Marketing

📰 Last week in NYC, 15 retail and commerce media networks, including The Home Depot, Albertsons, and PayPal, showcased ad strategies at the Ascendant Network's event. The Home Depot's Orange Apron Media cited a 30% boost in brand trust. Albertsons' campaign increased sales by 24%, while DoorDash revealed 30% more health food orders on Tuesdays. H-E-B serves 8 million households weekly. Chewy Ads noted 84% of sales are automatic subscriptions. Walgreens announced digital screens in 1,200 stores starting October.

📈 Google's DMA changes have led to up to a 30% drop in free direct booking clicks for European hotels. The Broadmoor generated nearly $1 million in direct revenue over three months through systematic follow-up calls. Banyan Group acquired Newmark Hotels & Reserves, adding 26 properties across seven African countries. The UN Tourism forecast for 2026 international arrivals was cut to 1-2%. Black Friday campaigns drove 60.5% direct revenue growth in 2025, showing the importance of conversion infrastructure.

💸 Black Friday 2026 falls on November 27. A 2025 study of 1,982 hotels showed those with website campaigns increased direct revenue by 60.5%, while others grew only 4.4%. Campaign hotels saw a 56.6% lift in booking engine conversion and a 56.3% rise in average revenue per user. Key steps: prepare tailored offers by late October, test website messaging by early November, and launch campaigns by November 18. Targeted offers convert better than blanket discounts.

📱 Social Ads are transforming hotel marketing, with TikTok and Instagram emerging as primary search engines for Gen Z. By 2026, short videos on social networks generate 42% more engagement than static ads. TikTok's average engagement rate is 3.7% per follower. Booking increased its Social Media investment by +13% YoY in 2025. AI-powered dynamic visual content can reduce CPA by up to 22%. By 2027, conversational booking via social media messages is anticipated.

📈 Sep 16, 2026 — Expedia, led by CEO Ariane Gorin, highlights Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) as its fastest-growing channel at the Goldman Sachs conference on Sep 9. Ten months since prioritization, AEO remains small with no published metrics. Two-thirds of bookings are direct, leaving AI's potential in the remaining third. Expedia invested $2.12 billion in Q2 marketing, focusing on AI-powered integration with Claude and ChatGPT. Organic search traffic stabilizes, as SEO softens slightly.

📈 Hotel metasearch engines like Google Hotels, Tripadvisor, Trivago, and KAYAK compare room rates from OTAs and hotel websites. These engines use feeds to show live rates, and costs vary by auction-based models like cost per click (CPC) or commission. Google retired commission bidding in 2025. Metasearch can be cheaper than OTAs, which charge 15-30% commission. Success depends on rate competitiveness, parity, mobile optimization, and conversion efficiency. Quality feeds and listings are essential.

🏨 Sarah Kopit and Seth Borko explore trust issues in travel, highlighting AI-generated TikTok videos inaccurately promoting a Sedona luxury resort with fake amenities and creators. Additionally, they discuss Dennis Schaal’s report indicating Booking might surpass Expedia in B2B room nights, a revelation that could alter the competitive landscape of OTAs.

🏨 Two days ago, Andrew Paul, Managing Director at Americas Great Resorts, highlighted a key issue in luxury hotel marketing. Many luxury hotels focus on converting travelers who already know about their properties, ignoring the "demand origin"—how travelers first consider a property. This oversight results in dependency on third-party intermediaries for bookings and higher reacquisition costs. Effective marketing should start upstream, capturing guest interest before they turn to intermediaries.