The Latest from the Flip.to Team

Achieving Social Media ROI for the Hospitality Industry

By Ron Callari on February 22, 2012

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The buzz surrounding social media marketing hasn’t gone unnoticed by the hotel industry and hoteliers are seeking to make inroads by engaging with the leading social networks in new and innovative ways.

While hoteliers now include Facebook and Twitter share buttons on their websites and have become more familiar with the return on engagement (ROE) tools available today, the ability to convert these fans and followers into customers generating actual room reservations is still an elusive goal for many.

Consequently, they continue to search for marketing services that can truly measure success and garner a lucrative return on investment (ROI).

Social Media on the Rise

Worldwide social media revenues are expected to rise to more than $10 billion in 2012, reflecting a 41.4 percent rise from 2010, according to research company Gartner.

“Marketers will begin to transition from ‘onetime placement and click of ads’ toward ‘ongoing engagement’ with the Internet user and will therefore allocate a higher percentage of their advertising budget to social networking sites,” said Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner.

“This is mainly because social networking sites, with the help of social analytics firms, are able to unlock the interconnected data structures of users — mapping lists of friends, their comments and messages, photos and all their social connections, contact information and associated media.”

Another report by global consulting company McKinsey concluded that companies needed to take a relook at the entire business model in order to succeed in the digital space. According to McKinsey, this will involve establishing new structures, metrics and processes to ensure that marketing and sales are adequately linked with all the areas of the business that could contribute to the company’s ability to understand and engage with consumers.

Hotels on the Sidelines

Hotels have watched this trend with growing interest. While boutique hotels were the early adopters of social media marketing, the majority of larger hotel chains were more cautious in moving from traditional to digital marketing. That, however, seems to be changing. A recent poll conducted by TravelClick indicates that hotels are significantly increasing 2012 marketing budgets for social campaigns.

The study shows that half of the hotels surveyed plan to invest more marketing dollars in their mobile websites and social marketing. These hotels are utilizing these new digital tools to approach potential customers in a more personalized manner in order to boost loyalty programs, improve customer service and, most importantly, to increase bookings.

And while this is a move in the right direction, it’s apparent that hotels are still unclear as to how to measure online activities and, more importantly, how to convert their customers’ online engagement into revenue.

Engage with your guests

With social media as the distribution channel, today’s hoteliers require a comprehensive marketing plan that will permit them to adapt and broaden their communication channels to align with guests changing interests and preferences. It’s been proven that brands which communicate with their visitors and motivate them to share their vacation plans with their friends and followers are the most successful. In essence, hoteliers are learning how to make their customers their most engaged advocates.

Many hotels are unaware of the new marketing platforms that convert both existing guests and website visitors into becoming an extension of a brand’s marketing force. These new tools extend the hotel’s advertising reach by tapping into the guest’s social network communities. This subsequent circle of influence not only increases the numbers of potential new guests, but it also vets the brand messaging because it’s coming from the trusted source of a guest’s friends and followers.

For instance, automated systems which can integrate with a hotel’s booking engine can now offer hoteliers and guests a streamlined means of disseminating brand messaging during the reservation process. Termed “magnetic marketing,” the time of purchase is an optimal point of engagement when the hotelier has the undivided attention of its booking guest. This paradigm is based on the premise that the strength of the bond between seller and buyer is the greatest when both are traversing the “same wave length.”

Additionally, booking engine integrations provide an opportunity for guests to spread the word about their upcoming stay by incentivizing them with offers such as a “guest room upgrade.”

This level of engagement is far greater than traditional marketing and has translated into measurable returns in just about every metric (i.e., posts, impressions, shares, reach, sign-ups), and now even booked room nights. While the “push advertising” of the past might have been able to produce a 1-3% return at best, today these more robust services can garner 15-25% ROE and an astonishing 10X or better ROI.

Hotels that wish to gain from the benefits of social media marketing should first explore what the market has to offer and then draft a marketing strategy that has clear goals and well-defined targets that can yield a significant ROI which is both trackable and scalable.

Dishing Out Marketing Innovation at Sage Restaurant Group

By Ron Callari on January 16, 2012

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Stephanie Ehrler

With Sage Restaurant Group going into its 7th year, Stephanie Ehrler joined the company as their Corporate Marketing Director. She is responsible for the marketing initiatives, overseeing the company’s annual planning and implements strategies for long-term brand development.

According to their mission statement, “Sage Restaurant Group creates experiences where food, drink and inspired design meet and mix.” These independent restaurants, which are adjacent to hotels, cater to a clientele “hungry for life and eager to savor new experiences in which food is an entrée to adventure.”

As one of SRG’s core values, Stephanie has sought out the latest innovative and leading edge services available in today’s marketplace. While restaurants are just beginning to see the benefit of adding social media to the marketing mix, Stephanie has been using a number of these tools and platforms for a while to differentiate her restaurants from the competition.

Since SRG just launched with Flip.to, we thought it was a good chance to sit down with her to learn more about her successes with online marketing and how restaurants can benefit from social media.

Since a few SRG restaurants have used social deal sites, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, what are your thoughts regarding these sites in terms of attracting traffic and ROI?

