This Week in Digital Travel Marketing: Era of the Selfie Stick, Personalization Problems and More

This is Skift’s digital travel marketing roundup, a weekly review of the most important digital marketing trends, marketing technology, and ad campaigns making headlines this week with travel marketers.

This week examines the marketing implications of a traveler phenomenon we know all too well: the selfie stick. For every theme park or museum that’s banned the devices, plenty of tourism boards and hotels are aggressively incorporating them in marketing campaigns. Rather than lamenting their use, marketers should wonder what underlying shifts in traveler behavior are driving their popularity?

Keeping reading below for all this week’s top digital marketing news.

Welcome to ‘The Era of the Selfie Stick’

The selfie stick has become nearly ubiquitous at tourist hot spots around the globe, and many tourism brands like Disney have already taken steps to ban their use. However, rather than viewing the odd contraptions as a curiosity, this article suggests the rise of the selfie stick actually portends larger changes in consumer behavior shaking up the industry. As more marketers consider using the devices in social media marketing campaigns, there are some interesting thoughts here about whether the device is having a positive or negative impact.

Has Marketing Personalization Gone Too Far?

Personalization is the new buzz word for travel marketers, many of whom seek to use the wealth of digital data from consumers to serve up targeted messages and travel products to consumers. But as Australian travel industry observer Martin Kelly lamented this week, the methods the industry is using to personalize marketing might be turning off potential customers. The short analysis doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions, but it is a thought-provoking warning for any marketers that uses customer behavior and personal data in their promotional efforts.

Examining the Evolution of Personalized Discovery

Personalization of another kind is the theme of this article on the future of personalized discovery. For any travel consumer that’s ever been on the ground in a destination trying to decide what to do using a search on their smartphone, local discovery is a travel marketing topic with particular relevance. The article is a good look where discovery tools like social media and anticipatory search services like Google Now will head in the future.

Virgin Atlantic Uses LinkedIn to Target ‘Freelance Flyers’

LinkedIn has earned a reputation as the go-to platform for business professionals to market themselves but, until now, it wasn’t considered a destination for travel marketers. Last week Virgin Atlantic unveiled a new LinkedIn marketing campaign targeting high-spending “freelance flyers” who use the service for networking and to look for work.

Campbell Ewald Wins Travelocity Advertising Business

Travelocity may be owned by Expedia these days, but its ubiquitous “Roaming Gnome” advertising campaign continues to live on. This week, Detroit-based Campbell Ewald announced it would take over advertising duties for the brand, which spent a reported $29 million in measured media in 2014. Whether the beloved Gnome will continue to appear in ads following the agency switch remains to be seen.

Using Visual Storytelling to Boost Hotel Conversions

The Web is increasingly dominated by image-focused platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. According to this piece from Hospitality Net, this “visual web” has implications for hotel marketers, who need to think about opportunities to use all this imagery as tools to convert customers.

Tips for Travel Brands With User Generated Content

Thanks to social media, there’s a wealth of user-generated content available for travel marketing campaigns. But knowing how, and why, to use it is often a trickier proposition for marketers. This article outlines a few helpful tips for travel marketers to use and learn from such user-generated material.