P&G Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook

Advertisers Shouldn't 'Hijack' Conversations, but Applications Hold Promise

Published: November 17, 2008

CINCINNATI (AdAge.com) -- Social networks may never find the ad dollars they're hunting for because they don't really have a right to them, said Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co., at a Nov. 15 forum on digital media.

In a talk to the Digital Non-Conference, a program by Cincinnati's Digital Hub Initiative presented by the Ad Club of Cincinnati and attended by about 190 people, Mr. McConnell pointed to the drumbeat of complaints about social networks being unable to monetize their sites.

"I have a reaction to that as a consumer advocate and an advertiser," he said. "What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?"

'Who said this is media?'
He went on to apply a similar standard to the broader world of consumer-generated media. "I think when we call it 'consumer-generated media,' we're being predatory," he said. "Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren't trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. ... We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it."

While it's not a company policy, but rather a personal preference, Mr. McConnell said, "I really don't want to buy any more banner ads on Facebook."

That's not to say he believes P&G should end all involvement with Facebook. He cited Facebook applications as a potentially valuable vehicle for advertisers, one in which they can create an environment that's favorable for their brands and consumers alike.

Uncomfortable about targeting
But while he appreciates the power of targeting afforded by Facebook, Mr. McConnell said, it also makes him uncomfortable.

He said a subordinate of his did an experiment in which he set out to use Facebook to find a 22- to 27-year-old female P&G employee living in Cincinnati "who likes sex and Cocoa Puffs -- that was literally the target ID he asked for Facebook to find." And he found such a person.

"So the targeting is fantastic," Mr. McConnell said. "You can do really amazing things. But I'm not so sure I want to be targeted like that. ... I don't think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry."

Inventory explosion
More broadly, Mr. McConnell said he believes marketer dollars will continue to flow online, but that won't necessarily be a boon to online publishers, because online display inventory continues to grow faster than the dollars going after it.

He cited research by Morgan Stanley showing cost-per-thousand rates on banner ads falling from $3 to $1 on average during this decade. And despite rapid growth of internet audiences in markets such as Brazil and China, he said, advertisers are able to pay CPMs of about 5 cents because of the even more rapid explosion of inventory there.

"Fragmentation thwarts artificial scarcity," he said, noting that CPMs for rich media have held up somewhat better. Search CPMs are growing largely because of Google's quality-scoring system, he said.

Despite the growth of online classified-advertising alternatives, Mr. McConnell said, classified revenue for offline publishers continues to dwarf online classified spending, leaving plenty of remaining revenue for newspapers and room for growth for online alternatives.

But the divergence of fortune for pay-per-click and other performance-based models vs. CPM-based models will only intensify as the economy worsens, Mr. McConnell predicted. "'Spray and pray' is a little harder to do when you're under economic pressure," he said. "So performance-based advertising will gain share over CPM."

Boutique segment a distinctive set

STR - 11.17.08

 

Whatever adjective you choose to use—hip, alternative, fresh or unique—boutique hotels are a distinctive and interesting group of hotels to analyze.

While the definition of a boutique hotel can vary widely, most agree that product offerings/assets in this space offer and promote a distinctive, urban/metro, contemporary and avant-garde feel. Disagreements about the definition of “boutique hotel” probably exist among both hoteliers and consumers, stemming from personal taste in FF&E packages (décor), atmosphere and architecture, both exterior and interior.

At STR, we objectively define hotels in the segment as having an actual or estimated room rate (ADR) of $175 or higher and a room count of 150 to 300 rooms. We also include major players in the boutique segment such as: Morgans Hotel Group (previously Ian Schrager Hotels), Kimpton Hotels, Joie de Vivre, Starwood’s W Hotels, recent product offerings from InterContinental Hotels Group’s Hotel Indigo brand, John Russell’s NYLO brand, Starwood’s Aloft and a number of independents that meet the definitional and objective criteria for the segment.

The boutique hotel segment is a collection of approximately 450 properties and 55,650 rooms accounting for less than 1.5 percent of all rooms available for rent in the United States. Growing in popularity and becoming a hip alternative place to stay for business and leisure travelers alike, the segment experienced notable supply growth in excess of 5.0 percent, starting in the late ‘90s and peaking at just over 7.0 percent before 9/11 and the resulting industry downturn. Currently, the 3.8-percent growth in room inventory outpaces the national average of 2.3 percent for the 12 months ending September 2008.

 

A tough operating environment has reduced demand for rooms 0.2 percent nationally while demand growth for boutique properties has grown by 2.5 percent in the latest 12-month period ending September 2008. Despite favorable levels of demand for the segment, the aforementioned 3.8 percent growth in supply yields a 70.6 percent absolute level of occupancy, which is a decline of 1.2 percent from a year ago.

Soft demand/occupancy in this current downturn has, in turn, affected rates. While the industry at large increased rates at just over 4.0 percent, hotels in the boutique segment were able to raise rates by 5.5 percent in the 12-month period ending September 2008.  However, this level of growth was markedly off from the 10.0 percent to 11.0 percent level enjoyed by the segment in both 2006 and most of 2007. The US$130 premium in ADR commanded by boutiques is certainly noteworthy and can be attributed to the distribution and density of product in major metro markets.

 

Revenue per available room growth of 4.2 percent came from the heavy contribution of the 5.5-percent growth in ADR and the 1.2-percent decline in occupancy. More importantly, RevPAR growth for the segment outpaced the national average of 1.7 percent. Similar to the ADR premium enjoyed over industry average, boutiques posted a US$100 premium in the absolute level of RevPAR for the 12 months ending September 2008.

 

 

If we look beyond this hopefully short downturn and into the future, the boutique segment appears poised to post favorable levels of performance and continue to be a viable option to the traditional hotel room and stay. New entrants into the competitive landscape like Aloft, Indigo, NYLO, and Edition—the Marriott/Ian Schrager partnership—will certainly shape this dynamic segment for years to come. Retiring baby boomers, Gen Xers, emerging Gen Yers and those consumers looking to escape big brands will certainly seek alternative, hip and unique surroundings, experiences and aspirations perhaps only a boutique hotel can offer. 

How Much Will Online Travel Slow? 

Nov. 13, 2008 - Online travel bookings will total $98.2 billion in 2008, up just 9% over 2007, according to PhoCusWright. The company said that some online travel providers would fare better than others, with rail sales growing by 28%, while hotel bookings would rise only 8%.

If the numbers prove true, this will be the first year of mere single-digit growth for US online leisure/unmanaged business travel. However, online growth will still be twice as high as that of the total travel market.

PhoCusWright said that reasons for online’s continued success included consumer comfort with online purchasing, perception of the Web as having the lowest prices and supplier disincentives for booking through other channels. The company also said sales from leisure/unmanaged business travel sites will represent 36% of the total market in 2008, up from 34% in 2007.

eMarketer’s most recent online travel sales estimates for the US were created in August 2008, in the midst of the economic slowdown but prior to the financial industry crisis. At the time, online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales (including airline, hotel, rental car, vacation package, intercity rail and cruise) were predicted to grow 12% this year to reach $105.1 billion.

Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said that if the market were being assessed today, the estimate would be lower and more in line with PhoCusWright’s.

Online Ad Clicker Demographics

OCTOBER 22, 2008

Different ad types appeal to different users.

Age, income and visit frequency are closely related to US Internet users’ likelihood to click on ads, according to an August 2008 study by iPerceptions.

Four out of 10 US Internet users surveyed who were likely to click on any type of online ad made less than $50,000 per year, and and only 15% made over $150,000. Video ads drew even more respondents with lower incomes: 49% of those likely to click on video ads made less than $50,000 per year and only 13% made over $150,000.

Although likely clickers of text and banner ads were generally evenly distributed by age, dropping off sharply only after age 64, likely video ad clickers skewed especially young.

Nearly two-thirds of Internet users likely to click on online ads were weekly or daily visitors to the Website where the ad appeared; only 15% were first-time visitors and 6% went to the site sporadically.

It is no surprise that younger Internet users are more likely to click video ads, since they are far heavier online video consumers than those who are older—and far heavier Internet users overall.

A January 2008 study conducted for the Television Bureau of Advertising by Nielsen Media Research confirmed this trend yet again.

As for income, ad exposure and consumption by the wealthy are typically a mixed bag.

“Consumers with higher incomes are targeted for more ads, but they also use more tools to avoid ads such as DVRs and ad-blocking software,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer. 

75 Percent of U.S. Internet Audience Watched Online Video in July

comScore released its July 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month.

Google Sites Maintains Dominant Position - In July, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 5 billion videos viewed (representing a 44 percent share of the online video market), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 446 million videos (3.9 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 282 million (2.5 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 269 million (2.4 percent). Hulu ranked eighth with 119 million videos, representing 1 percent of all videos viewed.

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed July 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Property	Videos (000)	Share (%) of Videos
Total Internet	11,425,890	100.0
Google Sites	5,044,053	44.1
Fox Interactive Media	445,682	3.9
Microsoft Sites	282,748	2.5
Yahoo! Sites	269,452	2.4
Viacom Digital	246,413	2.2
Disney Online	186,700	1.6
Turner Network	171,065	1.5
Hulu	119,357	1.0
AOL LLC	95,106	0.8
CBS Corporation	69,316	0.6

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

More than 142 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 80 videos per viewer in July. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (92.1 million), who watched an average of 55 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (54.9 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.6 million) and Microsoft Sites (32.6 million).

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Unique Viewers July 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Property	Unique Viewers (000)	Average Videos per Viewer
Total Internet	142,507	80.2
Google Sites	92,130	54.7
Fox Interactive Media	54,845	8.1
Yahoo! Sites	37,610	7.2
Microsoft Sites	32,640	8.7
AOL LLC	22,959	4.1
Viacom Digital	21,142	11.7
Turner Network	18,666	9.2
Disney Online	15,899	11.7
Time Warner - Excl. AOL	15,345	3.2
Amazon Sites	11,690	2.5

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Other notable findings from July 2008 include:

• 75 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• Americans spent a total of 558 million hours watching online video during the month.
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
• 91 million viewers watched 5 billion videos on YouTube.com (54.8 videos per viewer).
• 51.4 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (7.8 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video was 2.9 minutes.

Package holidays close to extinction as more travel companies merge

Last updated at 17:52pm on 19.03.07

As the era of the package holiday comes to a close, tour operator First Choice is merging with German company Tui

The traditional 'sun, sea and sand' package holiday faces extinction with a disastrous fall in sales that has forced Britain's tour operators to merge or die.

First Choice is being taken over by Thomson, which is owned by TUI of Germany, it was revealed today.

Separately, the German-owned Thomas Cook is in the throes of merging with MyTravel, which is based in North West England.

The mergers will see the loss of hundreds of jobs and travel agent shops from high street as more people book their holidays via the internet or Teletext.

The consolidation of Britain's package holiday giants from four to just two comes amid a 14 per cent slump in sales in just four years.

During the package holiday hey-day of the late 1990s more than 20m package were being sold every year but this year it is likely to be less than 16m.

The industry is haemorrhaging bookings as families and others switch to putting together their own holidays with budget airlines and their own hotel bookings.

As a result just 31 per cent of people now take a package holiday, which is the lowest ratio in 30 years.

Industry analysts report that the only way package holiday firms can survive on what are very thin profit margins is to merge.

Separately, they are also changing what they offer, moving away from the traditional sun, sea and sangria of the Spanish costas and Greek islands to long-haul trips to the Far East and the USA.

MyTravel, for example, has begun offering packages to China and even a round-the-world holiday in 23 days, starting at £4,499.

Travel industry analyst, Jeremy Skidmore, said: "We are seeing a sea-change in consumer behaviour. The bottom line is that people are turning their backs on package holidays and doing their own thing.

"The package holiday, once a desirable goal, is now something that millions of people are turning their backs on.

"It is very sad for traditionalists, but tastes have changes. I guess it is what people call progress."

He said travellers are now far more independent and no longer value the hand-holding offered by a package holiday, including reps and organised excursions.

"Going to Spain or the Canary Islands doesn't hold any mystery any more. People are happy to book their own flights and find their own way round," he said.

Mr Skidmore said: "It has become increasingly difficult to make a good profit out of selling a package holiday. The firms have had to cut prices to sell them, but prices have become ridiculously low. "It is no exaggeration that at some points of the year they are selling holidays at a loss, particularly when you get down to deals of £99 a head.

"There just isn't room any more for four package holiday firms when an increasing number of bookings are made through the internet. It is a case of merge or slowly die."

Mr Skidmore warned that prices are likely to go up, although this will be capped by the competition from budget airlines.

The British Market Research Bureau has charted a decline of the package holiday.

It says sales have fallen by 14 per cent in four years. The proportion of people making their own plans is up ten per cent to 45 per cent over the same period.

It has registered a 300,000 drop in British visitors to the Canary Islands in four years.

By contrast, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand have all seen big increases in visitor numbers as people venture further.

A BMRB spokesman said: "Online holiday booking has seen a dramatic increase and the ease of booking one's holiday online makes it a cheaper and quicker alternative than visiting a travel agent.

"With Britain embracing low cost airlines, it is now possible for people to visit alternative holiday destinations such as eastern Europe.

"Whereas people previously were holidaying in Spain and Portugal, now people have more choice and may opt to travel to Poland, Estonia or Latvia instead."

Thomson has been the UK's leading tour operator since 1974 and has about one third of the UK market. Its budget airline, Thomsonfly, operates to more than 80 destinations.