We typically avoid discounting and couponing offers on sites such as Groupon and Living Social in normal business conditions, but for new openings and slow times, it can be a great way to drive new diners to our restaurants. For restaurants, it’s key to ask the coupon users for their email addresses, solicit their comments, and send managers to their tables to introduce them to the restaurant. We feel that these types of initiatives are for awareness and not looked upon as a true revenue generator rather as a marketing expense.

How do you promote your restaurants’ loyalty membership programs online and how do you see Flip.to helping?

Customer loyalty programs are very effective in developing and maintaining brand loyal customers. The rewards we offer our guests bring them back and they continue to pick our brands consistently. We promote our programs through our websites, social media platforms, and within our four walls by equipping our staff with promotional information to share with potential new members. We are excited about furthering our customer loyalty platform with Flip.to. Their approach in using social media takes guest loyalty to the next level. Allowing a guest to publicly earn their prize, gives them instant satisfaction, they are then able to share this gratification with their friends and followers.

Aside from turning guests into advocates, Flip.to helps restaurants learn who their guests are. That means restaurants can start building a relationship with the guest, and have a better shot at drawing them back. Is there a difference in the value of a new guest versus a returning guest? Is that value different depending on the restaurant?

We value all of our new & returning guests. We look forward to implementing the Flip.to model in turning guests into advocates and how this will work for our restaurants in bringing new guests to our businesses and further rewarding our current guests. We have tasked Scout Ideas, our web development partner with implementing all the pages on our websites to ensure that the visitors have a consistent brand experience that is powered by Flip.to — as great as a tool Flip.to is, it’s important that we’re engaged to be sure they’re delivering a consistently branded experience through the registration and redemption process for our guests.

We noticed SRG has a significant presence on YouTube. How effectiveis YouTube for your restaurants?

Sage Restaurant Group is a team of passionate industry-leading restaurateurs who excel in the realm of F&B operations by creating and operating successful concepts that are distinctly branded, innovative and highly designed. We use our YouTube account to feature our distinct businesses and culture. 2012 has been deemed the Year of The Video by marketing gurus across all industries with an emphasis on hospitality, we look forward to building onto this platform in the New Year and building further awareness of our brands through the return on engagement that videos provide

Not to make you choose sides but… favorite dish of all the SRG restaurants?

A very difficult question to answer. My all-time favorite is the Arroz a la Cazuela, from Mercat a la Planxa, it is a very homey dish with an amazing balance of flavors. (description: Saffron Scented Broth with Maine Lobster, Chicken, Chorizo, Rabbit, Shaved Artichoke Salad & Piquillo Aioli)

And we have to ask… who within the SRG organization was the inventor of the “cupcake slider”?

Megan Ford from The Original Dinerant, in Portland, Oregon. She is crazy creative & passionate about pastry. She was recently named employee of the month for The Original Dinerant.

For more information on Sage Restaurant Group visit www.sagerestaurantgroup.com, follow them on Twitter: @SageRestGroup or “like them” on Facebook: @Sage Restaurant Group

Taxiing Down the Social Media Runway at Harrisburg International Airport

By Ron Callari on November 1, 2011

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Stephanie Gehman

Stephanie Gehman is the marketing manager for Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania and self-describes herself on her Twitter account as an “…aerophile and perpetual learner anytime, marketing & social media nerd full-time (and) the voice of @HIAairport.

As bragging rights on Google+, she claims: “she who loves her job does not labor.” But labor she does – as she’s tenacious in leading the social media charge for a relatively small airport in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And yet, Simpliflying, one of the world’s top airline blogs rates Harrisburg as one of the finest airports in the world driving customer engagement on par with Copenhagen, Bangalore International and Boston Logan.

Today, we sat down with Stephanie to gain some insight as to how she puts the social media puzzle pieces together for an airport.

As an airport pioneer in social media, what factors prompted you to kick-start a social media marketing plan for the Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) all the way back in 2008?

I was social networking on my own and saw the potential for social media to be utilized in business to reach our customers “where they were at”, so I took a chance on that potential with a blog and a Facebook profile, followed up shortly thereafter by a Twitter account.

Since Google has just tipped its toe into the social media waters, how do you see MDT interfacing with Google+? Any distinct advantages or differences from Facebook?

I have some ideas as to how MDT will make use of Google+, but you’ll have to wait and see how that to unfold! In my opinion, I see Google+ as being less crowded as Facebook with personal accounts, so there’s a less cluttered space for businesses to engage with those in their “Circles.” However, if Google+ is adopted by the same amount of people using Facebook, that issue could quickly change.

Have you been able to attach an Return on Engagement (ROE) and Return on Investment (ROI) to any of MDT’s social media campaigns?

We measure all social media efforts (not just campaigns) based upon SEO ranking, website traffic, community building, registrations and download rates, subscribers, engagement, influence and reputation.

HIA Flyer Rewards is one of the few loyalty programs offered by an airport for its arriving and departing passengers. How has social media assisted you in building a membership base and what does your program offer passengers they may not be receiving from their airline loyalty programs?

Social media has influenced roughly a 10% membership increase for Flyer Rewards. Our program offers its members use of our airport-owned and operated frequent flyer club, in addition to a handful of other perks. We’re not looking to compete with airline loyalty programs, but to be a partner and complimentary program.

Airports have been experiencing limited revenue increases from non-aeronautical outlets such as concourse shops and food & beverage concessions. What social media resources has HIA employed to reach departing and arriving passengers regarding promotions and special offers?

