Updated: Competition suspended yet again!
Over the past few days I have been following the ups and downs of a social media campaign by iTrek, an Australian travel insurance provider.
The idea is to submit a YouTube video (max 30 seconds) around the theme “The Travel Agent is Dead”.
itrek travel insurance brings you an exciting new film competition: “The Travel Agent Is Dead”. Amazing prizes to be won and all 10 finalists will be invited to attend the finalists film showing at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, Sydney. It’s going to be very big indeed.
We believe that the travel agents days are well and truly numbered. A large percentage of their margins are made by “bolting on” travel insurance products to customer’s flight bookings. Some travel agents have been known to make margins of up to 50% on Travel Insurance policies. The time has come for the public to see that there is an alternative. By going online and taking your travel agent out of the equation completely. This ‘alternative’ could save you up to 50% on the costs.
More and more people are going online to purchase their flights, hotel accommodation and now, their travel insurance too.
The travel agent is dead.
Umm – I can see this being unpopular in certain quarters. I mean social media is meant to be warm and cuddly right? If you are going to do a video submission competition it should be around something amusing and shareable such as the Jamaican Tourist Board’s Dad Dancing. I like that one.
The competition has got trade people agitated. One industry colleague emailed me (cc Travel Guard, the company behind iTrek) saying they had personally emailed over 12 tour operators and agents in the US to stoke up feeling against the competition.
And they are not even an agent! Assuming they are not alone it looks like trouble.
Travel Weekly US reported that the competition has been terminated. However, as I write, it appears the competition is back up and running again. Catch it while you can.
The premise that travel agents are dead (or dying) makes an unlikely consumer facing competition. Now if they asked me to create a video about the death of travel agents I could go on and on about desire building vs service oriented travel agents – and why only in the business travel sector will service oriented travel agents remain useful to consumers (companies).
Leisure travel agents have to be generating reasons to travel and product desire rather than servicing existing demand in order to retain a role within the industry.
But iTrek didn’t ask me to create a video. Instead they want consumer generated videos such as this:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q96Z0cm7Xgo
Not sure this story is over quite yet…..
About Alex Bainbridge
…cough!….cough!….splutter!… “…not quite – cough – dead -cough yet”….. The role has changed a lot though. We are no longer order takers and now really work for those people that want or need an agent – firms that need things policed, to do bookings that neither the web (nor airlines) can do, work for people that do not have the time or inclination to research things or find it easier to just call and say “Gat me to New York”. The cheap stuff, even many agents tell walk in types to “do themselves a favour and book it online yourself” if the agent does not add value nor can get value from a booking.
Using an agent is now a mark of exclusivity; likewise many agents do not wish to work for just anybody. The whole thing has turned on it’s axis. Agents were told that we had to change the way we worked, our business model, how we did things. We listened and we did. Trouble was, those that did the telling didn’t change. They thought: “Knock out the agent – the middleman – and it will be better for us”. Well, it isn’t. They (airlines/ operators and such ilk) needed to change as well and as we are seeing, they are not all up to the job.
It looks like it is our travel suppliers who could talk the talk but not walk the walk.
Hi Alex, I’m glad you wrote something about this. First off, what do consumers care about travel agents and their market share? I think it’s only us industry types that would even consider the value of travel agents in coming years. A classic “Disconnect” from their target audience, I’m guessing the creators thought everyone cared about the issue as much as they did. Unsurprisingly, they don’t. (One video entry at this point??)
This is the second failed viral video campaign I have seen in the past week. I wrote about the Doritos fail on my site; it seems like companies are jumping in to this with little to no research. Just because something is the “It” thing to be doing right now doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for your brand. This was such a predictable outcome, those involved care a LOT (Agents) and consumers are indifferent. Basically the opposite of iTrek’s expectations.
Oh here we go again. Its the Dead Parrot sketch on constant repeat. Reluctant to give them the oxygen of publicity, however whilst watching Gladiator am inspired to rise up and fight back like a slightly overweight Scottish Russell Crowe… so three wee points about this rather languid competition (please – give me zugu any day – much more fun!)
1. Are they not agents? From their site “Chartis has appointed iTrek Pty Ltd as its corporate authorised representative to deal and provide general advice on this insurance product”
2. Hmmm their product is not cheap – they’re £120 more than us for 12 months insurance for example. If you’re going to have a cheap stunt that annoys TA peeps by calling us soon to be dead (living dead, zombies?) then surely the product should be…well not 30% more?
3. It’s all a bit half baked – how many entries in the last week? They seem to have 300 channel views on YouTube in 3 weeks. We’re getting 5000 a week…but then again we’re trying to be constructive, sell tickets and destinations. Hey ho.
Yup there’s a place for a serious debate about agents – not just as schlock competitions or the slightly dull posts, debates and half baked views of people who quite frankly have little or no idea about the TA sector. Just an opinion. Saying the excellent Jeremy Head (one of Tnooz’s nodes) hosted a proper debate on travel blather a couple of months ago about time for a new kind of TA http://www.travelblather.com/2010/01/a-kind-of-new-travel-agent.html#comments
For what it’s worth,in my view, the best TAs have morphed into quasi-tour operators, or stayed as proper full service agents – and yes desire should be built by an agent (always has in truth…). After all, if you don’t bring a bottle to a party you shouldn’t be there etc..
Where I think we may differ is on the transaction argument front; Seems orthodox thinking (from Travel Tech Europe) is that outbound agents are pretty much on their way out and are only good for building demand…Ho hum not so much IMHO. As others are discovering through the banks and other options, it’s very tricky for new travel businesses to get merchant services as the cost of the transactions can be high in terms of deposits, percentages and/or cashflow.
Personally I still think agents should process the transaction themselves until payments for building demand can be guaranteed, not a universally fashionable view but in my limited experience this is not always a rational industry, especially when it comes to costly barriers of entry….
So taking the cash, building demand, having a niche, great service, good product – all the usual greatest hits; suppose thats our raison d’etre and belief that our demise may be a little exaggerated…was first told 6 months before we started 13 years ago that we were doomed. Twas ever thus….
Love Tnooz, keep up good work, cancel my subscription etc.
Stu
ps. Russell Crowe has just died – ho hum.