The company has more than 650 travel agent shops and sells around five million holidays and flights a year. Its brands include Simply Travel, Headwater Holidays, Crystal Holidays, Thomson Ski and Snowboarding, and Jetsave. Thomson's parent company TUI will own 51 per cent of the new business, while First Choice will make up the remaining 49 per cent. The new holiday company will be based in the UK. First Choice has been operating in various forms since 1973 and started under the name of Owners Abroad.

The companies claim the merger will generate savings of £100 million a year, with much of this likely to come with the closure of holiday sales call centres and the merger of administration.

Announcing the deal, Tui and First Choice, admitted that travel tastes had changed.

In a joint statement, they said: "The leisure travel environment has changed significantly over the last few years as consumers demand flexibility and choice, seek new life experiences and look to access travel content through a number of points of sale, most notably the internet."

Text Messages Rule Mobile Ads

Simple ad formats reaching the widest audience

Mobile advertising has been the next big thing for a while now. But although text messaging is popular among young adults, the 160-character format has yet to become a mass influencer.

Still, consumers who respond to mobile ads are most likely to engage with text messages, according to a survey of mobile users ages 15 and older in the US by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Seven out of 10 respondents to the DMA's "Mobile Marketing: Consumer Perspectives" study who had acted on mobile ads said that text messages for a product or service had prompted their actions.

That was more than three times as many as responded to a mobile Web offer or coupon.

But even text messaging is not about to replace other marketing mainstays such as e-mail or direct mail. In fact, only 1% of US Internet users surveyed in February 2008 by ExactTarget picked text messaging as their channel of choice for opt-in communications. Instead, the medium is better-suited for targeting specific audiences, and as part of multichannel campaigns.

Text messaging may not dominate mobile advertising as more mobile users with sophisticated phones and data plans come into the fold (think iPhone and its ilk). Yet the simplicity and compatibility of texting is likely to ensure its long-term appeal in the same way text-based e-mail has remained viable.

In the meantime, the bigger issue is when mobile advertising will become a common campaign tactic. For most marketers and advertisers, mobile is still only getting experimental budget at most.

Mobile advertising's toddler status was reflected in a February 2008 iMedia Connection survey of US online marketers. Although about one-quarter of respondents said they were open-minded enough to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to use mobile ads this year, more than two-thirds said they would do no more than dabble in the channel.

Still, "excitement about mobile advertising is building," said John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Even those who currently discount mobile do so from the perspective of timing or tactics, not so much because of the inherent attraction of the idea."

American Airlines ditches Kayak

American Airlines is about to pull its airline listings out of Kayak and is considering doing the same with Orbitz. If it does so, other airlines such as Continental and Northwest may follow suit.

Airlines don’t like the booking sites because they have to pay them a referral fee for every ticket they sell, as opposed to capturing the full fare when travelers book on their individual sites. Even though that only amounts to a few dollars per ticket, every dollar counts to the troubled airlines?especially now with fuel prices going sky-high and the consumer spending going down.

American Airlines has a particular beef with Kayak because it tends to show AA flights through its partnership with Orbitz instead of directly from American. That means American has to pay a double tax, once to Kayak and once to Orbitz. (The deal between Kayak and Orbitz, charges the competing CEO, was meant to drive up traffic numbers on Kayak as it was potentially seeking an IPO prior to raising $200 million instead last December).

The decision to sever ties with Kayak supposedly has already been made. The only question is whether Orbitz can salvage its relationship with the airline. This should strengthen competing travel sites, especially newer ones that link directly to the airlines like Mobissimo and Yapta.

Travel sites receive 50% of visits from travel media & referral sites

According to a new PhoCusWright study, just over half of the top 200 travel Web sites in February 2008 were booking Web sites. The remaining were referral and media sites, which attract travel shoppers with expert and traveler-generated reviews, metasearch capabilities, and maps of travel destinations.

Travel bookings are no longer the whole story as advertising and referral-based business models gain ground.

Just over half of the top 200 travel Web sites in February 2008 were booking Web sites.

The remaining were referral and media sites, which attract travel shoppers with expert and traveler-generated reviews, metasearch capabilities, and maps of travel destinations.

Travel industry research authority PhoCusWright and Hitwise partnered to track and analyze the online travel space.

The resulting report, Search, Shop, Buy: Inside The Tangled Web of Online Travel uses traffic data from Hitwise to determine how Travel 2.0, the Long Tail and search are affecting the online travel space, tracing the trends that are emerging throughout the travel search, shopping and buying processes.

“Search and shopping sites are having a major impact on the travel category, and their power is expected to grow as the slowing economy prompts travelers to spend even more time searching for travel deals,” said Cathy Schetzina, technology analyst for PhoCusWright. “This trend underlines the need for travel suppliers and intermediaries to target search marketing and online advertising efforts based on a clear understanding of online travel shopping patterns.”

Also among the report’s findings about the trends impacting online travel:

- While travelers continue to report shopping at an online travel agency site and then switching to a supplier site to book (and vice versa), online travel agencies and suppliers in fact lose more downstream traffic to competitors of the same type of site.

- Metasearch sites were initially hailed as a boon to suppliers, but online travel agencies are in fact the top beneficiaries of these sites.

- Despite the fact that two general social networks rank within the top 10 sites on the Web overall, only two travel-specific social networks appear within the top 200 travel Web sites.

The report also analyzes fast-growing travel Web sites based on increase in visits year over year, search engine traffic to the travel category, including search term patterns, and lifestyle descriptions for online travel shoppers.

Text Messaging Huge with Young Adults

But no mass influence yet for text marketing

Text messaging is especially popular with US adults ages 18 to 34, according to Universal McCann's 2008 "Media in Mind" study. Respondents from that age group sent an average of 13 text messages every week.

In last year's survey, nearly one-half of all US adults said they had never sent a text message. This year only 41% said so. Among 18 to 34 year-olds surveyed this year, just 22% had never sent a text message, down from the 38% the prior year.

"The great unwashed—those people who have never sent a text message—is getting smaller all the time," said Graeme Hutton, senior vice president at Universal McCann, in a MediaPost article.

Text messaging is still new for many marketers, as evidenced by a February 2008 ExactTarget study. The proportion of Internet users surveyed who owned a mobile phone and had made a purchase after receiving a text message was a paltry 6%. That percentage was higher among younger users, but still mostly in the single digits.

Such low numbers could be interpreted to mean that text messages are not a very effective way to market, but they might also just reflect that such marketing is still relatively rare.

A December 2007 BIGresearch study of US Internet users found similarly low text message influence: 6.4% of respondents said they had bought electronics because of text messages, and still fewer said they had influenced purchases of other types of goods.

If mobile marketing is to move beyond the experimental budget stage, text messaging is likely to be part of the mix, in part since the messages lend themselves to existing terminology and benchmarks, according to John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"Mobile messaging is tailor-made for getting mobile marketing past the early adopter stage and into the mainstream," Mr. Gauntt said. "Messaging has a clear currency—that is, messages sent, received, opened or acted upon—for all parts of the mobile marketing chain to use."

