Digital Marketing and Social Media collected ideas thoughts and news
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Is Twitter worthwhile for your Hotel? | Hospitality Marketing Chronicles
Is Twitter worthwhile for your Hotel? | Hospitality Marketing Chronicles
At times it is hard to convince people to use Twitter as a marketing vehicle or even Social Media as a whole, although we have surpassed that phase on the latter. Lately, we have been dedicating considerable time in cleaning up our Twitter accounts in line with my previous posts e.g. improving our bios, automating daily posts, unfollowing masses of irrelevant tweeple, following back those that show promise and creating dedicated Twitter handles for our Brand Advocates. During this process of refocusing the following question was asked me again: “Is Twitter worthwhile for our Hotels?”
Regular readers of this blog know my scepticism towards the added value of Twitter for the Hotel Industry. Effective Twitter usage necessarily involves dedication, and an investment in time and attention. There is a value in using Twitter as a marketing vehicle and it has nothing to do with numbers followers… or direct sales. It is about brand development. Who follows you matters a great deal because powerful Twitter marketing involves not just link-blasting, but networking and relationship development.
Here, are some questions that spring to mind:
* Who is reading your tweets? Are your followers interested in your hotel? Do you know them as guests or member from your hotel loyalty program?
* Are your followers active? Active users share your links, they give you feedback. Automated or semi-automated users are not active users that will interact with you.
So, how can we place the aforementioned in perspective? In the Algarve, we know that the hotels mentioned in the underneath tables are leading in the Twittersphere [I removed Pestana Hotels & Resorts, as they merely focus on Brazil.] How engaged are they really? How often is their content re-tweeted. What is the hotel’s effective reach? To assess this, I again turned to Tweetreach:
Reach Regular
Tweets
Replies Retweets
Portobay 12.139 46 1 1
Hotelfaro 75.179 19 19 4
HolidayInnAlg 1.862 2 0 0
The above data leads to conclude that Hotel Faro is the most interactive, whilst also having the most contributors (11), whilst the Holiday Inn Algarve has become relatively silent.
In digging deeper, I used Twitteranalyzer and evaluated the origin of followers and their relevance for the principle Algarve feeder markets. For all 3 hotels those markets were the UK, Portugal Spain and Germany; in those particular order.
Followers UK PT ES DE %
Portobay 2.189 612 43 65 65 36%
Hotelfaro 2.265 543 203 113 90 42%
HolidayInnAlg 1.466 527 73 58 73 50%
5.920 1.682 319 236 228 42%
28% 5% 4% 4%
From the above table you can conclude that the Hotel Faro has the most balanced number of followers, while with 50% the Holiday Inn Algarve seems to cover relatively the most of the main Algarve feeder markets. A surprise is though, that Portobay has relatively little Portuguese followers….
Back to the original question. It may just not be worthwhile for some hotels to focus their online marketing efforts on Twitter. In explaining it might be easier to address that question reversely: “When should you stay away from Twitter?”
1. If your hotel does not have a mobile strategy or presence. There is a strong tie between Twitter and mobile, including SMS text messages. Do your guests use mobile, android or iphones?
2. If your hotel does not have a significant online or social media presence. How much have you invested lately in marketing, re-vamping your website or used e-commerce to sell your services. How regular are you using email for marketing?
Before your hotel jumps on the Twitter bandwagon you might be far better off to focus on these previously mentioned online marketing tools first. If these questions are covered, then we are getting somewhere and aiming for (brand) tracking, loyalty and directing attention through Twitter. Twitter marketing is a task that involves two-way audience engagement, on the part of the hotel marketer creating opportunity to:
1. Track Brand and Reputation. See one of my previous posts “Improving your Hotel’s Guest Service with Social Media.“
2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on your hotel services or its website? Blast out a tweet asking for advice
3. Drive Traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites. Include links in your Tweets to your website, while it has some SEO benefit – even your short links.
4. Find Prospects. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting or fitting your market segments. Do a search for keywords related to your hotel on Twitter Search and then follow users. However, interacting with each and every prospect takes a lot of time and energy. As a lead acquisition tool, it does not always reach the audience you want; it is extremely difficult to target a specific subset of the general demographic and determine their level of potential interest. You could prefer networking with influencers who can promote your hotel brand. Which celebrity recently stayed in your Hotel?
5. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new promotions are launched or inform on-resort happenings.
In conclusion, you should use Twitter as a relationship building tool. After you have created the trust and have built the relationships you will find your sales increasing. Although I remain skeptical of Twitter – creating relationships is the most valuable attribute of all. Whether it will remain part of our daily activities when we are done giving it a trial run remains to be seen, but for now we will give it a good shot.
