How to do tourism marketing in 2018?

This article is published with permission from Entrepreneurial Family. It has been slightly modified by the editor. The copyright belongs to the author. The content only represents the author’s independent point of view. [Download the Entrepreneur APP and learn about the 7,000 most profitable businesses in China]

In the past year, big names such as Coca-Cola and Mondelēz International have led a wave of CGO job placements, reducing the power of CMOs and unveiling the As a prelude to leaving when marketing is ineffective, marketers are beginning to face a "midlife crisis."

I believe that at this moment, the public relations staff of tourism companies are preparing their marketing budgets for 2018. So, where should corporate marketing funds go in 2018?

Recently, AdMaster, a data marketing technology company, conducted a survey of hundreds of advertisers and calculated the marketing trends in 2018. The report contains two major highlights.

71% of advertisers increase investment in social marketing, and KOL accounts for the majority

Data interpretation: AdMaster data shows that 71% of brand owners said they will increase investment in social marketing next year, with an average increase of The range is 21%. Among them, 67% said the focus will be on KOL promotion. With the increasing influence of self-media, it is expected that the popularity and influence of KOL will also continue to grow, and Internet celebrities and KOL will become the standard in the social marketing mix. From 2016 to the present, with the rapid development of short videos and live broadcasts, major brands have joined the trend. In 2018, 62% of advertisers focused their social marketing on short videos/live broadcasts, a significant increase compared to last year. In addition to promotion, user retention and conversion are also the focus. Therefore, official Weibo account operation and social CRM will also become the focus of social marketing next year.

Trend Analysis

China’s KOL economy is rapidly emerging and driving changes in the internal logic of marketing. In 2017, most brand customers’ KOL purchasing budget will account for “more than 10% of the media budget,” and this number will increase again in 2018. More and more advertisers are beginning to pay attention to KOLs and invest large amounts of budget. In addition to the gradually expanding influence of KOLs, more importantly, KOLs have well satisfied consumers' demands for product functionality and are pursuing more spirituality. and emotional needs.

In recent years, the tourism industry has also been actively exploring KOL marketing, and its evolution has three levels:

Paid media attributes, used for soft article promotion.

Participate in marketing activities close to the company as a participant or topic.

Work with tourism companies and tourism bureaus to create content to interact with users and improve conversion rates.

In 2017, online OTA platforms such as Tuniu and Lvmama made good use of KOL methods to promote the tourism bureau’s brand marketing. In 2018, Qyer.com made a comprehensive deployment of KOL, using accurate and high-quality KOL resources to deeply explore the value of content. Among them, Qyer will focus on content resources, deepen cooperation with KOLs, and work with merchants to create popular products to improve premium capabilities and conversion rates.

Due to the obvious effect of KOL marketing and high conversion rate, brand owners have significantly increased their enthusiasm for KOL. At present, KOL marketing can be the main theme of marketing in the tourism industry. However, as brand owners pay more and more attention to KOL marketing, KOLs have begun to proliferate. The vast majority of KOLs have been turned into trolls, and there are many companies with poor advertising effects.

A brand owner once said: "We once paid an outrageous fee for a KOL to travel and then took photos during the trip. It turned out that all the money was wasted. Maybe there At that time, we were still new in terms of our ability to cooperate with KOLs, but it was more because we didn’t know what we wanted to get from KOLs.”

There are currently two major pain points in KOL marketing when it comes to cooperation with brands:

1. Data fraud.

2. The selection of KOLs is not precise enough. Some KOLs are just information dissemination channels, some are suitable for improving brand tone, and some KOLs are suitable for directly bringing goods. Different purposes and set marketing methods also require customized processing, which is very big for advertisers. test.

Past measurement method:

Weibo: retweet + comment + like

+number of likes

Current measurement method:< /p>

Weibo: number of exposures, number of retweets, number of comments, number of likes, number of interactions, interaction emotional tendencies, retweet level, brand mentions, jump clicks

, number of likes , article position, comment likes, jump clicks

When selecting KOLs, brands must rely heavily on data and analysis to select the most suitable candidates, and try to avoid relying solely on the number of fans and price to make judgments. It’s easy to fall into the misunderstanding of chasing hot topics from self-media.

In 2018, web variety shows will become the focus of content marketing

Data interpretation: 41% of advertisers said they would invest in web variety shows in content marketing, and 41% would invest in web dramas. , 31% said they would invest in sports events, a significant increase compared with last year.

Trend Analysis

In recent years, online variety shows have begun to explode. The total number of broadcasts throughout the year is approaching that of new satellite TV variety shows, and advertisers have shifted to online variety shows. For example, "China Has Hip Hop" sponsored by McDonald's, "Tomorrow's Son" sponsored by Wanglaoji, and "Qi Pa Shuo" sponsored by Xiaomi.

Compared with TV dramas, online TV dramas are more vivid in their implantation. Novel implantation forms such as "plot implantation", "original inserts", "end-of-credits Easter eggs" and "native advertising" can fully and profoundly combine the brand with the content. . These are all explorations and innovations in the marketing model of online TV shows, and this marketing method is more in line with the communication methods of young people. For example, "Qi Pa Shuo" uses magical oral broadcasts to "take out the Xiaomi mobile phone with black technology for taking pictures to cause trouble", "Speak the truth after breastfeeding", "Don't let your dandruff stay with me overnight" and other advertising slogans and scene enhancements, etc. The marketing method effectively increases the brand owner’s exposure. It is reported that the Alipay campaign to scan the Head & Shoulders LOGO reached 141 million views on related topics on Weibo during the broadcast, which was a remarkable effect.