This is just a cool way to do a recruitment drive:

Hotel Chain Sites Powering Ahead

Compete.com, June 24, 2008

Compared to a year ago, consumer traffic to hotel chain websites is growing strongly with gains being made at every major provider. Despite concerns of a slowing economy impacting the lodging sector, there are more online hotel shoppers than ever before, providing a healthy and growing channel for the efficient distribution of inventory.

The average growth rate heading into the summer for hotel supplier websites versus a year ago was an impressive 26%. Aside from a few unusual months, such as a difficult February for Intercontinental, every chain is posting solid growth. Leading the pack in May was Hilton at +34% compared to a year ago, and lagging was Choice at +10%.

Many of the hotel websites are converting visitors more effectively than they were in early 2007. Indexed against that period, conversion rates in May 2008 are averaging 1.05x growth. While Starwood, Hilton and Intercontinental are posting the strongest gains, Best Western is consistently under indexed against its position a year earlier. At a 0.8 conversion rate index, Best Western is lagging each of its major competitors in improving the efficiency of its online channel.

Although economic uncertainty is thought to be weighing on the minds of consumers, signs of strength still remain in online hotel distribution. Website audiences at leading hotel chains are powering ahead and are up significantly from year ago levels. Additionally, select competitors have managed to improve their conversion rates despite the growing volume of visitors. Sites such as Best Western, however, have seen their conversion rates decline and must make it a priority to optimize their online channel performance. If not in place already, competitive benchmarking against key rivals will be critical to making this a success.

The Aim of Behavioral Targeting

Why isn’t behavioral targeting a hit with advertisers?

Behavioral targeting offers many potential benefits:

• For advertisers, effective behavioral targeting leads to ad campaigns that are more likely to sway their audience.
• For publishers, it can mean making more money from undersold or unsold ad inventory.
• For the public, it means the ad-supported Internet might become more relevant.

The promise of behavioral targeting is huge, but overdue.

eMarketer estimates that US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach only $775 million in 2008.

"The growth of behaviorally targeted online advertising has been delayed by incomplete development of technology, brand marketers that prefer to have their ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy," says David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends. "But a number of things are changing."

In fact, eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.

Behavioral targeting segments the audience based on observed and measured data, such as the pages or sites users visit, content viewed, search queries entered, ads clicked, information share on social networks and products placed in online shopping carts. This data is combined with the time, length and frequency of visits.

"Recency counts a lot, too," says Mr. Hallerman, "data from two weeks ago is far less accurate at predicting interest than that from two days ago."

Behavioral targeting is getting increasing attention from advertisers, publishers, the public, politicians and mainstream media. For now, though, it contributes little to total US Internet ad spending—only 3% for 2008.

"When pegged against the display online ad formats that are typically used for behavioral targeting, however," says Mr. Hallerman, "the importance of behavioral targeting to non-search advertising growth becomes clearer."

Nearly one in 10 content-site ad dollars will flow from behaviorally targeted advertising in 2008. That will rise to roughly one in four by the end of 2012.

"It is unclear how much display ad spending will increase behaviorally targeted ad spending, in contrast to how much behavioral targeting capabilities will increase display ad spending," says Mr. Hallerman.

Guests' videos star in hotels' online ads

By Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Aaron Schwartz, an executive recruiter in Fairfax, Va., wanted a nice memento of his vacation in Aruba.

Using his video camera, he filmed his stay at the Marriott Renaissance Ocean Suites last June — shots of the beautiful beach, flamingos along the water. He uploaded the video to his MySpace page and YouTube.

He then received a call from the resort's general manager, who liked the video so much that he offered Schwartz a free seven-day stay. He returned two months later and composed another video, even though the resort didn't ask him to.

Eager to capture the attention of Internet-savvy guests, hotels are becoming more serious about using online videos as a marketing tool. They're encouraging and monitoring guests' videos of their stays. They're creating their own YouTube channels and other video content to showcase their properties and to launch new brands.

It's a dramatic shift from traditional marketing, where communication flowed from hotels to customers. The new strategy aims to get customers to talk among themselves on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, promoting word-of-mouth advertising.

"The center of gravity has shifted. We can't be seen as controlling the content. Now we have to participate in the conversation," says Kathleen Matthews, Marriott's communications chief.

Hotel videos fall broadly into two categories:

•Customers' input. Vacationers' videos posted online have been around for years. But hotel companies are more proactive in seeking more than room footage. Last year, Best Western asked customers to submit a 30-second video on why they're in "desperate need of a vacation." Holiday Inn Express invited popular YouTube comedian Kevin Nalty to help produce an online show about the chain. Sheraton also is urging guests to upload videos about their experiences to its website.

•Traveler information. Hotels also are producing their own content and inviting bloggers to link them on their sites. Starwood Hotels launched Spg.tv, a site with 50 hours of videos featuring the destinations where they have properties.

InterContinentalVideo.com is similar, with episodes of InterContinental concierges worldwide highlighting their hotels and points of interests in each city. This summer, Best Western will launch its YouTube channel, which will contain virtual tours, guest travelogues and classic company commercials.

To be sure, much of hotel-produced content involves commercials that are tailored for an online audience. Marriott hired David Elsewhere, an online personality known for his pop dancing, to film a YouTube commercial about TownePlace Suites.

"He has a following," Matthews says. "We can bring his following to our brand."

Guests' videos star in hotels' online ads

By Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Aaron Schwartz, an executive recruiter in Fairfax, Va., wanted a nice memento of his vacation in Aruba.

Using his video camera, he filmed his stay at the Marriott Renaissance Ocean Suites last June — shots of the beautiful beach, flamingos along the water. He uploaded the video to his MySpace page and YouTube.

He then received a call from the resort's general manager, who liked the video so much that he offered Schwartz a free seven-day stay. He returned two months later and composed another video, even though the resort didn't ask him to.

Eager to capture the attention of Internet-savvy guests, hotels are becoming more serious about using online videos as a marketing tool. They're encouraging and monitoring guests' videos of their stays. They're creating their own YouTube channels and other video content to showcase their properties and to launch new brands.

It's a dramatic shift from traditional marketing, where communication flowed from hotels to customers. The new strategy aims to get customers to talk among themselves on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, promoting word-of-mouth advertising.

"The center of gravity has shifted. We can't be seen as controlling the content. Now we have to participate in the conversation," says Kathleen Matthews, Marriott's communications chief.

Hotel videos fall broadly into two categories:

•Customers' input. Vacationers' videos posted online have been around for years. But hotel companies are more proactive in seeking more than room footage. Last year, Best Western asked customers to submit a 30-second video on why they're in "desperate need of a vacation." Holiday Inn Express invited popular YouTube comedian Kevin Nalty to help produce an online show about the chain. Sheraton also is urging guests to upload videos about their experiences to its website.