At times it is hard to convince people to use Twitter as a marketing vehicle or even Social Media as a whole, although we have surpassed that phase on the latter. Lately, we have been dedicating considerable time in cleaning up our Twitter accounts in line with my previous posts e.g. improving our bios, automating daily posts, unfollowing masses of irrelevant tweeple, following back those that show promise and creating dedicated Twitter handles for our Brand Advocates. During this process of refocusing the following question was asked me again: “Is Twitter worthwhile for our Hotels?”
Regular readers of this blog know my scepticism towards the added value of Twitter for the Hotel Industry. Effective Twitter usage necessarily involves dedication, and an investment in time and attention. There is a value in using Twitter as a marketing vehicle and it has nothing to do with numbers followers… or direct sales. It is about brand development. Who follows you matters a great deal because powerful Twitter marketing involves not just link-blasting, but networking and relationship development.
Here, are some questions that spring to mind:
* Who is reading your tweets? Are your followers interested in your hotel? Do you know them as guests or member from your hotel loyalty program?
* Are your followers active? Active users share your links, they give you feedback. Automated or semi-automated users are not active users that will interact with you.
So, how can we place the aforementioned in perspective? In the Algarve, we know that the hotels mentioned in the underneath tables are leading in the Twittersphere [I removed Pestana Hotels & Resorts, as they merely focus on Brazil.] How engaged are they really? How often is their content re-tweeted. What is the hotel’s effective reach? To assess this, I again turned to Tweetreach:
Reach Regular
Tweets
Replies Retweets
Portobay 12.139 46 1 1
Hotelfaro 75.179 19 19 4
HolidayInnAlg 1.862 2 0 0
The above data leads to conclude that Hotel Faro is the most interactive, whilst also having the most contributors (11), whilst the Holiday Inn Algarve has become relatively silent.
In digging deeper, I used Twitteranalyzer and evaluated the origin of followers and their relevance for the principle Algarve feeder markets. For all 3 hotels those markets were the UK, Portugal Spain and Germany; in those particular order.
Followers UK PT ES DE %
Portobay 2.189 612 43 65 65 36%
Hotelfaro 2.265 543 203 113 90 42%
HolidayInnAlg 1.466 527 73 58 73 50%
5.920 1.682 319 236 228 42%
28% 5% 4% 4%
From the above table you can conclude that the Hotel Faro has the most balanced number of followers, while with 50% the Holiday Inn Algarve seems to cover relatively the most of the main Algarve feeder markets. A surprise is though, that Portobay has relatively little Portuguese followers….
Back to the original question. It may just not be worthwhile for some hotels to focus their online marketing efforts on Twitter. In explaining it might be easier to address that question reversely: “When should you stay away from Twitter?”
1. If your hotel does not have a mobile strategy or presence. There is a strong tie between Twitter and mobile, including SMS text messages. Do your guests use mobile, android or iphones?
2. If your hotel does not have a significant online or social media presence. How much have you invested lately in marketing, re-vamping your website or used e-commerce to sell your services. How regular are you using email for marketing?
Before your hotel jumps on the Twitter bandwagon you might be far better off to focus on these previously mentioned online marketing tools first. If these questions are covered, then we are getting somewhere and aiming for (brand) tracking, loyalty and directing attention through Twitter. Twitter marketing is a task that involves two-way audience engagement, on the part of the hotel marketer creating opportunity to:
1. Track Brand and Reputation. See one of my previous posts “Improving your Hotel’s Guest Service with Social Media.“
2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on your hotel services or its website? Blast out a tweet asking for advice
3. Drive Traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites. Include links in your Tweets to your website, while it has some SEO benefit – even your short links.
4. Find Prospects. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting or fitting your market segments. Do a search for keywords related to your hotel on Twitter Search and then follow users. However, interacting with each and every prospect takes a lot of time and energy. As a lead acquisition tool, it does not always reach the audience you want; it is extremely difficult to target a specific subset of the general demographic and determine their level of potential interest. You could prefer networking with influencers who can promote your hotel brand. Which celebrity recently stayed in your Hotel?
5. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new promotions are launched or inform on-resort happenings.