It is worth noting that although online comprehensives are currently favored by advertisers and are indeed a reliable marketing method, success must have a prerequisite. This online comprehensive must have popular head resources. Shanghe has strong integrated marketing capabilities. Objectively speaking, popular online variety shows are limited. Although short videos can fill the fragmented time of the mass target audience, the impact on brand advertising needs to be considered. Therefore, advertisers need to think calmly when advertising.

In addition, the data also indicates that 31% of advertisers will focus their content on sports events. 2018 is a big year for sports marketing. There are heavyweight IPs such as the Winter Olympics and World Cup. While countries are competing on the field, it is also a brand competition. I believe that there are many brands that are trying to compete on the sidelines.

Summary

In the era of giant monopoly, traffic thinking changing to user thinking, and media decentralization, companies have ushered in changes to their own brands, and they must have a closer relationship with users. Close, but also need to subtly influence users in different scenarios and root the brand. Reports can give a company direction, but ultimately they must be realistic. In 2018, what kind of contribution will marketing make? And can the tourism industry create phenomenal marketing? Well worth the wait.

Attached is the complete report content

Advertisers focus on: content first, data driven

Short video, content first, data driven, AI artificial intelligence, Situational marketing, monitoring and anti-fraud, etc., these will continue to occupy the attention of marketers in 2018. Among them, content and data are of particular concern.

Globally, brand content is being widely disseminated like never before and is highly respected by consumers. High-quality content is becoming increasingly important in increasing consumer stickiness and promoting active consumer communication. Content marketing and content-oriented media purchases are becoming more and more important.

The meaning and value of "big data" that has been discussed for many years have been further refined. What latitudes of data are needed for corporate marketing? How to connect multi-party data scattered in "isolated islands"? How to calculate and extract data from the data? What value is obtained and how to integrate data into the entire chain of marketing and even business? The answers to these questions are beginning to become clear.

Digital marketing spending is expected to increase by an average of 18% in 2018, continuing to tilt towards mobile terminals

According to AdMaster data, 70% of advertisers said they will continue to increase digital marketing in 2018 budget, the average budget growth is 18%, of which nearly 60% of brands are expected to have a budget growth of more than 10%, showing a positive development trend. About 6% of advertisers said they would reduce their budgets, up slightly from 3% in 2017.

In terms of marketing budget allocation, advertisers will continue to tilt towards mobile, with 87% of advertisers saying they will further increase mobile marketing budget next year. On the contrary, the advertising trend on the PC side has been declining year by year, with more than 60% of brand owners choosing to reduce or even not invest.

Brand owners have polarized attitudes toward smart TV advertising. While 36% of brand owners said they would increase investment, 38% also chose to wait and see without investing. Compared with last year, advertisers are more cautious about smart TVs. At present, the media environment is becoming more and more fragmented, new things are constantly emerging, and the platforms that advertisers can choose from are becoming more and more diversified. 40% of brand marketers said they will increase investment in "other smart devices".

Key delivery channels: social networking and video

According to AdMaster data, whether it is placed on mobile or PC, the key delivery channels are always social and video. Among them, social platforms occupy the first place among the distribution channels on the mobile side; video websites rank first among the distribution channels on the PC side.

Content marketing focuses on: Internet variety shows, online dramas, and sports

In 2018, Internet variety shows and online dramas will become the focus of content marketing, and 41% of advertisers said that in content In terms of marketing, they will invest in online dramas, 41% will invest in online dramas, and 31% will invest in sports events. Compared with last year, there has been a significant increase.

Social marketing focuses on: KOL, short video/live broadcast

This is an era where the role of KOL is comparable to that of celebrities. AdMaster data shows that 71% of brand owners said they will increase investment in social marketing next year, with an average growth rate of 21%.

Among them, 67% said the focus will be on KOL promotion. As the influence of self-media increases, it is expected that the popularity and influence of KOL will continue to grow, and Internet celebrities and KOL will become the standard in the social marketing mix.

From 2016 to now, with the rapid development of short videos and live broadcasts, major brands have joined the wave. In 2018, 62% of advertisers focused their social marketing on short videos/live broadcasts. , a significant increase compared to last year.

In addition to promotion, user retention and conversion are also the focus. Therefore, official Weibo account operation and social CRM will also become the focus of social marketing next year.

Technology focus: DMP, artificial intelligence

According to AdMaster data, 54% of advertisers said that the digital marketing technology they paid most attention to in 2018 was DMP.

In the digital era, enterprises need data scale and capabilities to manage big data. Taking into account the massive data "islands" existing inside and outside the enterprise and the rapidly changing technological innovation, DMP (Data Management Platform) has the ability to connect and integrate data from multiple parties to generate business value. AdMaster believes that the connection between brands and consumers will become highly intelligent in the future, and DMP is the "most powerful brain" that can drive beliefs into reality.

In the past year, Alpha Go has brought AI (artificial intelligence) into the public eye, making everyone realize that AI is not far from our lives. Alibaba’s designed artificial intelligence product "Luban" Designed 8,000 banner ads. In fields such as speech recognition, medical care, transportation, and urban life, AI is everywhere. At the same time, artificial intelligence brings unlimited imagination to marketing applications.

Marketing is undergoing tremendous changes in the industry. It is foreseeable that in the next few years, the core will be data and intelligent technology.