DIGITAL DESTINATIONS

Dr Philip Alford Bournemouth University

www.digitalhub.co.uk

www.pinterest.com/digitaldest www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU

Digital Destinations project is an ESRC funded research project, delivered by Bournemouth University,

with an overarching aim to:

‘capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy. Through increased understanding and use

of emerging digital technologies, visitor economy businesses will be in a position to increase their marketing and management effectiveness, and develop new products

and services that will provide an enhanced experience for visitors to their destinations’

The businesses benefited from 4 workshops which covered: Background to on line marketing

Individual Business objectives

Developing the strategy

Measuring impact

Reporting outcomes via case studies

All course material can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub All business outcomes and blogs can be found at http://www.budigitalhub.co.uk/

The following presentation is the case study provided by Splashdown Splashdown applied to the project to obtain a better understanding of the digital capital held and to work out how they could leverage this commodity better. The organisation felt that they had a digital presence but it was not strategic or focused. They were able to introduce more focused e-shots, connected offers and measurable activity.

DIGITAL DESTINATIONS SPLASHDOWN WATERPARKS – ACTION PLAN

WHY DID WE ENTER THIS PROJECT?

• TO LEARN HOW TO USE POWER POINT (OR NOT!)

WHY DID WE ENTER THIS PROJECT?

• TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIGITAL CAPITAL WE HOLD AND TO WORK OUT

HOW WE COULD LEVERAGE THIS COMMODITY BETTER.

WHY DID WE ENTER THIS PROJECT?

• TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIGITAL CAPITAL WE HOLD AND TO WORK OUT

HOW WE COULD LEVERAGE THIS COMMODITY BETTER.

WE KNOW THAT DIGITAL ASSETS ARE VALUABLE – BUT JUST HOW VALUABLE?

WITHOUT THIS KNOWLEDGE WE CANNOT KNOW IF THE EFFORT (COST +TIME COST) = REAL

VALUE TO THE BUSINESS.

WHY DID WE ENTER THIS PROJECT?

• TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIGITAL CAPITAL WE HOLD AND TO WORK OUT

HOW WE COULD LEVERAGE THIS COMMODITY BETTER.

WE KNOW THAT DIGITAL ASSETS ARE VALUABLE – BUT JUST HOW VALUABLE?

WITHOUT THIS KNOWLEDGE WE CANNOT KNOW IF THE EFFORT (COST +TIME COST) = REAL

VALUE TO THE BUSINESS.

WE ENGAGE WITH OUR CUSTOMERS DIGITALLY - WE HAVE FACEBOOK, TWITTER, E-SHOTS ,

LINKEDIN AND YOUTUBE BUT ON A SOMEWHAT AD-HOC MOSTLY REACTIVE WAY WITH ONLY

RUDIMENTARY BENCHMARKING IN PLACE

IN SHORT WE HAVE DIGITAL BUT NO DIGITAL STRATEGY

?

SO WHY BOTHER?

• TRADITIONAL MEDIA IS EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE AND PLACE AND HARD TO CHANGE IN

RAPIDLY CHANGING TRADING – WE ARE HUGELY WEATHER DEPENDANT DIGITAL ALLOWS US

FLEXIBILITY DAY BY DAY, HOUR BY HOUR.

• PAPER ADVERTISING IS VERY HARD TO MEASURE.

• COMBINING TRADITIONAL WITH DIGITAL IS NOW POSSIBLE – QR CODES, DISCREET URLS,

COUPON CODING, E-SIGN UPS CAN BE VERY POWERFUL. OOH MEDIA IS BECOMING MORE

INTERACTIVE AND CAN PLAY A ROLE IN THE MARKETING MIX. IT IS MEASUREABLE BUT YOU

NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO IT.

• WE ALREADY HOLD KEY DIGITAL

ASSETS

• WE KNOW HOW TO OBTAIN NEW

DIGITAL ASSETS EASILY AND

CHEAPLY

7%

1%

3%

1%

2%

86%

Connections

Facebook Twitter e-signups Booking Data e-commerce trans. Unique Hits*

THEY’RE JUST KIDS OUR END USERS ARE IN THE AGE RANGE 9 –

17 – THEY ONLY KNOW DIGITAL, THEY

HAVE GROWN UP IN THE DIGITAL

REVOLUTION. THEY ARE WELDED TO

TECHNOLOGY, IT’S NOT A LUXURY IT’S A

NECESSITY. THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO

ACCESS INFORMATION IN ANY OTHER WAY.

THEY ARE PRIME DRIVERS IN FAMILY/FRIEND

ACTIVITY IF WE ARE TO PRISE THEM FROM

THEIR SCREENS WE MUST BE IN THEIR

DOMAIN

WHO ARE WE TRYING TO IMPRESS?

OUR PRIME PAYERS (MUMS) ARE DIGITALLY SAVVY

- THEY MAY NOT HAVE GROWN UP IN A

PREDOMINANTLY DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT BUT

THEY HAVE EMBRACED THE TECHNOLOGY THAT

ALLOWS THEM TO MAKE THEIR LIFE EAISER E.G.

ONLINE SHOPPING, REVIEW SITES/ PEER SITES,

MUM BLOGGERS AND INFORMATION POINTS

THAT ALLOW THEM TO MAKE EASY DECISIONS

REGARDING THEIR LEISURE ACTIVITIES E.G.

WEBSITES AND E-COMMERCE. OUR OWN DATA

BACKS UP MUM AS BEING THE BOOKER OF

ACTIVITY ONLINE.