In conclusion, you should use Twitter as a relationship building tool. After you have created the trust and have built the relationships you will find your sales increasing. Although I remain skeptical of Twitter – creating relationships is the most valuable attribute of all. Whether it will remain part of our daily activities when we are done giving it a trial run remains to be seen, but for now we will give it a good shot.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hotel star system to lose official backing - News & Advice, Travel - The Independent
Hotel star system to lose official backing - News & Advice, Travel - The Independent
Hotel star system to lose official backing
By Rob Hastings
Monday, 24 January 2011
* Share
The Independent Close
o DiggDigg
o del.icio.usdel.icio.us
o FacebookFacebook
o RedditReddit
o GoogleGoogle
o Stumble UponStumble Upon
o FarkFark
o NewsvineNewsvine
o zYahooBuzz
o BeboBebo
o TwitterTwitter
o Independent MindsIndependent Minds
* Print
* Email
Sponsored Links
Ads by Google
London Coupons
1 ridiculously huge coupon a day.It's like doing London at 90% Off!
www.GROUPON.co.uk/London
Around The World Travel
Book your travel around the Worldwith the experts at STA Travel.
www.statravel.co.uk
BookIt.com Official Site
Flights, Hotels & Vacation PackagesLast Minute Offers, Book Today!
www.BookIt.com
Spread Betting - Try Now
Try GFTs Award-Winning TradingPlatform. Free Practice Account.
www.GFTuk.com
The official star-rating system used to rank hotels in Britain is to lose state backing this week, after claims that customer reviews posted online are more reliable. National tourism agencies, such as VisitEngland, grade hotels from one to five stars, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says collective rankings more accurately reflect holidaymakers' concerns. The current system is also considered to work against smaller hotels, which often receive just one or two stars because they cannot offer the same breadth of services as a large hotel, even if their standards of service, accommodation and food are judged very favourably.
A DCMS spokesman confirmed yesterday: "We are going to be publishing our tourism strategy next month and in that we back a consumer-led system like TripAdvisor rather than traditional star-rating systems."
Hotel owners who believe they have been unfairly judged online will be worried by the withdrawal of what they consider to be a more objective system. But the spokesman said: "You do get a broad range of opinions on online reviews. The feeling is that because there are so many reviews and they are so widely used that you do find a mean. You can see what effectively the average opinion is. It is because so many people do them, that is their strength really," he added.
John Penrose, the minister for tourism, added: "The official ratings systems are too often unreliable and unfair not only for the industry but for the consumer, too. So we will encourage any rating schemes or customers websites that improve the quality of information which visitors can use to choose the right holiday for them."
Hotel star system to lose official backing
By Rob Hastings
Monday, 24 January 2011
* Share
The Independent Close
o DiggDigg
o del.icio.usdel.icio.us
o FacebookFacebook
o RedditReddit
o GoogleGoogle
o Stumble UponStumble Upon
o FarkFark
o NewsvineNewsvine
o zYahooBuzz
o BeboBebo
o TwitterTwitter
o Independent MindsIndependent Minds
Sponsored Links
Ads by Google
London Coupons
1 ridiculously huge coupon a day.It's like doing London at 90% Off!
www.GROUPON.co.uk/London
Around The World Travel
Book your travel around the Worldwith the experts at STA Travel.
www.statravel.co.uk
BookIt.com Official Site
Flights, Hotels & Vacation PackagesLast Minute Offers, Book Today!
www.BookIt.com
Spread Betting - Try Now
Try GFTs Award-Winning TradingPlatform. Free Practice Account.
www.GFTuk.com
The official star-rating system used to rank hotels in Britain is to lose state backing this week, after claims that customer reviews posted online are more reliable. National tourism agencies, such as VisitEngland, grade hotels from one to five stars, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says collective rankings more accurately reflect holidaymakers' concerns. The current system is also considered to work against smaller hotels, which often receive just one or two stars because they cannot offer the same breadth of services as a large hotel, even if their standards of service, accommodation and food are judged very favourably.
A DCMS spokesman confirmed yesterday: "We are going to be publishing our tourism strategy next month and in that we back a consumer-led system like TripAdvisor rather than traditional star-rating systems."
Hotel owners who believe they have been unfairly judged online will be worried by the withdrawal of what they consider to be a more objective system. But the spokesman said: "You do get a broad range of opinions on online reviews. The feeling is that because there are so many reviews and they are so widely used that you do find a mean. You can see what effectively the average opinion is. It is because so many people do them, that is their strength really," he added.
John Penrose, the minister for tourism, added: "The official ratings systems are too often unreliable and unfair not only for the industry but for the consumer, too. So we will encourage any rating schemes or customers websites that improve the quality of information which visitors can use to choose the right holiday for them."
