Rand McNally has been in the maps business for 156 years and has catered to truckers, RV enthusiasts and bikers, but it just quietly relaunched as a sleek online travel-planning website.
The effort is headed up by a couple of travel industry veterans. Jeff DeKorte, formerly general manager of AOL Travel, is Rand McNally’s senior vice president of travel and digital media, and John Peters, the ex-president and CEO of Tripology, is Rand McNally’s  vice president and general manager of digital strategy and travel.
Here’s an image of the RandMcNally.com homepage before the redesign, with its emphasis on maps and directions, truck navigation and cruise deals:
And, here’s what the new homepage looks like:
All of the prior elements are still there, but there is a greater emphasis on destination imagery and trip-planning help from Tripology, which takes center stage.
Rand McNally acquired Tripology, which funnels consumer leads to travel agents, in March.
Peters, citing Rand McNally’s 1.3 million or so monthly unique visitors and the tight integration of the lead-generation site into Rand McNally.com, says: “From Tripology’s standpoint, this is everything I could have hoped for.”
A centerpiece of the redesigned Rand McNally is its Travel Guides, which feature user-generated content in the form of what DeKorte refers to as “semiprofessonal videos” from Tripfilms.
Check out this YouTube video, which appears on Rand McNally.com, when you search for Chicago destination information. The video’s noncorporate, local-expert feel about “Uptown Chicago” is a refreshing touch.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKkrrW_42I
Each destination on RandMcNally.com has Tripfilms videos, and information about things to do, hotels, restaurants, nightlife and, of course, maps.
Every city also gives prominence to Tripology as an option for planning your trip.
For simpler trip-planning exercises, users can click on the hotels tab and access booking engines from Orbitz, Priceline, Hotwire, Booking.com, getaroom.com and DealBase.
That advertising effort comes via a Rand McNally partnership with the  Travel Ad Network.
Rand McNally officials say they are not trying to compete with the much larger Google Maps or MapQuest.
Instead, DeKorte and Peters say they don’t think any other travel-planning site has Rand McNally’s combination of assets — destination content, video travel guides, maps and directions, Tripology for travel agent connections, and travel advice from the Rand McNally editorial staff.
Peters says the relaunch of Rand McNally.com is just the beginning.
“This is the first of many good things to come like mobile apps, additional social media initiatives, exciting strategic partnerships and more in the very near future,” Peters says.
The company’s challenge, however, is to transform a brand that’s been known for its road atlases and trucker services into one that consumers will recognize as a hip, online travel-planning service.
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@jude – sure. http://feeds.tnooz.com/tnooz/