To-date we’ve used location-based apps/sites, Twitter, QR (quick response) Codes and Facebook to extend offers, promotions and the like to passengers.

Flip.to News has a Twitter account (@FliptoNews) with over 3700+ followers and a Facebook Fan page with slightly over 100+ LIKES. Similarly, according to airline blog Simpliflying, it also seems that many airports prefer Twitter over other social networks. What advice would you give a social media marketing service such as Flip.to pertaining to the value of managing both a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook?

I’m by no means an expert, but as a seasoned social media practitioner, I’ve found Facebook and Twitter to be both tremendously valuable to MDT. Our following on both platforms is strong, engaged and providing invaluable feedback.

To speak to your question about Flip.To News’ fan page, there’s no harm in trying Facebook advertising. If you’re familiar with the demographics of the audience you wish to reach via your fan page, you can target your advertising based upon those statistics. And, if your fan base begins to grow, I’d recommend managing those fans and your Twitter followers by managing their expectations.

Any business before entering the social sphere should have a plan, goals and rules of engagement for their social networking. I’d urge you to let your followers and fans know what they can expect from Flip.to News on Twitter and Facebook. For example, get into the habit of posting or tweeting with a routine frequency, be consistent in your responses to fans and followers, if you’re only able to monitor your accounts at certain times of the day; don’t hesitate to post that information, too. These are just a few of the many details involved in a successful social media management. Ultimately, you have to know where your customers’ and your priorities lie before engaging – and then stick to them.

On a lighter note, what is your favorite winter vacation spot?

My favorite winter vacation spot is the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont for a good clip of cross country skiing. The resort’s groomed trails are phenomenal. Not familiar with the Von Trapp family? Think, Sound of Music!

Big Results + High ROI = Happy Customers

By Ron Callari on October 31, 2011

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Flip.to is a new marketing platform that helps hotels turn their guests into advocates. After completing a successful beta, we’re announcing a new batch of results that would make any hotelier smile.

Nearly one in four guests has used Flip.to to spread the word to their friends, family and colleagues about their upcoming trip, and in turn, where they’ll be staying. This level of engagement is far higher than traditional marketing campaigns and has translated into big numbers in just about every metric, including ROI.

Every post that a guest makes to their social networks through Flip.to reaches 275 people on average. For every 100 posts, hotels have seen 300 to 1000 people click on the shared link back to the hotel’s website.

Plus each link has a unique code that allows Flip.to to personalize the experience specifically to that guest’s network. This translates into a strong, trusted brand connection; 10 to 50 new additions to the pool of potential future guests; and 10 to 20 booked room nights. And this is for every 100 posts by a hotel’s existing guests. Flip.to is reaping a minimum of 10X ROI for hotels.

Bernard Metzger

“A social media presence with a well-developed social media strategy in place can no longer be ignored and leveraging the Flip.to services will make hotel tweets and postings stand out and encourage more page visits while building brand loyalty,” noted Bernard Metzger, founder of TravelIndex.com.

John Moser

“We know from research that our most powerful marketing tool is referral from our current customers,” said John Moser, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, Denihan Hospitality Group. “Flip.to has enabled us to bring the voice of our customers into the sales process.”

Brian Kent

Brian Kent, one of the two founders of Flip.to explained that  “your guests are the single best source for spreading the word about your hotel. Most folks trust their friends and family more than advertisements. Collectively, they’re a huge, untapped marketing force.”

Flip.to already has over 75 hotels around the world on the platform that blends into a number of different guest touch points, including being successfully integrated on all major booking engines. Once integrated, hotels have full control over the messages that guests share and the incentives that can be earned by them and their networks. Flip.to enables hotels to track all of the activity and conversions their guests have drummed up in real time.

Connecting Travellers Online, TravelIndex Revolutionizes Legacy Travel Directories

By Ron Callari on October 11, 2011

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Bernard Metzger

Travelindex.com is an exciting and revolutionary new way for travellers to plan their travel and for travel marketers a showcase of their facilities and services where perfectly matched customers can meet quickly, effortlessly and without hefty price hikes and fees from intermediaries or middlemen. Travelindex.com offers the travel professionals and marketers a powerful, free, marketing platform. It is the ultimate travel directory and travel vertical where travel people connect.

Bernard Metzger, who conceptualized and started this open-source repository database of the World’s travel and tourism resources under the Travelindex Network, also established the Travel & Tourism Foundation as a non-profit organization.

The Foundation aims to support and assist countries and regions that lack the framework or resources to achieve growth in the travel and tourism sector by working with governments, local leaders and professionals to identify and overcome barriers to growth while being sensitive to people’s needs and aspirations. The core purpose of the Travel & Tourism Foundation is to build and promote knowledge that will enhance international cooperation, reduce poverty; improve healthcare and advance human welfare.

At Flip.to, it’s been our intent to assist hotel brands and travellers with a more meaningful and streamlined means to connect with each other, using the most current technology and marketing techniques available today. In discussing these topics with Metzger, we received some unique insights based on his vast experience from both the commercial and non-profit segments of the travel industry.

Since Travelindex is both a B2B as well as a B2C, how does your website benefit hotel brands as well as the individual traveler?