Social Media Case Study | Web SEO Analytics
Social Media Case Study | Web SEO Analytics
The Social Campaigns should be designed according to the organization’s objectives. In this article we will share with you the actions and the goals of a real life example that can help you understand how social media can be used in order to promote your brand. The subject of this case study is the social media campaign of a luxury hotel.
The hotel’s marketing department had both communication and commercial objectives. Nevertheless this campaign’s main goal was to affect the online reputation of the hotel. The 2 main objectives were: To increase the brand awareness by focusing on the internet users and to build an e-mail database that could be used on the future for Email campaigns. Secondary objectives were to increase the online bookings, the twitter followers, the Facebook fans and the views of the videos on YouTube.
Due to the limited time that we had available, we were forced to plan a short campaign that lasted for few days. Generally even if it is not advised to plan such a short term campaigns, this case study clearly shows that even under these circumstances a social media campaign can be successful if it is well planned and well executed.
read on
The Social Campaigns should be designed according to the organization’s objectives. In this article we will share with you the actions and the goals of a real life example that can help you understand how social media can be used in order to promote your brand. The subject of this case study is the social media campaign of a luxury hotel.
The hotel’s marketing department had both communication and commercial objectives. Nevertheless this campaign’s main goal was to affect the online reputation of the hotel. The 2 main objectives were: To increase the brand awareness by focusing on the internet users and to build an e-mail database that could be used on the future for Email campaigns. Secondary objectives were to increase the online bookings, the twitter followers, the Facebook fans and the views of the videos on YouTube.
Due to the limited time that we had available, we were forced to plan a short campaign that lasted for few days. Generally even if it is not advised to plan such a short term campaigns, this case study clearly shows that even under these circumstances a social media campaign can be successful if it is well planned and well executed.
read on
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web
4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web
As the volume of content swirling around the web continues to grow, we’re finding ourselves drowning in a deluge of data. Where is the relevant material? Where are the best columns and content offerings? How can we balance the need for timely, relevant information with reasonable limits of our ability to find, sort, fact check and validate information?
The solution on the horizon is curation. You can either choose to be a curator — offering your filtered world view to followers — or you can choose curators to follow. As curation moves to center stage, a new category of software is emerging to provide curation solutions.
In the past 90 days alone, there has been an explosion of new software offerings that are the early leaders in the curation tools category. Each of their unique differences will make them popular with different classes of users.
It would be impossible to explore all of the tools here — and there are more appearing every day — but here are four worth the consideration of anyone curious about curation workflow options.
As the volume of content swirling around the web continues to grow, we’re finding ourselves drowning in a deluge of data. Where is the relevant material? Where are the best columns and content offerings? How can we balance the need for timely, relevant information with reasonable limits of our ability to find, sort, fact check and validate information?
The solution on the horizon is curation. You can either choose to be a curator — offering your filtered world view to followers — or you can choose curators to follow. As curation moves to center stage, a new category of software is emerging to provide curation solutions.
In the past 90 days alone, there has been an explosion of new software offerings that are the early leaders in the curation tools category. Each of their unique differences will make them popular with different classes of users.
It would be impossible to explore all of the tools here — and there are more appearing every day — but here are four worth the consideration of anyone curious about curation workflow options.
KLM’s Passenger Social Surprise Experiment | Digital Buzz Blog
KLM’s Passenger Social Surprise Experiment | Digital Buzz Blog
Remember how great it felt the first time you got a social response from a brand you love or business you deal with? All the good will generated by their speedy response? Well, KLM decided to run an experiment with it’s social community, for people who check in via foursquare for flights or tweet about waiting to board the next KLM service, and they called it “KLM Surprise” a campaign that aims to bring random surprises and happiness to the boring wait for flights.
KLM’s social campaign involved a team of people identifying KLM passengers currently waiting for flights (and hanging out on twitter), before researching each person’s social profile to find out a little more about their personality and destination, before matching that to a surprise gift that they’d give before each person boarded their flight. The aim was to add a little surprise to offset a boring wait, but also to create happy customers who have plenty of time on their hands to tweet their network about a great KLM experience at the airport. That’s a very cool social experiment
Remember how great it felt the first time you got a social response from a brand you love or business you deal with? All the good will generated by their speedy response? Well, KLM decided to run an experiment with it’s social community, for people who check in via foursquare for flights or tweet about waiting to board the next KLM service, and they called it “KLM Surprise” a campaign that aims to bring random surprises and happiness to the boring wait for flights.
KLM’s social campaign involved a team of people identifying KLM passengers currently waiting for flights (and hanging out on twitter), before researching each person’s social profile to find out a little more about their personality and destination, before matching that to a surprise gift that they’d give before each person boarded their flight. The aim was to add a little surprise to offset a boring wait, but also to create happy customers who have plenty of time on their hands to tweet their network about a great KLM experience at the airport. That’s a very cool social experiment
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Virtual Sommelier
Mobiles
Here’s a quick fact: more people own a smartphone than a subscription to Wine Spectator magazine.
So when hotel and restaurant patrons want to enjoy a glass of wine but aren’t familiar with a brand, varietal or year, it makes sense that they would turn to their phones for help.
Making that process easier is Cellar Key, a technology that allows people to scan a 2D barcode to access information about a wine.
“Wine as a subject matter can be intimidating, and people don’t want to ask questions,” said Luke Higgins, Regional Sales Manager – Atlantic for Lion Nathan USA, an owner and importer of wines that launched the proprietary marketing platform in September. “This is one of the most exciting opportunities to communicate with consumers and give them the message we’ve always wanted to, from our cellar door.”
Smartphone users can download an app (Cellar Key uses ScanLife) and start scanning the barcodes, or tags, as they’re also called.
After scanning a Cellar Key barcode, viewers have a variety of information at their fingertips: a video tour of the winery, accolades from wine publications, an introduction to the winemaker and suggested food, wine and cheese pairings.
The idea is to convey to consumers at the point of purchase -- at a restaurant, on a room service menu or in a wine shop -- information about vinticulture and other characteristics about a wine.
Historically, wineries offered case cards or a blurb on the back of the bottle and enterprising wine buyers could visit a winery’s website -- but that may not be practical for a consumer ready to make a purchase. A sommelier is a great resource, but one is not always available, particularly for room service orders or wine purchased from a hotel market pantry.
Cellar Key is used at hotels including New York’s Waldorf Astoria, the Marriot Marquis Times Square, Hilton New York, Crowne Plaza in Times Square, and the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk’s Citrus restaurant in San Antonio, Texas.
Hotels decide how they want to market the program, but most use promotional tools such as hang tags on bottle necks, shelf talkers, case cards, brochures and tent cards.
The content is intended to educate, entertain and virtually connect the user to wineries. Imbibers can instantly rate the wine and share their experience on social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
Cellar Key features 20 wines and five wine brands including Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand; Argyle Pinot Noir and Vintage Brut from Willamette Valley, Oregon; St Hallett Faith Shiraz and Poacher’s Blend from Barossa, Australia, and Argento Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina.
Ben Glover, the chief winemaker of Wither Hills in New Zealand, said the content in Cellar Key conveys important information about wine to buyers.
“The magic about Marlborough is its effervescence and fantastic acidity. It cuts through oil and butters,” he said. “It’s not just about the wine, but the pairing with the food.”
For now, paper tags slip over the neck of Wither Hills bottles and instructions to buyers on how to scan them is on the back. Eventually, the tags will be incorporated into the bottle design itself.
Even though Cellar Key a consumer-facing technology, Higgins pointed out that it also can be used to educate hotel and restaurant staff about wines.
Controlling Your Pour
Promoting wine through technology is also a priority at Hyatt. At the Grand Hyatt New York, guests can experiment and educate their palate at “the Wine Gallery.”
The gallery, situated adjacent to the signature New York Central restaurant, features five interactive wine displays -- coolers that contain a bottle of wine and regulate the pour. Guests can purchase a card with a pre-loaded amount of money and taste any or all of the wines. The serving sizes range from a 1-ounce “taste” to a 3-ounce “half” and a 5-ounce “full.”
“There’s nothing better than having interactivity,” said Barry Prescott, Hyatt’s corporate beverage director. “Consumers want to be a part of the process.”
The dispensing machines are the WineStation from Napa Technolgy. An argon gas keeps the wines fresh, and the system keeps track of the level of the bottle and shows the operator when the bottle was opened -- although the guest does not see the date.
“As an operator we love it because it eliminates waste,” Prescott said.
Prescott said guests can get creative with the system. They can stick with small pours to get an overview of world wines, or have a small taste of an exclusive wine.
Guests can choose flights or taste a wine before making the commitment to buy an entire bottle. They can also order food to enjoy with their wine.
“It allows them to experience a wine they haven’t before,” said Jose Montalvo, the hotel’s beverage director. “We want to demystify the wines.”
It’s user-friendly for the operator, too, he noted. It’s easy to replace empty bottles of wine, or swap a low performer for a more popular varietal. He updates the wine list via computer or can scan a barcode at the station.