PEPPERS AND ROGERS (2002 (CITED BY CHAFFEY AND ELLIS-CHADWICK

2012)), THIS GROUP HAS POTENTIAL TO BECOME THE MORE VALUABLE

CUSTOMERS THROUGH ENCOURAGED REPURCHASE.

THE THREE R’S REMEMBER ~ RE –TELL ~ REPURCHASE

• VISITOR LEGACY – MORE THAN EVER OUR CUSTOMERS ARE OUR MOST VALUABLE ADVOCATES

AND, POTENTIALLY, OUR SEVEREST CRITICS – WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND HOW DIGITAL WORD

OF MOUTH CAN BE LEVERAGED, CHECK INS, 4 SQUARE, REVIEW SITES, STATUS UPDATES,

PHOTOS. CRAFTING DIGITAL RESPONSE TO A VISIT HAS BECOME KEY. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE

UNKNOWN MENTIONS OUT THERE, BUT WE CAN HAVE SOME INFLUENCE OVER

COMMENTATORS. WE CAN DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR ‘SOCIAL LISTENING’ AND RESPOND

ACCORDINGLY.

Questions we asked at the beginning

• How much value to our business does a facebook fan bring?

• Is it possible to quantify.

• Is it enough to simply say if fans like you and some fans engage with you therefore they derive value

from that association and it is enough – what would we be missing if we didn’t do this – if we did it less,

or what if we did it more?

• How can we use our digital assets efficiently?

• Who should we talk to, when and where. Do they want sales information, visitor information, nothing

just to know we are there?

• Are digital communications prompting conversions to buy?

What we did – working with my student, Natalie Gard.

WE SET ABOUT LOOKING AT OUR E-SHOTS

What we did – working with my student, Natalie Gard.

WE SET ABOUT LOOKING AT OUR E-SHOTS

AND WHAT FACEBOOK COMMUNICATIONS WERE PROVIDING BY

WAY OF ENGAGEMENT.

WHAT DID WE LEARN? • THAT WE SHOULD LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS

“TO CREATE MORE SUCCESSFUL EMAIL CAMPAIGNS, SPLASHDOWN SHOULD AIM TO USE THE MNEMONIC CRITICAL CHECKLIST” (CHAFFEY

2006 CITED BY CHAFFEY AND ELLIS-CHADWICK 2012. THE MNEMONIC STRUCTURE IS SAID TO IMPROVE RESPONSIVENESS, STANDING FOR:

• CREATIVE

• RELEVANCE

• INCENTIVE

• TARGETING/TIMING

• INTEGRATION

• COPY

• ATTRIBUTES

• LANDING PAGE

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

• THAT EVERYONE LOVES A WELL TIMED OFFER

OFFERS CLAIMED 253

126 – USED

COST £64.00

TOTAL REVENUE GENERATED MIN. £2K

ROI = APPROX. 30X

6.6% UPLIFT IN FANS OVER BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND

WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE?

• PLUG THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND OUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS WELL ENOUGH TO BE ABLE UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF OUR

DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.

• DEVELOP A CLEAR, INHERENT UNDERSTANDING OF IF WE DO X, Y HAPPENS, OR DOESN’T HAPPEN.

WE DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT BENCHMARKING IN PLACE TO KNOW WHAT IS WORKING AND WHAT ISN’T

• HAVE A SMALL SET OF RELEVANT KPI’S FOR DIGITAL ACTIVITY

• USE DIGITAL TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY WITH OUR CUSTOMERS – NOT JUST TALK AT THEM

• KEEP UP TO DATE – PANDAS, PENGUINS, GRAPH SEARCH, GOOGLE+ AND WHATEVER’S NEXT

WHAT WE’VE DONE ALREADY COMMISSIONED A CUT DOWN MOBILE VERSION OF THE SPLASHDOWN POOLE WEBSITE –

TAKING THE TOP 4 MOST SEARCHED PAGES AND OUR ONLINE TICKETING ON TO A SITE

OPTIMISED FOR I-PHONE. AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS PROJECT WE HAVE ASKED THE

COMPANY TO COMPARE GOOGLE ANALYTICS PRE AND POST IMPLEMENTATION SO WE CAN

SEE IF WE ARE MERELY MOVING TRAFFIC FROM WEBSITE TO MOBILE OR WHETHER THERE IS

IMPROVEMENT IN THE BOUNCE RATE FOR THE MOBILE OPTIMISED SITE.

MOBILE OPTIMISED WEBSITE

WHAT WE’VE DONE ALREADY THANKS TO NATALIE’S WORK WITH EMAIL WE HAVE REALISED THAT WE

DO HAVE A TENDENCY TO TELL EVERYONE EVERYTHING AND WE HAVE

AND WILL CONTINUE TO REFINE OUR TECHNIQUES AND DESIGN OF

EMAIL TEMPLATES TO MAKE THEM MORE ENGAGING, CONSUMER

FRIENDLY, USEFUL AND OPTIMISED FOR CONVERSION TO SALES.

Curiously or perhaps not so curiously, I think without this project I would’ve

struggled to pin point exactly where we were and why it was so critical, but

now, looking back, whilst drawing together this report I feel it is easier to see

the position we had, where our questions lie and moving forward some of the

answers to where we want to be.

Although the project dealt with more micro issues; it is the thinking and

learning around the project that will shape a better, more considered digital

marketing plan for Splashdown and our associated companies.

This may not be a

digital strategy but it is,

perhaps, the beginning

of a digital strategy

JACKIE RICHMOND MARKETING DIRECTOR – LEMUR ATTRACTIONS GROUP

For more information on DIGITAL DESTINATIONS contact:

Dr Philip Alford, Bournemouth University

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU