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September 2012 I HotelManagem

DIGITAL MARKETINGR o u n d t a b l e d e b a t e s m o b i l e b i g d a t a t o p ic sAt the Ataway Exchange roundtable in Washington, D.C, participants went backand forth on a slew of topics dealing with the fluid state of digital marketing

By David EisenMANAGING EDITOR

W ith customers at all stages relying more heavily on technology in their purchasing pa tterns, the hotel industry has hadto move quickly to meet their de mand s. Reac hing customers via mobile, the effect of online travel agencies and sortingthrou gh hig data were all topics covered during th e Ataway Exchange roun dtable, which w a s held in Jtily at the MexicanCultural Institute in W ashington, D. C , and moderated by Hotel Management.Eleven participants from varied backgrounds in the industry, including hotel companies, destination companies and online travelagencies, came together to discuss the state ofe commerceand the way in which companies workt o market their products to the public.The results showed tha t while steps are being made on the digital front, k eeping up to speed is a co nstant battle.

H M : Descrihe how your organizationis thinking about online marketing ande ommer etoday?Danielle Courtenay C M O Visit Orlando:It's part of a whole [strategy], notseparate conversations. It's part of theoverall goal. W e are a destination ...we never think like, 'here's digital andhere's traditional,' it's always partof the whole discussion. How it fitstogether.Tara Stan gel senior director globalhotel team. Hotwire:W e look at i tmore broadly. Internet adoption isgrowing in places like Brazil, Chinaand India, and as they expand there ismore discretionary income to spendon travel.

Look a t those places: How can

we speak to them and utilize socialsites? Specifically mob ile; they usemore mobile. W e have to be in thatlandscape.Chris Gabaldon chief sales andmarketing officer. The Ritz-Carltonot l Company:For Ritz-Carlton,growth is international; more than50 percent outside No rth A mericain non-English speaking countries.O ur global reach has to evolve [andinclude] 30 different languag es.How do we adopt to a truly globale commerceplatform?

[Regarding] social media, if anyonehas the answer, send it to m e . W e arestill tiying to und erstand its role inmarketing efforts. Is there areturn?W e are com mitted to it, but [trying] tounderstand it s place.

W e are committed to mobile, thenew frontier. It's a new conn ectionpoint. Putting the brand in theirpocket is important.Debbie Bingham V of businessdevelopment Vegas.com: Focusingon the customer and data drives ourbusiness. Now that technology hasgiven the customer more power thanever, you have to chase them arou ndto find wherever they want to book.H M : How has the rise of mobile affectedyour business? How do you approachthis channel?Kelly Poling V of marketing anddistribution strategy. Choice HotelsInternational:You have to be where theguests are. Look at the adoption of the

The Ataway Exchange roundtabbrought to you by HotelManagement, was held at theMexican Cultural Institute inWashington, D.C, in July. From left, c lockwise: David Eisen, managing editorManagement; Bryan Owen, director of interaHershey Entertainment Resort Rosanne Zusman, SVP of branmarketing, Wyndham Hotel Gro Kelly Poling, VP of marketing adistribution strategy. Choice HotInternational; Tara Stangel, senior director, ghotel team. Hotwire; Mike Pusateri, founder andchairman, Ataway Exchange; Greg Dunn, EVP/consumer insand industry research, MMG Y; Danielle Courtenay, CMO, VisiOrlando; and Debbie Bingham, VP of businedevelopment, Vegas.com. On phone: Chris Gabaldon, chsales and marketing officer Th eRitz-Carlton Hotel Company. Not pictured: Francia Santanadirector of e-commerce, MexicoTourist Board.

tablet. There are 95 million tablthere now. By 2 0 1 5 there will bmillion. There are only 470 millsma rtphon es. The tablet space iimp ortan t as it relates to mobileW ho is g etting that share of tmobile bookings? OTA s in the hspace have abou t 8 percent shareall hotels booked; for mobile, thoit's 44 percent. They are much mheavily penetrated in the mobile than we are a shotel suppliers. W

be cognizant of it.Mike Pusateri founder and chairmAtaway Exchange:[Mobile] is grquickly. There's still no t a real goon the distinction between phontablet. Twelve mon ths from nowmoving much faster than peopleaware of.Stangel:Customers using m obilare booking on the day of, for tonight 65 percent. Mostly Friday and Saturday. Sam e day must increase on mobile.

SeeRoundtable I

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o u n d t b l eContinued from page 2Rosanne Zusman SV of brand marketing WyndhamHotel Group:Whe n we launched our mobile-optimize d sites, we saw more business th roug hthem. But for every one booking on mobile, sevenwere through voice. Not on the tablet, maybe,there they complete the reservation right there.Wh en measuring mobile, don't just look at onlinebookings. Eighty to 90 percent of mobile bookingsare made through voice. It's not easy to book onmobile.Poling:We all knew m obile would grow fast. Thegoal was to grow mobile revenue [by] 200 percent.It's up over 1,000 percent year-over-year.Bryan Owen, director of interactive, HersheyEntertainment Resorts Company:Tab le t v is i ta t ion ishigher than mobile sm attphone.