Our slogan is “Connecting travel people”, and I would like to add “Direct”. The benefit for hotel brands and as well as for the individual travelers lies in the “direct connection”. No intermediaries, third parties or OTAs to “interfere” with that very special hotel-guest relationship.

For hotel brands the benefits of a listing at Travelindex.com are multiple, to name just a few
- Increased online visibility at no additional costs.
- More direct bookings on the hotel own website without having to pay any commission to third parties.
- More bookings via phone, email and fax as all our listings with full, direct contact details are free.
- Offering more personalization and get enhanced loyalty through direct communication.
- Global and local exposure as we have a travel index for each country in the world
- Reaching a highly targeted audience through our own network of websites (100+ sites): WorldGolfDirectory.com, AirlineHub.com, VisitSingapore.org and more.

Travelindex helps the traveler to cut through the clutter of travel information with fully human-edited content and a structured navigation for maximum authenticity and accuracy.

On one clean webpage with rich-media and video he will be able to get information about a company and easily establish direct contact by phone, fax or email or by visiting their website.

He will find information not available anywhere else or at least very difficult to find as our team of editors constantly search the deep web and offline sources for valuable data.

With the MyTravelindex feature he can build his own travel rolodex of travel companies relevant when planning his trips.

The Travelindex direct connection model eliminates distribution costs and when a value chain is shortened many of the savings are passed on to the individual traveler in the form of room upgrade, late check-out, complimentary breakfast and bonus points.

As a former director of travel guides, how does Travelindex’s online directory differ from legacy print travel guides, say 15 years ago, pre-Internet?

Online travel guides, and even more so online directories, have numerous advantages over printed editions, for the publisher as well as for the reader.

Print guides are expensive to print and to distribute and updates are likely to take 12 months or more to be reflected in a paper series. A guidebook is limited by size, weight and costs and cannot include detailed background information, reviews or recommendations; it’s a one way communication medium.

An editor or researchers for an online publication can update information live or within minutes of walking out of a museum or hotel. The published information can be verified and reviewed for validation within a few hours. Online travel guides provide access to additional media like video, audio tours or augmented reality and allow for live interaction with friends or traveler sharing the same interests.

Online travel guides can better serve niche audiences by focusing on a specific aspect of a destination or attraction and connect users to areas of interest which are outside the scope of printed guides.

The “static” travel guide, printed or from Web 1.0, is becoming more and more an interactive, live updating companion accessible via all electronic distribution channels.

What is Travelindex’s relationship with the “Travel & Tourism Foundation” and how do the two organizations differ from each other?

While Travelindex is a commercial entity, with a corporate structure, the Travel & Tourism Foundation is a not-for-profit entity with the objective to support organizations and destinations to manage and distribute available data more effectively and access new opportunities through online technology. Further the Foundation aims to educate tourism professionals in developing countries on how to use online tools and leverage available capacity for the benefit of the local tourism industry.

Travelindex supports the Foundation by giving access and use of our data for specific programs and our team is giving its time and efforts to educate and prepare data for approved projects.

As the founder of both organizations I am particularly keen to see our Exchange of Electronic Travel Resources and Assets (xEtra) program succeed. Its goal is to create a worldwide, open source database of the global travel industry, each entity with its unique global identifier. Unfortunately, so far we have received very little support from other players in the sector and none from the major players like Microsoft, Google and Oracle.

Flip.to is a marketing platform for hotels that converts customers into engaged advocates and extends a brand’s marketing reach via their communities on social networks. In your experience, how do you see social media benefitting the hotel industry?

Social media is the fastest growing category of Internet marketing in terms of attracting new users and visitors; YouTube has become the second largest search engine and Facebook is threatening the supremacy of Google as Most Visited website. Social media allows hotels to establish a 1-on-1 relationship with customer like no other media has previously allowed.

As social media continues to grow in importance it has not only become one of the critical tools to interact with customer but is also considered one of the key elements impacting organic search and ranking for the hotel. Hotels that take advantage of the social media channels are seeing significant benefits in terms of online placement and revenue.

Consumer reviews and user generated content still dominates hotelier’s view of social media. While the consumer reviews are absolutely critical, social media extends way beyond consumer reviews into a growing number social media channels. The travel industry in general and hotels in particular can only benefit from a platform like Flip.to, encouraging hotel booked guests to spread the word and share their upcoming trips with their social media connections and friends; the guest becomes an extension of the hotel’s marketing department.

A social media presence with a well-developed social media strategy in place can no longer be ignored and leveraging the Flip.to services will make hotel tweets and postings stand out and encourage more page visits while building brand loyalty.

FastBooking, one of Travelindex’s partners allows Travelindex visitors to book directly with a hotel. This process differs from the standard online travel agent model generating bookings separate from the hotel’s website. What are your thoughts regarding the “Book Direct” vs. “OTA” booking channels?

The direct online channel is not only the most cost effective distribution channel, but provides long term benefits and competitive advantages by reducing dependence on OTAs, building brand loyalty and engaging customers pre- and post-stay. Industry case studies clearly show that the OTA channel is in average 10 times more expensive than the direct online channel. In economic downturns, a comprehensive direct online channel strategy can help hoteliers continue to generate much needed incremental revenues and out-smart their competition.

However to be able to take advantage of the steady growth in online bookings, hotel owners and managers need a clear and adequately funded, direct online channel strategy including, but not limited to search engine and social media marketing, listing in professional industry directories like Travelindex.com, website redesign and optimization, email and mobile marketing.