•Traveler information. Hotels also are producing their own content and inviting bloggers to link them on their sites. Starwood Hotels launched Spg.tv, a site with 50 hours of videos featuring the destinations where they have properties.

InterContinentalVideo.com is similar, with episodes of InterContinental concierges worldwide highlighting their hotels and points of interests in each city. This summer, Best Western will launch its YouTube channel, which will contain virtual tours, guest travelogues and classic company commercials.

To be sure, much of hotel-produced content involves commercials that are tailored for an online audience. Marriott hired David Elsewhere, an online personality known for his pop dancing, to film a YouTube commercial about TownePlace Suites.

"He has a following," Matthews says. "We can bring his following to our brand."

Email Analytics Reveal Sweet Spots In Subject-Line Length

He says open rates climb when the subject lines are in the 50-character range or 80-character range. But, perhaps counterintuitively, they fall in the middle when the length is 60 or 70.

The magnetic Quist gave the keynote address Saturday at MediaPost's Email Insiders Summit conference: "Emailing People Not Lists: Using Customer Based Metrics to Drive Performance Improvement."

Research culled from 250 million messages sent over the past two years, with 660 different subject lines, has led him to believe that a 50-character subject line touting a "powerful" offer is appealing (30% off Spring Getaway flights to Florida on Delta).

And a longer 80-character-plus line describing a newsletter in enticing fashion works (Find out Secrets to Spice up your Barbecue this weekend and all Summer Long and enter to win a New Weber Grill.)

Somehow, in the 60- to-70-character middle, he says, the subject line is either too long or not long enough.

Quist has various theories, but one is that the longer the subject line, the better chance a marketer has of presenting different concepts that may appeal to different consumers and boosting open rates. So in the above example, some may be interested in the ways to improve their grilling, while others would seek the new grill, leading to higher open rates.

Quist's research--his clients include PayPal and Intercontinental Hotels in the U.S.--showing that "long subject lines work better" goes against conventional wisdom, he said.

"Our experience tended towards the belief that long subject lines work better," he said. (The longer the better goes against conventional wisdom.) A more descriptive subject line can also build goodwill with consumers, since it can provide enough info to easily either turn them on or turn them off.

Sharing Customer Service Stories Online

Fewer consumers suffer in silence.

Brand managers have long known that news—both good and bad—spreads quickly online. Now US consumers are using social media to share their customer care experiences.

More than 70% of US Internet users surveyed in February and March 2008 said they used social media at least sometimes to learn about customer care offered when considering a purchase, according to a Society for New Communications Research study commissioned by Nuance Communications.

More than nine out of 10 respondents agreed with the statement, "I have chosen companies/brands based on my customer care experiences."

"Clearly, the customer care experience is a major predictor of future purchase decisions," said Nora Ganim Barnes, senior fellow at the Society for New Communications Research.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they chose companies and brands based on customer care information which had been shared online.

More than eight out of 10 respondents said that "blogs, rating systems and discussion forums can give consumers a greater voice in effecting changes in customer care."

Although many respondents said that social media were useful for sharing customer care experiences, they didn't necessarily use social networks to look for that information. Search engines, ratings systems, discussion forums and blogs all rated higher than social networks for finding customer care experience information.

Consumers are likely to research customer care information at several stages prior to purchase, judging by a February 2008 PowerReviews-commissioned study conducted by the e-tailing group.

The study was specific to consumer reviews, but is still useful as an indicator of when consumers consult the advice of strangers.

Study respondents said they used customer reviews at the end of the research process to narrow down their choices.

Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said there is a strong demand for the opinions of others, which can help online merchants.

"Not only do consumers notice product rating and reviews, they use and request them," Mr. Grau said. "Web retailers that offer ratings and reviews report a number of benefits, including more traffic, higher conversion rates and increased spending per transaction."

Social Networking Ad Spending Update

eMarketer has revised its US social network ad spending projections, estimating that advertisers will spend $1.4 billion to place ads on online social networks this year, down from the previous projection of $1.6 billion.

US online social network ad spending is now projected to reach $2.6 billion in 2012. In its last projection, made in December 2007, eMarketer estimated that spending would reach $2.7 billion in 2011. Spending in that year is now expected to be $2.4 billion.

eMarketer's figures take into account all forms of advertising within social networks, including display, search and video ads, as well as any fees that marketers pay to social networks to develop profile pages or conduct promotions. For the first time, the new numbers also include widget and application ad spending. While widgets and applications can also appear on blogs and personal start pages, the majority of development has been for social network environments.

Today's economy, combined with the fact that social networks are still trying to come up with successful ad models, has led to lowered ad spending projections for the next few years.

Social networks still show some promise in developing new forms of online advertising. MySpace's HyperTargeting initiative, for example, has helped double CPMs at the site, and 75% of advertisers that have tried it have come back for more, according to News Corp. Facebook's SocialAds concept attempts to improve the relevance of advertising by mining the connections between Facebook members.

Both sites will also see new revenue streams from local advertising and self-service advertising, in which marketers can execute ad buys using an automated system.

The challenge is that all of these new forms of advertising are more difficult to plan, measure and quantify than what advertisers are used to, and that has impacted spending growth.

eMarketer projects that US online social network ad spending will grow 55% this year, down from 163% growth in 2007. The good news is that spending growth at online social networks will be more than double the 23% growth that eMarketer projects for the total US online ad market. Social networks are among the most popular sites on the Internet—particularly for the hard-to-reach youth audience—and marketers will continue to look for ways to reach consumers at those sites.

MySpace will account for 53% of total US online social network ad spending this year, but it has had monetization difficulties. Revenues at Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit that is dominated by MySpace, fell to $210 million in the March quarter from $233 million in the previous quarter, News Corp. reported in its earnings conference call last week. News Corp.'s fiscal year ends June 30.

As a result, eMarketer has lowered its forecast for 2008 US ad spending on MySpace to $755 million, from the previous estimate of $850 million.

eMarketer also lowered its 2008 forecast for Facebook ad spending to $265 million, from the previous estimate of $305 million. In addition to issues related to the economy, Facebook may also see a short-term revenue dip if marketers use ad budgets to create applications for its platform instead of purchasing advertising. Facebook does not receive any direct ad revenue when marketers launch applications on the site.

Combined, MySpace and Facebook are expected to account for 72% of the total US social network ad spending pie this year. Spending at all other online social network sites (including general social networks, niche networks and marketer-created networks) is expected to reach $370 million this year, while widget and application ad spending is projected to rise to $40 million this year, from $15 million in 2007.

At $1.4 billion, social network advertising will make up 5.5% of total US online ad spending this year. However, after 2010 eMarketer projects that social network sites will receive a lesser share of total spending, falling to 5.1% in 2012 after a peak of 6% in 2009-2010.