The Grand Hyatt New York is the first Hyatt to use the system.
Here’s a quick fact: more people own a smartphone than a subscription to Wine Spectator magazine.
So when hotel and restaurant patrons want to enjoy a glass of wine but aren’t familiar with a brand, varietal or year, it makes sense that they would turn to their phones for help.
Making that process easier is Cellar Key, a technology that allows people to scan a 2D barcode to access information about a wine.
“Wine as a subject matter can be intimidating, and people don’t want to ask questions,” said Luke Higgins, Regional Sales Manager – Atlantic for Lion Nathan USA, an owner and importer of wines that launched the proprietary marketing platform in September. “This is one of the most exciting opportunities to communicate with consumers and give them the message we’ve always wanted to, from our cellar door.”
Smartphone users can download an app (Cellar Key uses ScanLife) and start scanning the barcodes, or tags, as they’re also called.
After scanning a Cellar Key barcode, viewers have a variety of information at their fingertips: a video tour of the winery, accolades from wine publications, an introduction to the winemaker and suggested food, wine and cheese pairings.
The idea is to convey to consumers at the point of purchase -- at a restaurant, on a room service menu or in a wine shop -- information about vinticulture and other characteristics about a wine.
Historically, wineries offered case cards or a blurb on the back of the bottle and enterprising wine buyers could visit a winery’s website -- but that may not be practical for a consumer ready to make a purchase. A sommelier is a great resource, but one is not always available, particularly for room service orders or wine purchased from a hotel market pantry.
Cellar Key is used at hotels including New York’s Waldorf Astoria, the Marriot Marquis Times Square, Hilton New York, Crowne Plaza in Times Square, and the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk’s Citrus restaurant in San Antonio, Texas.
Hotels decide how they want to market the program, but most use promotional tools such as hang tags on bottle necks, shelf talkers, case cards, brochures and tent cards.
The content is intended to educate, entertain and virtually connect the user to wineries. Imbibers can instantly rate the wine and share their experience on social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
Cellar Key features 20 wines and five wine brands including Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand; Argyle Pinot Noir and Vintage Brut from Willamette Valley, Oregon; St Hallett Faith Shiraz and Poacher’s Blend from Barossa, Australia, and Argento Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina.
Ben Glover, the chief winemaker of Wither Hills in New Zealand, said the content in Cellar Key conveys important information about wine to buyers.
“The magic about Marlborough is its effervescence and fantastic acidity. It cuts through oil and butters,” he said. “It’s not just about the wine, but the pairing with the food.”
For now, paper tags slip over the neck of Wither Hills bottles and instructions to buyers on how to scan them is on the back. Eventually, the tags will be incorporated into the bottle design itself.
Even though Cellar Key a consumer-facing technology, Higgins pointed out that it also can be used to educate hotel and restaurant staff about wines.
Controlling Your Pour
Promoting wine through technology is also a priority at Hyatt. At the Grand Hyatt New York, guests can experiment and educate their palate at “the Wine Gallery.”
The gallery, situated adjacent to the signature New York Central restaurant, features five interactive wine displays -- coolers that contain a bottle of wine and regulate the pour. Guests can purchase a card with a pre-loaded amount of money and taste any or all of the wines. The serving sizes range from a 1-ounce “taste” to a 3-ounce “half” and a 5-ounce “full.”
“There’s nothing better than having interactivity,” said Barry Prescott, Hyatt’s corporate beverage director. “Consumers want to be a part of the process.”
The dispensing machines are the WineStation from Napa Technolgy. An argon gas keeps the wines fresh, and the system keeps track of the level of the bottle and shows the operator when the bottle was opened -- although the guest does not see the date.
“As an operator we love it because it eliminates waste,” Prescott said.
Prescott said guests can get creative with the system. They can stick with small pours to get an overview of world wines, or have a small taste of an exclusive wine.
Guests can choose flights or taste a wine before making the commitment to buy an entire bottle. They can also order food to enjoy with their wine.
“It allows them to experience a wine they haven’t before,” said Jose Montalvo, the hotel’s beverage director. “We want to demystify the wines.”
It’s user-friendly for the operator, too, he noted. It’s easy to replace empty bottles of wine, or swap a low performer for a more popular varietal. He updates the wine list via computer or can scan a barcode at the station.
The Grand Hyatt New York is the first Hyatt to use the system.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Trends in Travel and Tourism » Blog Archive » Humboldt’s New (Creative) High
The Trends in Travel and Tourism » Blog Archive » Humboldt’s New (Creative) High
I had a good laugh today after I watched a video attached to an email from Tony Smithers, the Executive Director of the Humboldt County Convention & Visitors Bureau in California. But before I get to that, a little background.