Several OTAs approach us offering enticing commissions for replacing our direct links to hotels with booking links to their own website; however, we politely decline as our vision and model is and remains, “direct”. In fact, since 1995 when I had developed my first destination website, with real-time online booking, I am advocating the “Direct Channel” vs. the “OTA” channel.

Our partnership with Fastbooking allows us to offer our visitors a “Book Direct” facility taking them, with one click, to the hotel’s own booking page, never to a third party or OTA booking engine.

How does Travelindex’s search engine excel over standard search engines such as Google?

We are not so much a search engine than a library and travel data repository of human edited travel information. All the listings on our search results pages are structured in logical categories and the listing’s content is hand-crafted by our dedicated team.

Google, and other major search engines, send out robots and spiders to collect information, we do it manually and our human editors search constantly information online and offline. Craig Silverstein, employee No. 1 and CTO at Google said “…200-300 years are needed before an intelligent computer will be able to do as well as today’s human reference librarians.” Can you wait 300 years?

Google has indexed 1 trillion web pages, at Travelindex.com we have “only” 400,000+ listings (growing daily); we are basically on opposite ends of the search spectrum. Google is very good at search and at delivering relevant information but try for example to get a full list of all 3 star hotels in the US at Google; 278 million search results dominated by OTAs. Travelindex will deliver a comprehensive list of 27,726 hotels in just two clicks.

On a lighter note, with over 187,000 hotels listed on Travelindex, what are a few of your favorite hotels and destinations in the world?

The world is a big place with many attractive destinations and outstanding properties. To name but a few of my favorite hotels:
• the Crillon in Paris (France),
• the Richemond in Geneva (Switzerland),
• the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo (Monaco),
• the Cala di Volpe at the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia (Italy)
• the W at Times Square, in New York (USA),
• the Oriental in Bangkok (Thailand),
• the Langham Place Mongkok in Hong Kong (China),
• the Little Governor’s Camp in the Masai Mara (Kenya),
• the Mount Nelson in Cape Town (South Africa),
• the Brava Hotel in Buzios (Brazil)

Destinations; it all depends on what one is looking for; landscape or cityscape, island life or wildlife.
• for scenery and landscapes: the American West and the Rocky Mountains,
• for wildlife viewing: East Africa with the fabulous parks in Kenya and Tanzania,
• for pristine nature: New Zealand,
• for the beach and island life: the Seychelles,
• for culture and traditions: Thailand,
• for city life and shopping: Paris, New York, Las Vegas and Bangkok.

Flip.to Identifies Hotels’ Net Promoters & Turns Them into Advocates

By Ron Callari on September 27, 2011

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While hundreds of CRM metric systems have evolved over the years, guests have been inundated with hotel survey requests that are lengthy and antiquated. Recently, with the extensive research conducted by loyalty expert Fred Reichheld, it has been found that brands are best served when they distill the whole process down to one simple question: “Would you recommend this hotel to a friend?”

Outlined in his book, “The Ultimate Question,” Reichheld found that companies could distinguish “promoters” from “detractors” to produce a clearer picture of an organization’s performance from its customers’ perspective. His extensive use cases actually proved that increasing a “Net Promoter Score” or NPS by merely a dozen points or so, over the competition, could double a company’s growth rate.

Today, Flip.to has integrated that principle into its Review Component, adding yet another touch-point for a guest’s engagement with a hotel brand. (Other Flip.to touch-points include at the time a guest books a room and when an anonymous visitor lands on the hotel’s site but isn’t ready to make a reservation.)

After a guest’s visit, Flip.to sends out an email asking for a quick review with a unique URL and an incentive as thanks for the two minutes it takes. The first question is “how likely are you to recommend our hotel to your friends?” If the score is above a certain threshold, Flip.to now knows that this guest is a “Net Promoter”.

Next up, Flip.to asks for a short quote from the guest that sums up their stay. This is feedback that the hotel can use to reach back directly to guests who have had a negative experience, with the hope of getting another shot at their patronage in the future.

If the feedback is positive, Flip.to encourages the guest to spread the word to their friends, relatives and colleagues. A branded message is passed along with a link back to the hotel’s website that is personalized for each guest, which includes their quote.

After posting to their social networks, happy guests are directed over to share their thoughts on TripAdvisor with a link to the hotel’s review page.

Flip.to has rethought the antiquated review process and turned it into something that’s personalized and quick for guests and a tool that helps hotels identify their “Net Promoters”- the folks that are the absolute best marketers of any property.

For hoteliers interested in viewing a demo of Flip.to’s Review Component and other hotel social media and marketing features, head over to http://flip.to →

Mapping The Strategy of China’s Leading Social Network

By Ron Callari on September 11, 2011

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Donna Li
Donna Li

Donna Li is the GM of Strategic Marketing & Media Planning of RenRen.com, the largest SNS of China. She oversees the network’s corporate marketing as well as monetization models through brand advertising. By developing effective marketing solutions via social media mechanisms she has been successful:

1. Leading the re-branding campaign of RenRen.com from Xiaonei.com, by working closely with agencies like Saatchi&Saatchi, OgilvyOne, and Starcom.

2. Planning numerous benchmark SNS marketing campaigns for MNC brands, where McDonald’s “Let’s Meet” won a Digital Media Award and EFFIE Award among others.