The revised US forecast also changes eMarketer's worldwide social network ad spending estimates. eMarketer now projects that advertisers will spend $2 billion on social networks worldwide in 2008, rising to $3.8 billion in 2011. The previous figure for 2011 was $4.1 billion.

Internet Use Still Heaviest Among Young

The gap between time spent online and watching TV is closing

Adult consumers in the US still spend more time in front of televisions than they do online, according to a recently released survey sponsored by the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) industry association and conducted by Nielsen Media Research.

Survey respondents ages 18 to 34 spent over an hour per day more watching TV than on the Internet.

The gap between time spent online and time spent watching TV is closing, however.

In January 2008, TVB found that 18 to 34 year-olds spent 60.6 minutes more watching TV per day (206.0 minutes) than they did online (145.4 minutes). That is down from June 2006, when the gap was 137.4 minutes: 246.7 minutes for TV and 109.3 minutes online. Moreover, TV time decreased while Internet time increased.

The TVB study's demographic breakdown covered consumers ages 18 to 34. A separate study by JupiterResearch and Ipsos Insight reported results in more discrete age groups—and found that TV use actually trailed Internet use among the youngest consumers. As of August 2007, US consumers in the 18 to 24 year-old range went online an average of two more hours per week than they spent watching TV.

Consumers in the US ages 25 to 44 spent equal amounts of time on the Internet and watching TV, while those ages 45 and older spent more time watching TV than they did online.

Neither study specifically addressed multitasking, which can be significant, especially among younger consumers.

"Young people rarely use just one medium at a time," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Often, when they are online, they’ll have TV or music on in the background."

Mobile Spam Problem in UK

MAY 8, 2008

A large proportion of UK mobile phone users are victims of mobile spam, according to a March 2008 YouGov-Cloudmark study.

Two-thirds of mobile users surveyed had been victims of mobile spam.

Among 18 to 24 year-olds, that number rose to 75%.

In turn, consumers are laying the blame on their mobile service providers. A full 28% of consumers blame their operator for unwanted messages and 44% would consider changing networks because of spam.

"Mobile spam may not be in the same league as traditional e-mail spam, but as this survey shows, subscribers' tolerance of unwanted and unsolicited mobile messages is virtually nil," said Neil Cook, head of technology at Cloudmark. "That means mobile operators simply can't afford to adopt a wait-and-see strategy."

Viajar y Disfrutar
A Special Report on the Hispanic Travel Industry
Source: http://www.hispanicmarketweekly.com/article.cms?id=10017

Travel among U.S. Hispanics for the longest time was defined by "VFR" activity, to use industry parlance. While visiting friends and relatives remains a big part of the Latino travel segment, the emergence of the Hispanic business traveler has some companies changing their tune when it comes to their advertising messages.

The travel industry has grand opportunities for growth by approaching Hispanics with the right messages. Yet some head-scratching may be seen among those seeking long-term trends about the potential growth explosion in the travel sector from the nation's Spanish-speaking population.

For one, airlines are just getting started with pitching Latinos on business travel. Among the hotels earmarking the most dollars for Hispanic media are budget lodging brands - and not those most-associated with a resort destination. At the same time, outreach through traditional advertising targeting Latino consumers has been scant from cruise lines.

Activity from car rental companies remains mixed. Travel agencies - both online and in the brick-and-mortar form - are extremely limited in their Hispanic outreach. Tour companies offering anything in Spanish have focused their efforts almost entirely on Spaniards and Latin American travelers.

Anecdotal Evidence.- How Hispanics have emerged as a potentially enormous group of leisure and business travelers has been discussed by agencies and their clients. But hard numbers on the shifting nature of the Latino traveler are hard to come by.

The Travel Industry Association's most recent study on the Latino traveler was conducted in 2003. According to the group, a follow-up report was never commenced because of "a funding issue;" the 2003 study was sponsored, TIA spokesperson Cathy Keefe says.

Today, monitoring the Hispanic traveler's buying habits would be a major endeavor, requiring lots of research. "You can't track Hispanic travel activity unless you go directly to the source," says Elsa Cristobal, who operates a Miami-based travel agency. That being said, Cristobal has a fairly good gauge of what many of her Latino customers are booking.

"We see a big growth trend with the high-affluent Hispanic," she notes. "With this group, Europe is the No. 1 destination of choice." Meanwhile, Costa Rica has "fizzled out," with many taking a "been there, done that" mentality to the Central American nation's rich natural attractions, Cristobal says.

For those travelers seeking the most value in their trips, cruises remain highly popular. "This has been the case for the last six years or so," Cristobal notes. "It really is because of the value. You can get seven days on a ship for $1,300, and that includes food."

In regard to the Latino business traveler, potential for overall activity increases at not only airlines but "component" categories such as hotels and car rental agencies, is anticipated. But it is the airlines that have been the most forward-thinking in regard to advertising messages targeting Hispanics.

"Airlines know who travels with them, so we have seen the opportunity to target both the leisure traveler and the business traveler," says Roberto Orcí, president of Los Angeles-based Acento, the U.S. Hispanic agency of record for Alaska Airlines.

"We tend to attract people in all segments, and there is a big overlap between the leisure and business traveler in the Hispanic market," Orcí notes. Alaska has campaigns that are aimed at both types of travelers. The airline's regional activity, which includes bigger hubs across its footprint, is focused on radio advertisements in Seattle, Northern California and Southern California. Print and outdoor messages are also in the mix. In reaching the casual Alaska customer, the message has been centered on the theme "we speak your language."

Orcí explains, "When you think of traveling to Mexico, you don't really think of traveling on Alaska Airlines." But Alaska has made considerable headway in recent years with Hispanics across the Pacific Coast by expanding awareness of its Mexican routes. The airline in 2007 allocated 12 percent of its advertising budget to Spanish-language efforts, and bilingual signage was added to its check-in and arrival areas at Los Angeles International Airport - all events tied to Acento's May 2007 win of creative and strategic planning duties for Alaska.

Thanks to its presence in Mexico, Orcí expects Alaska's advertising activity in the U.S. Hispanic market to go nowhere else but up. "They clearly see the reality of the market, and the demographics," Orcí says of the largely Mexican Hispanic population seen across the West Coast. "It's impossible to do business in the western U.S. and ignore the Hispanic market."

That includes placing Alaska spots targeting the Latino business traveler in-between innings on the Spanish-language feed of Seattle Mariners baseball games. Orcí points out that the next step for Alaska is to create an overall theme and tagline to further entice Hispanic flyers and both are already in the works.

New 'Destinos' Emerge At American.- At American Airlines, a wave of advertising introduced in November 2007 seeks to tap into the emerging market for Hispanic business travel. The "Destino" campaign, developed by U.S. Hispanic agency Zubi Advertising, illustrates a significant shift from the emotional, family-focused creative of years past (HMW Archives 11/19/2007. American Changes The Tone).