A couple of years ago I gave a keynote speech at a California Travel Industry Association (CalTIA) conference in Santa Rosa, CA (a good place to visit if you’re ever in the area north of San Francisco — and don’t miss the Charles Shultz Museum, for starters).
Anyway, since my talk was about how various destinations had successfully changed their image, at the end I asked the audience if they had any questions. One guy in the back of the room stood up – it was Tony Smithers, if you hadn’t already guessed — and explained that with so any marijuana plots planted out in the forests up north in Humboldt County, that all of the police raids had given the county a reputation as the “pot capital of the U.S.” And he wanted to know what they could do to combat the image. “Oh crud,” I thought, “of all the gin joints in all the world….”
But I know that when you’re in the tourism business and faced with something like that, it can quickly spiral out of control and become national news should the media misinterpret anything you say on the subject. So I made a suggestion — “make a joke of it,” I told the audience.
Fast forward to Universal Studios in Orlando last May. I bump into Tony and the subject of “not only the birds fly high in Humboldt” comes up once again. And I give him my same opinion. If people laugh at something, any criticism of it is really negated. Criticize something people remember as funny, and you only make them laugh again.
So back to the point. In my inbox this morning I found an email from Tony saying “Following our conversation in Orlando last May, I took your advice…”
To see how he handled the situation go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glm97au0b_Q or the website at www.hookedonhumboldt.org. It’s good to see someone creatively use a small budget to get some big results.
Okay, so maybe it won’t win an Academy Award. But as a new creative high for Northern Californian tourism, someone should surely nominate it for something.
Well done, Tony.
I had a good laugh today after I watched a video attached to an email from Tony Smithers, the Executive Director of the Humboldt County Convention & Visitors Bureau in California. But before I get to that, a little background.
A couple of years ago I gave a keynote speech at a California Travel Industry Association (CalTIA) conference in Santa Rosa, CA (a good place to visit if you’re ever in the area north of San Francisco — and don’t miss the Charles Shultz Museum, for starters).
Anyway, since my talk was about how various destinations had successfully changed their image, at the end I asked the audience if they had any questions. One guy in the back of the room stood up – it was Tony Smithers, if you hadn’t already guessed — and explained that with so any marijuana plots planted out in the forests up north in Humboldt County, that all of the police raids had given the county a reputation as the “pot capital of the U.S.” And he wanted to know what they could do to combat the image. “Oh crud,” I thought, “of all the gin joints in all the world….”
But I know that when you’re in the tourism business and faced with something like that, it can quickly spiral out of control and become national news should the media misinterpret anything you say on the subject. So I made a suggestion — “make a joke of it,” I told the audience.
Fast forward to Universal Studios in Orlando last May. I bump into Tony and the subject of “not only the birds fly high in Humboldt” comes up once again. And I give him my same opinion. If people laugh at something, any criticism of it is really negated. Criticize something people remember as funny, and you only make them laugh again.
So back to the point. In my inbox this morning I found an email from Tony saying “Following our conversation in Orlando last May, I took your advice…”
To see how he handled the situation go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glm97au0b_Q or the website at www.hookedonhumboldt.org. It’s good to see someone creatively use a small budget to get some big results.
Okay, so maybe it won’t win an Academy Award. But as a new creative high for Northern Californian tourism, someone should surely nominate it for something.
Well done, Tony.
Foursquare Courts Business Users with Checkin Analysis Features
Foursquare Courts Business Users with Checkin Analysis Features
Jennifer Van Grove About 10 months ago Jennifer Van Grove 19
Foursquare Courts Business Users with Checkin Analysis Features
69Share
3
inShare
Share 69
inShare3
email
share
email
share
Do you like this story?
The Foursquare platform currently caters to consumers and offers businesses the ability to provide specials. Today, however, we’re learning more information about a business dashboard — complete with checkin analytics — that’s being gradually rolled out to business owners.
While the dashboard is still an alpha product, it’s already able to make the distinction between staff and customers, and tracks checkins on a daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day or all-time basis.
Data includes total checkins, unique visitors, male-to-female ratio, social media-sharing (i.e. showing how many users are sending their checkins to Twitter (Twitter)), top visitors and checkin time breakdown. Users can opt-out of sharing their checkin data via settings section of the website.
According to The New York Times’ Bits blog, “Business owners will also be able to offer instant promotions to try to engage new customers and keep current ones,” and, “there will also be a Staff page available to each business that will allow employees to interact directly with customers using social networks.”