3. Creating an innovative business model by integrating SNS with E-commerce, generating new sales leads, by building partnership with Taobao and almost all major B2C e-commerce sites.

4. Developing innovative ad products and systems, which disrupt the traditional online marketing funnel and reward the advertiser with better ROI.

5. Building a strong and competitive marketing, planning and creative team, gaining recognized reputation in the industry.

In our interview with Li, she walks us through how RenRen is fast becoming a dominant player in the social media space, not only in China but worldwide. With the network’s recent IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, the world is starting to take notice of a social network that one day might rival the likes of Facebook and Google+ internationally. And for travel brands, RenRen might be an option to reach a global audience.

Since the popularity of RenRen as a social network has scaled favorably amongst Chinese netizens over the last couple of years, what would you say is the key to its success over other social networks in China?

We focus on what we believe in and what we can do best; that is, people’s need for social belongings. This is especially true for the demographic born in the 1980s. Our mission is to define the social networking experience and to revolutionize the way Internet users connect, communicate, entertain and shop in China.

Based on this, we have been developing products and services that satisfy our users growing needs, like streaming music, light blogging (Xiaozhan) photos sharing, social gaming, public pages, mobile apps in all operating systems, privacy management within an open platform that enables users to visit and share quality content from all sites.

We also stick to “real name, real social graph” – this is the core of everything in social networking and sustainable development. And we market our brands to the right people at the right time.

We understand that a partnership with Microsoft has just been struck. Aside from sharing a range of applications, can you tell us how you foresee this strategic alliance benefitting RenRen with its growth over the next couple of years?

Like MSN, we are open to all possible partnerships that can create a win-win for both companies we well as users. With this partnership, we expect to make our users’ communication among friends more accessible, smoother, and more efficient, while, at the same time, driving our users growth with the senior white-collar professional demographic.

Since “travel” appears to trend very well as one of the major topics on RenRen, can you share some your findings on users’ travel interests and behaviors?

From our travel industry surveys, we found the following:

  • 87.7% RenRen users are travelers, and 82.9% are travel enthusiasts. 95% Renren users have travel plans in the next year, while 62.4% travel at least once per year.
  • Internet and their friends are the two major channels to obtain travel information.
  • 48.3% Renren users would like to proactively share their travel experiences. About 50% users browse and click the ads of travel related, and 22.4% have browsed a variety of tourism boards’ official pages or websites.
  • Travel photos and videos in RenRen are most popular among Renren users; 33.2% users actively upload and 28.9% comment or reply, and many like to recommend travel information to their friends.

How can hotel, airline and restaurant brands use the network to improve on their brand messaging and customer relations on RenRen?

I’d like to recommend a simple but effective SNS marketing model as below:

This model would help brands accumulate massive brand fans and build Social CRM faster, easier and cost-effective. In addition to this, brands could analyze their fans through our Data Analytic System, with which they can constantly optimize their communication strategies and contents, while finding insights and making brand fans their advocates.

RenRen has developed advertising opportunities for brands similar to what Facebook calls “Fan Pages” – yet your social network charges fees for this channel, where FB does not. So, while large brands may have the budgets for this type of advertising, how can a small to mid-size business gain exposure on your network?

RenRen “Fan Pages” have been FREE to all brands and enterprises since Aug 1st this year; So, no matter your business is big or small, you are all welcome to start your “fan Page” now FREE, and with an upgraded version and analytics.

Why should international travel brands outside of China consider RenRen as a viable marketing channel?

For the following reasons:

1. RenRen covers over 190 MM real-name users in China, mainly white-collar professionals and college students, the group with best education, strongest consuming power and highest travel interests. In addition to the survey data noted above, according to the latest third-party research 83% of RenRen users like travel, and over 20.6% of them travelled abroad in a year, for leisure purposes, And most importantly, over 54% of them have spent between 10,000 to 20,000 RMB on the average, per year!

2. Users share their travel experiences on RenRen and are reciprocated by receiving travel recommendations in return.

You are credited with developing innovative ad products and systems, which disrupt the traditional online marketing funnel and rewards the advertisers with better ROI. Can you provide us with some examples of this?

Our innovative ad products are called “Social Ads”. It allows advertisers to earn free media (WOM) through “news feeds” generated by users, in addition to paid impressions and clicks.

RenRen’s recent IPO this past May on the New York Stock Exchange has been watched carefully by other social media companies. How has the stock fared and how has it benefitted your company in China and internationally?

While I am not the right person to comment on stock, what I can say is that the IPO definitely has increased RenRen’s brand exposure with all stakeholders, domestically and internationally.

On a lighter note, what is your favorite hotel in Beijing and why?

I am a heavy business traveler and an avid leisure traveler. Unfortunately, I live in Beijing and rarely stay in hotels when my home is here. If I had to choose however, I would recommend the St. Regis, Park Hyatt, and The Opposite House.

Embracing Change: From Tech CEO to Hotel CEO

By Ron Callari on August 18, 2011

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Ben Rafter
Ben Rafter

With the tech industry moving at lightning speed, Aqua Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii are now benefitting from the expertise that their new President & CEO brings to the table. For more than fifteen years, Ben Rafter has been directing successful e-commerce and technology companies such as JetAway/Travelworm, Get2Hawaii and Innerlinx (renamed Livbid), a real-time auction model, which was eventually sold to Amazon.com.