For Zubi COO Joe Zubizarreta, luring business travelers to American will assist the airline as it continues to lure Latino leisure travelers that may be wary of a trip for financial reasons. "The tourist dollars are all based on the state of the economy," he says. "It's disposable income, or in many cases it is vacation money that is set aside and just doesn't go as far as it used to."

As a result, many Americans - including Hispanics - are scaling back or altogether abandoning travel plans in 2008. "The airline industry is very much dependent on the state of the U.S. economy ... and we all know the state that that is in."

Miami travel agent Cristobal has also noticed a slowdown in leisure travel from those customers not in the highest income echelons. But, she adds, things are still moving for the travel industry. And that's good news for Zubizarreta, with respect to the American account - the airline's budget has been relatively flat despite its continued profit losses.

"We have seen an upsurge in domestic business travel among Hispanics," says Zubizarreta, who hypothesizes that the "Hispanic mentality of achieving more and getting ahead" has helped with the increased activity. "They don't consider business travel a chore - they see it as a way of advancing."

Key print vehicles have been the focus for that segment of the marketplace. Otherwise, television remains the predominant communication tool, with much of the effort put toward attracting the holiday crowd. "You need the visual appeal of destinations and those places that are near or dear to your heart," Zubizarreta says. But the internet - along with print ads - is now a big part of the media mix for American.

A competitive environment, with efforts from JetBlue certainly being eyed cautiously by American, has helped in even adding some below-the-line activity to American's efforts. In New York, unique outdoor and moving vehicle advertisements target Spanish-speaking consumers.

In late March, weaving American into the fabric of Hispanic life took shape as it became the official airline of Major League Soccer, the MLS Cup, the MLS All-Star Game and the SuperLiga tournament, all thanks to a sponsorship agreement with Soccer United Marketing. Other promotional and marketing opportunities for American include on-site advertising, television advertising on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Español and in-game promotional opportunities.

"It's about trying to find ways of engaging the consumer in an environment that they are more comfortable in," Cristina Castro, the carrier's manager of advertising for the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets, says of the grass-roots initiatives.

Solid Commitment.- Several other domestic carriers are active in the U.S. Hispanic market. But the target customer varies depending on the airline.

Continental Airlines has emerged in recent years as a significant carrier to destinations in Latin America. Its current efforts are the first from Conill Advertising since its October 2007 selection by the airline as its U.S. Hispanic agency of record (HMW Archives 10/1/2007. Continental Taps Latino Shop). Work is set to include print, out-of-home, radio, television and interactive advertising. Media duties went to 42 Degrees at MediaVest in December 2007. Bromley Communications had been handling Continental on a full service basis until last autumn.

Spirit Airlines, based in Fort Lauderdale, has seen limited activity in targeting U.S. Hispanics, using mainly spot television and spot radio (HMW Archives 1/17/2008. Industry Snapshot: Airlines). The airline has emerged as a major service provider to destinations in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America.

But by far the biggest investor in U.S. Hispanic media has been Southwest. The discount air carrier has enjoyed a strong relationship with Dieste Harmel & Partners for a decade.

"They have been one of the most consistent and smartest advertisers out there, in an environment where you see the Hispanic pendulum going in and out of the industry," says Roberto Siewczynski, group account director for Dieste in charge of the Southwest account.

Siewczynski points out that Hispanics, in particular, respond positively when an interpersonal relationship with a business is formed. Along with slightly irreverent and humorous ads, Southwest continues to far outpace its competitors in regard to total ad dollars allocated to Spanish-language advertisers. According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the four Hispanic television networks enjoyed $11.8 million from Southwest over the first three quarters of 2007.

Television continues to play an important role for the airline. Siewczynski says new work targeting the Latino leisure traveler - featuring the tagline "Siéntete libre de andar por el país" - breaks the week of May 5th. The commercials will appear nationally.

While network television continues to dominate Southwest's media buying efforts - handled by Camelot Communications - the airline is looking at Hispanic radio and the internet as other areas for reaching Spanish-speaking travelers in the U.S.

Along with American, Southwest has a fully integrated online booking system for Spanish-language web surfers - branded as "Vamonos." Launched several years ago, Siewczynski believes this is central to Southwest's overall plan for Latino market growth.

"When you think about the online space, it is not about the impression of the banner," says Siewczynski. "It is the opportunity to get the traveler to embrace the brand and create the dialogue with the customer."

Lodging Industry Slow To Lure Latinos.- Where airlines have made considerable efforts to lure the Latino leisure and business traveler, the lodging industry has continued to place its focus on traditional, family-oriented messages in its Spanish-language advertising. But those efforts, for the most part, have been absent from some of the more upscale hotel chains and resort brands.

According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the largest investors in traditional U.S. Hispanic media in 2007 were Accor SA, whose properties include budget hotel chains Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) - the parent of such well-known mid-level brands as Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza.

Of the three IHG brands, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express have been the most active in the U.S. Hispanic market. In May 2007, a series of light-hearted television commercials focusing on family fun debuted on a regional basis (HMW Archives 6/11/2007. A Hotelier's Ad Campaign That Gets Right To The Point). In all, the spots represented a $1.5 million investment in local Spanish-language television in 2007.

For Holiday Inn Express, two 15-second ads were created. The creative was produced in Buenos Aires for al Punto Advertising, which has handled IHG's U.S. Hispanic efforts since March 2004 (HMW Archives 3/8/2004. Make Your Bed).

"When we launched Holiday Inn to the Hispanic market in 2004, it was the first effort from a national chain of hotels to target the market outside of off-again, on-again magazine ads," says Peggy Goff, president of al Punto. "Holiday Inn has been meaningful and consistent with its Hispanic advertising."

The television spots presently air in the top five Hispanic DMAs, as well as on a national Hispanic cable network. According to Goff, both Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express target Hispanic leisure travelers. The difference - Holiday Inn is for those on a long-term stay, while Holiday Inn Express is more for those on a short-term stay.

Targeting the Latino business travel hasn't been explored, mainly because it's such a small sliver of the overall Hispanic segment. Goff cites a Forrester Research study that shows 15 percent of the Hispanic population - which is 15 percent of the overall population - as active business travelers.

Meanwhile, Latino travelers slightly overindex non-Latino travelers when it comes to leisure travel and those that book online. Therefore, plans are in the works for internet advertising for 2009, Goff says. According to the Forrester study, 33 percent of Latinos booked their leisure travel online in 2007. That compares to 32 percent for the non-Latino population.

"Online bookings on the Latino section of the Holiday Inn website doubled between 2006 and 2007," Goff notes. Yet Goff also says the Latino who goes online to visit the hotels' website still calls the chain's toll-free number to find out where the hotel is located and what's nearby.