[Mobile] is growing quickly.Tliere's still no t a real good fix onthe distinction between phoneand ta blet. Twelve m onth s fromnow? It's moving m uch fasterth an people are aware of.Mike Pusateri founder and chairman Ataway Exchange

You have to be where the guestsare.Look at the adoption of the

tablet. There are 95 million tabletsout therenow. y2015,there willbe 500 million. There are only 470

million smartphones.The tablet space is very imp ortant

as it relates to m obile.KellyPoling V of marketing and distribution strategy.

Choice Hotels International

Gabaldon:M obile is incredibly powerful. It'sgrowing faster than ex pected. Does it take longer tobook a Ritz-Carlton transaction? It's twice that ofan upper-upscale hotel. Twice the talk time. Harderto do on a mobile device. [Customers like] seekinginfo or content research. At the siteiswhere theygather info. They still like to pick up the pho neand call when it's about $20,000. Online versustraditional: Online growing 30 percent per year;travel agents growing 3-4 percent per year.H M : Do you know wha t percentage of yourorganization's marketing budget is dedicated to digitalmarketing?Poling: About an even spilt. Ha lf goes to online , halfoffline in media spend. It's all TV offline. We'vekilled print, radio and put that money into digital.We've shifted dollars.Zusman:Each of our brands has its own budg et.Fifty to 60 percent goes to online, b ut it varies bybran ds. All of our offline media poin ts back tothe websiteto the value of booking online. Weare pushing people there and recommend it asthe preferred c hanne l for booking. We don't evenpromote the call center.Stangel:We don't differ b etween digital andtradition al. Thirty-five percen t of $1.2 billion[revenue] is purely [spent] on ma rketing lots ofcomm ercials. We still get business throu gh the callcenter.H M : OTAs versus tbe brands: Wbat's tbe competitionfor customer wallet like?Poling:We still survey guests and they stillunderstand the value proposition of going straightto the supplier. The more informed travelers stillhave a preference for bookin g on the supplier site.We are dramatically underspent versus the OTAs;theway wecombat that is by continuing to educateconsumers of the benefit of going to supplier sites:special rates, loyalty program points, the benefitof the best Internet g uaran tee. There are still

SeeRoundtable I Page 74

Wha twesee is glob alizationWe are good at sending

people from No rth Am ericato inter nation al sites and vice

versa. But w ithin[acountry], ware [still] learn ing.

TaraStangel senior director global hotelteam.Hotwir

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September 2012 I HotellVlanagenie

o u n d t b l eContinued from page 7compelling benefits to going to choicehotels.com.[The online travel agents] have more dollars, but wehold our own.Stangel For us, it's the opportunity to reach moreconsumers. We want more people to travel andexpand and reach out internationally to inspirethem to travel. We m arket the idea of travelgiving consumers th e freedom to choose where andwhen th ey want to boo k. It's the billboard effect. ingham OTAs are just another chan nel. They getadvertising and marketing. [Customers] still bookdirect. It's a 'co-opetition.'Pusateri Expdia has its own loyalty program and[things like] the shopping basket. It makes it easierto do it all right thereeven in mobile. The OTAsare leading tha t.Zusman If you have good mobile sites, people willfind you. You don't have to do m obile advertising.We are seeing great increases in mobile with h ardlyany mobile advertising. That device becomes anextension of you. We are spend ing little on mob ileadvertising, and we are seeing a great retu rn.

If we don't have newchannelswe don't

have advancement.Hospitality is not

always on th e leadingedge. If you look at thebanking industry, they

are masters in C RM . It'salways good to look at

other industries.Danielle Courtenay CMO Visit O rlando

Poling There's an initial up-front costto m obile. The cost for mobile hasto do with what you believe abouttransactiona l costs on mobile. Ifwe are shifting sh are from peoplewho wou ld have just showed up atprope rty directly, I love that. It'sdriving more revenue to our ownersat a 30-perce nt average daily ratepremium. However,if it is being m adewith some kind ofintervention , where wemay commission, youare introducing morecost by going throughmobile. Where is that share shiftingfrom? Go to brand.com because thatis free and has a high ADR . It's themost profitable way for hoteliers.H M : What are your organizationsgreatest ciiaifenges witii regard todigitai mari(eting?Stangel W ha t we see is globalization.How do we get to where everyone is?We've [translated] into 36 languages,which helps. How do we speak tothose emerging users? How do we getto them? Where are they searchingand w hich social sites are they using?We are good at sending people from

North America to international sites and vice vBut within [aco untry ], we are [still] learning.Owen We are looking at attribution modelingWhe re people spend their dollars. Trying tounderstand that.Zusman Media mix modelingTV, radio. Hobroadcast infiuences o nline. The challenge is sworking through attribution. How do we makdecisions about spending in an agnosticway Hdo you spend sm arter? We are also cracking doon people buying our brand terms. It runs costGabaldon The challenge we run into is contentcreation. The luxury con sumer is less transactioriented. Producing rich, immersive content