Returning to the industry where his career first began with Westin Hotels & Resorts, at Aqua, Ben is an active participant in advancing tech industry best practices for the hospitality industry. In this role, he’s also been charged with the task of developing and executing the company’s global growth strategy.

For us at Flip.to, a tech firm that’s been developing innovative marketing and social media solutions for the travel industry, we felt Ben was a great source of feedback as to how the two industries can learn from each other and benefit from a symbiotic relationship. Here is a recent interview we conducted with Ben in this regard.

Your career kicked off in the hospitality industry and you’ve been back in it for the past 10 years or so. In between, you co-founded a technology startup and stayed in that industry for several years. What’s the differences between the two- hospitality versus tech?

The hospitality industry uses fairly advanced technologies, so I’ll differentiate the tech industry from technology itself. In that regard, hospitality and tech are almost polar opposites of each other. The speed of change in tech is measured in minutes, whereas the changes in hotels themselves – not necessarily the distribution channels – are measured in decades. Tech is low-employee, high margin, high efficiency. Hotels are low margin and inherently inefficient. All of that said, hospitality is an exciting, lifestyle industry that all other industries can learn from: the guest and employee interaction is rich and it’s easy to see how products and ideas impact people. The most interesting part for me has been finding the happy medium of enriching the guest experience and learning from hospitality industry team members while applying some of the traditional elements of tech.

What are the best takeaways from your tech experience that you’ve transferred over to your role as CEO of Aqua?

Embrace change. People in tech aren’t afraid of change because it’s a constant. Beyond that, it’s reinforcement of what works in all industries: diversify your team, hire people smarter than you and share the successes.

As an employee-owned hotel company, has Aqua fared better than its competition during the current downturn in the economy?

Aqua has almost tripled in size since the downturn started. A lot of the growth is because all of us are in it together as owners of the company. We maximized work opportunity for team members during the downturn and, in return, everyone pitched in, made some shared sacrifices and ensured the guest experience was great. As we start to emerge from the downturn we’re certainly better positioned and all of the team members now own a bigger piece of the rock. I’m not aware of any other hotel company that can say the same.

Has the Aqua Lite brand assisted in appealing to a wider market audience during this time period? What are some of the attributes that distinguish this product?

The experience should be localized. Most people aren’t coming to Hawaii to experience the same, vanilla hotel that exists throughout the mainland. Second, service shouldn’t be sacrificed just because a hotel is 2 ½ stars. We have guests from two star to five star coming to Hawaii and for all of them the visit represents a significant event.

With Flip.to launching a new component to convert anonymous website visitors into potential future guests, what other marketing initiatives has Aqua deployed in achieving a return on investment online?

We’ll try just about everything. Clearly integrating into our guests’ networks and ensuring our products are relevant is important to us. Flip.to has been a good partner here. It’s worth pointing out that a lot of our attention right now is actually on the measurement side. Too many hotel companies launch initiatives and then have no way to qualify or quantify them. We’re investing in technology and people to do so. I would like to see some of the quants that have been disassociated from the finance industry jump into hospitality. There’s a lot of potential and hospitality is much more fun.

The massive 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Japan in March impacted the entire Pacific. How were Hawaii and Aqua affected?

Hawaii’s recovery was accelerating throughout the first quarter of 2011. We were actually having a party to reward all of our managers the very night the earthquake happened. We now see slower but still steady growth in Hawaii for a few years before we are get back to the pre-recession years. Japan itself is proving more resilient than we thought and at this point we’re watching air lift, oil prices and the US economy at least as closely.

On a lighter note, after someone has stayed at one of the Aqua Resorts for their time in the sun, what’s your top pick for a cold vacation?

I can’t sit still for more than thirty minutes, so I’d pick a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas. Unfortunately, climbing an 8000 meter peak takes too long for most of us, including me. Perhaps trekking the Dolomites or through one of our national parks in the Winter when the crowds are down.

Turning Anonymous Website Visitors into Future Guests – Denihan Hospitality Group Inspiration

By Ron Callari on August 9, 2011

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Denihan Hospitality Group has recently signed up all of their hotel brands with Flip.to, a marketing engine that engages guests to boost brand awareness and earn new guests. Owners/operators of Affinia and The James brands, and luxury independents including The Benjamin and The Surrey in NYC, Denihan was the inspiration for Flip.to’s latest feature – a component that converts anonymous website visitors into future guests.

The James Chicago was the first Denihan hotel to launch Flip.to back in early 2010. Flip.to, at its core, is a service that integrates with a hotel’s website and booking engine that turns their existing guests into a huge team of trusted advocates, spreading the word about customers’ upcoming trips and where they’ll be staying out to their social networks. On average, over 25% of The James’ guests engage with Flip.to. This means that 1 in 4 of their guests have become an extension of their marketing force, leading to tremendous reach and soaring past industry averages for marketing campaigns.

Hotels convert a fairly small percentage of people visiting their websites into booked guests. While those reasons are obvious to most, the difficult challenge for hotels is they never learn who those people are, and then lose the opportunity to communicate with them over time. A new feature of Flip.to helps convert those ordinarily anonymous visitors into a pool of future guests.