As far as Holiday Inn's competition, Goff is at a loss for words when asked why other brands aren't investing in Spanish-language advertising.

"I can't explain why the Hispanic index is so high, yet you don't see significant activity," she says. "It's a category that really hasn't awakened yet to the opportunity. The bottom line is Hispanic leisure travel is growing."

Aside from the Holiday Inn television work, only a limited amount of Hispanic outreach has been seen from the more mid-level hotel brand. Luxury brands have been largely absent. The Choice Hotels group, which operates nine popular hotel chains - Comfort Inn and Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, Mainstay Suites, Suburban, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn - placed $685,600 into magazine advertisements during 2007. Of its remaining budget, all $4,300 went to a small spot television-based effort.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp., which controls such brands as Baymont Inns & Suites, Days Inn, Howard Johnson's, Ramada, Super 8, and Travelodge, in addition to the signature Wyndham brand, placed $451,800 into national Hispanic magazines and $168,250 into spot television.

While the activity of many of these brands is scant, Hispanics now more than ever are familiar with them. Says Goff, "When we did our first national tracker, with well over 1,000 respondents, the Hispanic traveler could name only five hotel brands. Now they can name 17. We know that the competition is waking up."

Narrow Lane For Cars And Cruises.- Other travel component categories have not seen the amount of advertising activity as airlines and hotels. For car rental companies, highly limited activity in Spanish-language media has been seen since the early 2006 buyout of Hertz by private equity firms.

In 2007, Hertz and Avis/Budget - the No. 1 and No. 2 investors in the Hispanic market - placed a total $134,400 in advertising. For Hertz, $64,550 went to national magazines. Avis/Budget opted to place $67,000 in spot radio.

Even more limited activity has been seen in the U.S. Hispanic market from cruise lines - despite the popularity of sea travel among Latinos on both coasts. Royal Caribbean has been the most visible in regard to Spanish-language activity - and its recent decision to have The Vidal Partnership handle Hispanic creative, media buying and planning means the company is poised to further expand its efforts (HMW Archives 12/17/2007. Royal Caribbean Win Includes A Hispanic Shop).

Above- and below-the-line initiatives are planned for the second quarter of 2008, Oswald Méndez, director of integrated marketing at Vidal, said in a December 2007 interview. Other cruise lines, including Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines, continue to do little if any active pitches to Spanish-preferred Hispanics.

Meanwhile, online travel agencies have remained quiet on the Latino advertising front. Yet there's much potential. In a focus group conducted in spring 2007 by Horowitz Associates that involved unacculturated Hispanics who mainly used only Spanish-language media, a high level of usage of travel web sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity was seen (HMW Archives 6/25/2007. Broadband Growth Spurt Continues In U.S. Hispanic Households). However Orbitz does not have a Spanish-language option. Neither does Travelocity. Or Expedia.

For online activity in Spanish, going directly to the airline, car rental company, hotel chain or cruise line continues to be the main in-language route.

Mexico Lindo y Querido.- Travel to Mexico is an integral part of the entire Hispanic travel segment, and major initiatives for both non-Latinos and Latinos have been seen as of late.

Aside from Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines, Mexicana Airlines and AeroMéxico have each seen their advertising dollars rise as competition heats up between multiple airlines serving the same routes (HMW Archives 1/17/2008. Industry Snapshot: Airlines).

Perhaps the biggest push for travel to Mexico by Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike involves the Mexican Tourism Bureau. Last fall, the bureau selected Machado García-Serra Communications (MGS) to launch a multimedia promotion (HMW Archives 9/24/2007. MGS Goes To Work On Mexico Tourism).

Manny Machado, CEO of MGS, says the current media strategies on promoting the sights of Mexico target affluent consumers - both Latino and non-Latino. "Among U.S. Hispanic affluent audiences, our strategies reach Spanish-dominant, bilingual and English-dominant consumers."

Spanish-language media represents 10 percent of the total activity, notes Machado. But he's quick to point out that additional Hispanic audience outreach will come from English-language media. "We look at behavior among the target audience and layer the media strategies accordingly," he says.

National and local television activity is paired with print, out-of-home and online advertising during key months, says Machado, adding that typical trip planning cycles play a role in media selection and when a campaign is launched.

What of Hispanics that are not Mexican that may be pitched on a vacation to the nation? According to Machado, a "fusion of cultures in the U.S. impacted by Hispanics" has taken place. Marketers are leveraging this appeal among non-Latinos. "We are trying to attract Hispanics and non-Latinos that travel to Europe to consider Mexico as a destination that, in addition to the diverse experience, offers superior service. In today's economy Mexico becomes an excellent alternative."

Spanish Speakers Turn To Tours.- Travel to Latin American destinations remains an important component of Hispanic vacations and business trips. But domestic activity has taken a noticeable turn upward among those booking flights and hotels in Spanish. The quest for Spanish-language tours has also been a part of the vacation process for many Hispanics.

"Hispanics don't travel domestically enough," says Cristobal, the Miami travel agent. "There are not many tour operators that offer Spanish-language escorted tours. Yet Hispanic travelers don't want English. They are more comfortable in Spanish."

Tour operator Globus had offered Spanish-language guided excursions until quietly ending the option last year. "They were not our specialty," says Melanie Gravdal, a company spokesperson.

But websites tied to the tourism and convention bureaus in several large American cities are turning to the internet to educate Hispanic travelers about what's to see and explore. Seattle's city government has a section in Spanish that includes images and maps of local sights and Seattle's sports teams.

Other cities are lacking. San Francisco's official visitors' guide offers a section on gay travel, along with highly detailed information on what's of interest to travelers. None of the information is in Spanish - or any language other than English, for that matter.

"We should have a Spanish-language website. It's certainly on our wish list," says Angela Jackson, of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. "But as we're a nonprofit we don't have the budget. We all realize it's a very important market, but it's expensive to put together."

The official tourism site for Washington, DC has no Spanish-language offerings. But Chris Gieckel, of the non-profit Destination DC, says the website is fairly new and information in Spanish is on the way. Plans also call for a detailed visitors guide for Spanish speakers. At present, Spanish-language maps with brief information on hotels, restaurants and attractions are available.

And despite a massive multimedia non-Latino promotional effort, the City of New York's outreach to Spanish-speaking tourists has been indirect. For those that wish to "descubra Nueva York," a link transports Hispanic web surfers to "Pasaporte WADO con Willie Colón" - a channel hosted by the legendary Salsero. Features include an overview of the Five Boroughs, Things To Do, Itineraries and transit information that includes getting to and from the airport - as well as a link to the MTA's subway and bus maps.

Although limited in scope, the domestic developments are a good sign that domestic travel now sees U.S. Hispanics as an important group to appeal to. Says Cristobal, "We live in a country that is filled with Latinos who are sophisticated but find that it's difficult to share a trip in English with those more comfortable with Spanish."