Martin Soler - 10 Minutes News for Hoteliers - Page 6

5 min

99 – Building a brand design system

📝 In the hotel industry, the trend is leaning towards all-in-one solution providers to streamline services, buying power, and integration despite not always offering the best features individually. Discussions reveal that hotel technology still faces challenges with integration. Elsewhere, Sesame’s voice AI shows promise with human-like interactions but lacks purpose, particularly in tasks like hotel room booking. Key insights also highlight the importance of system design over graphic design in multi-product company rebranding, suggesting that true solutions are often simple and unflashy, and that internal buy-in is crucial.

4 min

98 – Focus meetings are brutal

📈 Major OTAs collectively increased marketing spend by 5% last year, reaching $17.8 billion. Booking and Expedia lead, followed by Airbnb and Trip, with Booking dedicating 31% of revenue to marketing. The increase in OTA marketing budgets reflects the competitive nature of the travel industry and the importance of visibility in a crowded market. Amazon's test to redirect shoppers to brand sites for unavailable products could influence OTA-hotel relationships. Alexa's new generative AI feature, Alexa+, has potential impact on voice assistant utility. Focus in projects requires defining tasks to stop, not just tasks to do, as emphasized by Steve Jobs' approach to innovation.

6 min

97 – Trade shows and B2B marketing

🏢 The biggest travel trade show, ITB, remains relevant for annual networking despite the shift of product research and sales online. The Shiji Group's insights highlight the importance of personalization in guest experience trends for 2025. Mid-tier hotels are outperforming luxury ones due to competitive pricing and enhanced services. Booking.com is adapting to AI, which may impact OTA searches and commoditize them as "databases" for AI search engines. Self-checkout kiosks in grocery stores are reintroducing human labor due to technological limitations. The New York Times integrates AI, particularly an internal tool named Echo, for content tasks. The beauty industry sees a significant shift online, with e-commerce accounting for 25% of the total market and expected growth of 7% in the next three years. Meta invests in humanoid robots, though hotel housekeeping robots have not been cost-effective. Human elements at trade shows are increasingly valuable for establishing trust and relationships in business.

5 min

96 – Reviews are coming back

🏨 Evan Shapiro suggests content creators are reshaping the media landscape, a significant trend for hotel industry advertising collaborations. CEOs in the travel industry must adopt AI to stay relevant, with technology poised to enhance all other tech and enable employees. TikTok challenges Google as a search engine, particularly among 15-28 year olds, indicating a shift in SEO strategies. Amazon Ads' Brand+ uses AI for targeted TV ad campaigns, a potential game-changer for hotel advertising. Studies show social reach can boost paid search by 32%, YouTube enhances email campaigns by 25%, and influencer content increases paid social performance by 30%. AI-driven media planning tools from Meta, Google, and Amazon are simplifying ad targeting. Hotel reviews are gaining new importance with AI, able to analyze vast data for tailored insights, potentially influencing hotel offerings and revenue.

5 min

95 – Optimism in Marketing

💰 The "State of Fashion: Luxury" report by Business of Fashion and McKinsey reveals shifts in the luxury industry, notably a preference for experiences over products. Luxury hotels can capitalize on this trend by offering personalized and human-first services, using AI to enhance guest interactions. Marketers emphasize the importance of optimism in promoting products and services, focusing on positive aspects rather than problems. Revenue Management Automation (RMA) is emerging to optimize pricing strategies, suggesting that Revenue Management Systems (RMS) may not have fully achieved this in the past. Google is testing an 'AI Mode' for search queries to provide summarized information, potentially affecting website traffic and analytics for hotels. Marketing success relies on emphasizing a product's compelling features, inspiring customer desire and driving sales.

5 min

94 – Brand marketing for hotels, what should it be?

👟👟 Nike experienced a significant stock price drop of $25 billion, or 32%, on June 28, 2024. The slump was due to an over-focus on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and performance marketing, neglecting the brand's emotional connection with consumers. Brand marketing is suggested to complement performance marketing to achieve long-term success. Amazon allows hotels to advertise on platforms like Prime Video and Twitch, highlighting the importance of brand-building in the hotel industry. Hotelbeds' parent company launches The Luxurist, featuring over 3,300 properties across 141 countries, to enhance the B2B premium travel sector.

5 min

93 – LLMs, Deepseek, OpenAI and commodities

💻 IKEA launched a new loyalty program, acknowledging its late entry into the trend with a humorous ad campaign. Barry Sternlicht is revitalizing Starwood under SH Hotels & Resorts, aiming to innovate with 14 hotels and expansion plans. Google's hotel metasearch redesign focuses on visual elements, with larger images and maps to enhance user experience. LLMs (large language models) in AI are becoming a commodity, soon to be integrated into various digital platforms, rendering provider debates irrelevant. Users will expect AI-driven interactions, with the focus shifting to the quality of integration and context understanding rather than the AI brand.

5 min

92 – Ai search results are eating the world’s organic traffic

📈 HubSpot's organic traffic plummeted by 75% in 2024, from 10 million to 2.5 million visits. Italy proposed a law against fake hotel reviews, requiring identification from reviewers. The hotel industry now has access to APIs, but faces challenges with AI search altering traditional search landscapes. The media industry struggles with stagnating engagement. Creative marketing proves impactful without extra costs. Destination management aims to balance tourism and local experience. Emotion in marketing remains essential despite analytical shifts.

5 min

91 – The relationship between Revenue and Marketing

📢 Tripadvisor and Perplexity have announced a partnership to utilize unstructured data about travel for recommendations, aiming to enhance travel planning. Meanwhile, an investigation suggests that OTAs may be implementing price discrimination, with San Francisco residents potentially paying up to $500 more for identical hotel rooms. Amazon, after generating most of their operating profits from ads, has launched Amazon Retail Ad Service to expand ad opportunities. Marketing in the travel and hospitality industries is increasingly intertwined with revenue generation, calling for a unified approach to KPIs.

5 min

90 – Marketers should look more, think less

📅 Martin Soler discusses AI's expected impact on the travel industry, predicting a significant AI partnership in 2025 during Skift’s Megatrends 2025 event. Kayak's CEO, Steve Hafner, anticipates changes in consumer behavior towards AI platforms and social media for travel arrangements. Additionally, he raises concerns about how AI bookings will be credited. Soler also comments on Google's continued dominance in travel ads, attributing it to innovative ad products that competitors lack. He shares tips for marketers, emphasizing the importance of looking at data and facts, and considering talent, time, and money resources, to execute a "big idea." Soler is a fractional CMO for travel technology companies, co-founder of 10minutes.news, and a speaker on the Hospitality Daily Podcast.

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