John Moser, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer of Denihan, was interested in how Flip.to might engage anyone visiting their hotels’ websites, not just existing guests. That was the spark that led to a new product to be launched this summer. “We know from research that our most powerful marketing tool is referral from our current customers. Flip.to has enabled us to bring the voice of our customers into the sales process,” states Moser.

When a website visitor lands on the hotel’s website, Flip.to will now show a post or review from a recent guest making the page immediately more personable. From there, Flip.to highlights the incentive (a room upgrade or discounted room rate, for example) that a particular guest earned for sharing his or her thoughts, compliments of the hotel.

The goal here is to drive that anonymous visitor towards booking a room before leaving the site. But, if they are not ready to secure a reservation at that stage, in just two clicks they can lock in an incentive for themselves that’s valid for a set period of time. This allows Flip.to provide the hotel with a new means to communicate with potential new guests over time, via friendly reminders.

Anonymous visitors then have time to determine whether or not to exercise the incentive option or pass it along to one of their friends or followers. This process achieves several goals; incentivizing anonymous visitors or their friends to book a room in the short term, and if they don’t, allowing the hotel to continuously communicate with these visitors with the goal of converting them into guests sometime in the future.

Throughout this process, the hotel learns who that visitor is- including the individual’s name, email address, and profile photo- and builds a deep pool of future guests with whom to engage.
This new Flip.to feature provides an even bigger boost to a hotel brand’s return on engagement, and also tacks on a trackable means to monitor return on investment.

Our Interview with Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist & One of the “Fathers of the Internet”

By Ron Callari on July 20, 2011

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Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf

It’s hard to think of an industry that hasn’t been impacted, if not entirely turned on its head, as a result of the Internet. Vint Cerf is probably one of the best people to thank or blame for kick-starting the whole process. Widely recognized as one of “the fathers of the Internet,” he is also acknowledged as a futurist focused on such diverse areas of study as artificial intelligence, environmentalism and the the transformation of the television industry and its delivery model.

As Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google since 2005, Cerf travels the world over. So at Flip.to we were excited to get his perspective on how travel is being affected by new technologies, from user-generated recommendations to Google+ to space travel.

You’re a sought after speaker on any number of really interesting topics, which has led you to becoming a prolific traveler. What’s the biggest downside and your favorite upside to that? And what’s your favorite source for tips in a city you’re less than familiar (other than Google, of course)?

Biggest downside is that heavy commercial travel is potentially very inefficient – there is a lot of time spent getting through airports and although some people can work effectively on long flights, I find that it is sometimes hard to get as much done as I would like because of time zone changes that compel you to sleep to adjust. The biggest upside is face to face meetings that are often far more effective than teleconferencing, videoconferencing or email. Of course, there is also the thrill of discovering a new city or a new restaurant and chef!!

As for tips, I actually rely a lot on my friends, many of whom travel as much as I do. Some cities have very good web sites. I have also found that our travel agency is helpful as are locals I might be visiting.

Social media has proven that search results ranked by domain-authority and link popularity alone does not trump people-authority and user-generated recommendations. When Google’s Twitter deal expired recently, real-time results disappeared from Google SERPs. This lessened website traffic for many travel brands online. How do you see Google+ filling that void and providing an even better service/experience for hotels and airline websites going forward?

Google+ has the property that it allows users to create “circles” of friends, colleagues and contacts that revolve around specific topics or interests. The “+1″ mechanism should allow for more personal feedback on products, brands and services that can be factored into rankings. Searching while logged into Google allows users to take even more advantage of such nuanced responses.

Google’s recent acquisition of ITA Software, the meta-search technology that drives online travel agents (OTAs) has caused concern that Google search results will direct travel bookings to Google’s preferred vendors, versus flight aggregators such as Expedia or Travelocity. Wouldn’t such a move lessen competition, resulting in reduced choice for consumers and less innovation from providers?

As far as I am aware, Google’s ranking mechanisms are not intended to bias the results in the way your question suggests.

Flip.to is a social media marketing service that converts hotel and airline consumers into engaged advocates. It does so, at time of booking – through a process call “magnetic marketing” – the time when the bond between the customer and the brand is the greatest. What prompts you to recommend a travel brand or destination to your friends and associates?

Typically, my endorsement is a consequence of a good experience with the service provider. Often this has to await an actual stay, dining experience, use of transportation, etc. I am especially enthusiastic when repeated experiences are positive.

Known around the world as “Father of the Internet,” what’s the most interesting anecdote or story that comes to mind from travelers you meet for the first time that acknowledge your title?

I’m just one of the fathers of the Internet but the most common question I get is: “did you have any idea when you were designing this system what it would become?” Of course, the honest answer is “no, but we knew this was a pretty powerful technology!”

What’s your take on the end of NASA’s shuttle program, seemingly without any future exploration plans in place? Are private companies the future of space innovation?

I am a big fan of robotic space exploration on the grounds that it has produced the largest quantity of scientific data per dollar spent. I have sometimes thought that the space exploration problem should have budget firewalls between manned and robotic exploration for that reason. I am a science fiction fan and I like the idea that someday we will “move off planet” but in the next 50 years, I think we would benefit from vigorous robotic exploration so as to have a clearer sense of what we are up against, trying to maintain astronaut lives in long-term interplanetary missions.

Any plans to book a seat on a commercial space flight in the coming years?

Nope.

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