When we followed up with Tristan Walker of Foursquare (foursquare) we also learned that as of right now 30 venue owners have access to the new tool, which the company has been testing for a week. In the coming weeks, Foursquare plans to introduce the insightful utility to all businesses running specials with the company — close to 1,000 businesses.
Jennifer Van Grove About 10 months ago Jennifer Van Grove 19
Foursquare Courts Business Users with Checkin Analysis Features
69Share
3
inShare
Share 69
inShare3
share
share
Do you like this story?
The Foursquare platform currently caters to consumers and offers businesses the ability to provide specials. Today, however, we’re learning more information about a business dashboard — complete with checkin analytics — that’s being gradually rolled out to business owners.
While the dashboard is still an alpha product, it’s already able to make the distinction between staff and customers, and tracks checkins on a daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day or all-time basis.
Data includes total checkins, unique visitors, male-to-female ratio, social media-sharing (i.e. showing how many users are sending their checkins to Twitter (Twitter)), top visitors and checkin time breakdown. Users can opt-out of sharing their checkin data via settings section of the website.
According to The New York Times’ Bits blog, “Business owners will also be able to offer instant promotions to try to engage new customers and keep current ones,” and, “there will also be a Staff page available to each business that will allow employees to interact directly with customers using social networks.”
When we followed up with Tristan Walker of Foursquare (foursquare) we also learned that as of right now 30 venue owners have access to the new tool, which the company has been testing for a week. In the coming weeks, Foursquare plans to introduce the insightful utility to all businesses running specials with the company — close to 1,000 businesses.
Bests Stats of the Year - Why Revinate? - The Revinate Blog
Bests Stats of the Year - Why Revinate? - The Revinate Blog
1. In January, 2010 Market Metrix released a report that links online reviews and bookings. "'Guest experience factors' which include past experience, reputation, recommendations, and online reviews, are critical to selecting a hotel by the majority of hotel guests (51%) and are now more important to guests than either hotel location (48%) or price (42%). For the first time, more bookings are driven by reputation than either location or price."
2. 92% of internet users read product reviews and 89% of people say that reviews influence their purchasing decision. (source: e-tailing group)
3. “On Expedia.com, good reviews of 4.0 or 5.0 generate more than double the conversion of a review of 1.0 – 2.9,” Jennifer Davies, Expedia in an article on hotelmarketing.com.
4. 35% of social media users changed their hotel after browsing a social platform (source: World Travel Market, November 2010, reported by Tnooz)
5. 64 percent said they use social media to make their travel plans and within the 25-34 year old participant group, the number is even higher; 76 percent look to popular social media sites to plan their next getaway. (Sheraton Survey, November 2010)
6. “Reviews are a particularly important factor in what hotels will be able to charge through a third-party site. A 1-point increase in a review score equates to a 9% increase in average daily rate.”
Brian Ferguson, VP of Supply Strategy and Analytics at Expedia as reported by HotelsNewsNow.com.
7. 30% of travelers who use social networks report soliciting trip-planning advice from their networks. (source: PhoCusWright as reported by TravelWeekly.)
1. In January, 2010 Market Metrix released a report that links online reviews and bookings. "'Guest experience factors' which include past experience, reputation, recommendations, and online reviews, are critical to selecting a hotel by the majority of hotel guests (51%) and are now more important to guests than either hotel location (48%) or price (42%). For the first time, more bookings are driven by reputation than either location or price."
2. 92% of internet users read product reviews and 89% of people say that reviews influence their purchasing decision. (source: e-tailing group)
3. “On Expedia.com, good reviews of 4.0 or 5.0 generate more than double the conversion of a review of 1.0 – 2.9,” Jennifer Davies, Expedia in an article on hotelmarketing.com.
4. 35% of social media users changed their hotel after browsing a social platform (source: World Travel Market, November 2010, reported by Tnooz)
5. 64 percent said they use social media to make their travel plans and within the 25-34 year old participant group, the number is even higher; 76 percent look to popular social media sites to plan their next getaway. (Sheraton Survey, November 2010)
6. “Reviews are a particularly important factor in what hotels will be able to charge through a third-party site. A 1-point increase in a review score equates to a 9% increase in average daily rate.”
Brian Ferguson, VP of Supply Strategy and Analytics at Expedia as reported by HotelsNewsNow.com.
7. 30% of travelers who use social networks report soliciting trip-planning advice from their networks. (source: PhoCusWright as reported by TravelWeekly.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)