.e. CDME and PDM certifications)

• Be first in line to hear about the exciting projects that Rocket Fuel is working on with DMAI


QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

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