SeeRoundtable I P

Focusing on the customer and data drives our business.Now that technology has given the customer more power tha never, you have to chase them arou nd to find w herever they wa nto book.Debbie Bingham VP of bus iness development Vegas.com

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September 2012 I HotelManage me

o u n d t b l eContinued from page 7and deciding where to put itright device,right channel is very challenging. In terms ofattribu tion, we do track it, but don't credit it past 14days. We spend a fair share of time try ing to relateour efforts to actual tran sactions and don't spend alot of time figuring out how much time they spentat an OTAsiteor where they came in from andwhere they are going after.H M : What do you think destination and hotel CEOs,operators and owners and GMs need to know aboute commerce

Poling The hotel distribution environment iscomplex. It's a blessing and a curse that we are in ahigh-margin business. Any high-margin industryis open for intermediaries to get a piece. Every daynew online distribution models emerge. It's helpfulfor owners to be pa rt of a broader franchise systemto try to create some calm in the storm. G iven soman y players now, we have to pay closer attention tochannel and revenue managem ent. It matters whereyou are pushing reservations.

The opportunity insocial [media] is about

recovery. Show ing howyou handle a situation.

How you respond tocomplaints. We are

getting to that pointnow.

BryanOwen,director of interactive,Hershey E ntertainment

Resorts Company

Stangel Any time you have anindustry that generates trillionsof dollars you're going to haveintermediaries who want a piece.It's going to continue to grow. Wh atI look for is how can we enhan cehospitality. That will help grow thebusiness.Zusman Rate parityisimportan t. You can't hideand have different rates in different places.Courtenay If we don't have new chan nels we don 'thave advancemen t. Hospitality is not always on th eleading edge. If you look at the bank ing in dustry,they are masters in CRM . Different industrieshave different thing s. It's always good to look atother industries. What can you learn from retail,insurance, automotive?H M : How do you engage with consumers via socialmedia? What works for you from an ROI perspective,and what doesn t? ingham Social mediaisreal time. If [our hotels]have bad reviews, we let them k now.Gabaldon Our perspective is from a brand-building perspective. Facebook is about consumerengagem ent. Twitter is for completely differentpurpo se for u s. It's a message dissemination vehicle.Nin ety p ercent of our followers are travel agents,me dia... it's a PR vehicle. To what degree do wewant to train the consumer that my breakfast

was 10 minutes late, let me tweet this out. W hhappened to just calling the front desk? Whe ndid it become a good idea to blast that? I worryare going down a dangerous path. We try to taconversations offline. That's our challenge on tsocial front. Whetherweshow an ROI? No idIs it just brand en gagemen t or is there adv ertisthere?Owen The opportunity in social [media] is aborecovery. Showing how you ha ndle a situation.you respond to complaints. We are getting to tpoint now.Stangel On our sites, those who engage with uFacebook have a higher propensity to book.H M : How is rich media changing online, in termshow it affects consumer booking behavior?Courtenay Everyone considers rich mediadifferently. V ideo is a big conversation righ t noWh en [customers] get to channels, the lowestinteraction rate is video. But once they book, tgo back and look. It depends on where they ar

If you have good m obile sites, people will find you. You don't have to domobile adve rtising. We are seeing great increases in mobile wi th hard lyany mobile advertising. We are spending little on m obile advertising, an dwe are seeing a great retu rn.Rosanne Zu sman,SV of brand marketing, W yndham Hotel Group

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atelManagement net I September 2012

It s hard to translate

M : What is your experiencebuilding apps to interactguests?

We waited long

p 10 travelweek on iTunes. The

services.Tie [apps] also with guest

pps] to the onsite experienceicipate needs. You can

end . That s moreservice.

What aboutr dataand using

phone as a wallet? Are you

It s the inevitablefrom the

phone as a key,r payment, loyaltyshare info across your

l network, publish aThe accelerated

of mobile technology isaw ay.

M : Ify ou had unlimitedto spend toward digital

how would you use What is on your wish list?

I would start with

Zusman:We have arudimentary CRM . It s onthe wish list. How to getbetter insight about yourcustomer: Recognize them atcheck in, PMS implications,etc.

I d like a robust CRMplatform that is optimized.It s on our roadmap, but it scomplex and expensive.

ranciaSantana director ofe-commerce Mexico TouristBoard:I would spend onpredictive modeling, if moneywasn t an issue. Augmentedreality.Poling: A greater level ofpersonalization, like whatAmazon and Target do.Deciding based on whatyou ve done before.C]

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C h e c k i n o n l in e t o c h e c k o u t th e v id e oB Checkoutvideo of fhe AtawayExchange roundtab leroughtto you by Hotel Management online at www.

hotelmanagement.net.And keep an eye out for new monthlycover geof digital marketing topics in the print issue of HotelManagement beginningsoon.

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