Digital Travel Marketing This Week: Strategies for Mobile Search, Check-in Upsells and More

This week’s top story is about mobile search marketing. The proliferation of two parallel mobile channels, comprising the world of app stores and the mobile web, has complicated what was already a confusing discipline for many travel marketers. Some recent thoughts from an executive at HotelTonight offer some tips on how to get the most out of search marketing efforts on mobile.

Note: 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.

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

HotelTonight Exec Discusses Opportunities, and Perils, of Mobile Search
As more traveler research and purchases move to mobile, a strong mobile search marketing strategy becomes imperative. HotelTonight’s Chris Creel, who heads up search and growth marketing for the company, recently shared strategies the company employs to ensure visibility in both the app stores and searches made on mobile devices. Read more

Hotels Using Mobile to Upsell Check-in Upgrades
Also on the topic of mobile, Design Hotels has launched a new feature that offers guests who check-in via the company’s mobile app an opportunity to upgrade their room. The feature follows a growing trend among travel marketers to sell ancillary services on mobile devices. Read more

British Airways Uses Google Street View to Promote Business Class
More and more airline marketers are using Google’s Street View feature as a promotional tool to announce and build awareness for cabin upgrades and new service offerings. The newest airline to get in on this trend is British Airways, which recently launched a partnership with the search giant to promote its new business-class only service between London City airport and New York’s JFK. Read more

How Marriott Builds Audiences Through “Experiences”
Not a week goes by without a press mention of Marriott’s dedicated branded content studio efforts, an initiative which is symbolic of a larger digital marketing shift towards content marketing and “native” advertising over traditional hard-sell ads. Here’s a few suggestions for how travel marketers should think about how to incorporate this type of marketing into their own campaigns. Read more

TripAdvisor and Google: Direct Booking Partner or Enemy?
Google and TripAdvisor’s recent introduction of hotel booking tools has upset the traditional hotel owner vs. online travel agency dynamic that long prevailed in the digital travel industry. But, as industry leader and hotel marketing consultant Max Starkov writes this week, these new partners may not be the saviors they’ve been made out to be. Read more

Crowdsourcing the Future of Travel Recommendations
When travelers search for local destination tips, why do most companies separate recommendations intended for travelers from those meant for locals? According to startup marketing executive Alex Mackenzie Torres points out, there’s no reason for them to stay separate. Read more