Wait. Expedia recently spun off TripAdvisor so perhaps the axes can be sheathed.

OK, the statement about Expedia’s alleged undue influence over Priceline is tongue in cheek, but new research from Citi shows that Expedia was indeed the largest traffic source for Priceline with an 18% referral share in January 2012. And that mark represents increased clout when compared with January 2010 (15%) and January 2011 (16%).

Perhaps Priceline should reconsider throwing all that dough into Google and do a little more advertising on Expedia sites. (OK, the tongue’s wagging again.)

Mark Mahaney, managing director of Internet research for Citi Investment Research & Analysis, says Expedia’s influential role as a traffic referral source for Priceline “highlights the extent of comparison shopping that occurs in the online travel vertical.”

After Expedia, the leading sources of traffic for Priceline in January 2012 were the Kayak network (12%), Google sites (12%), Microsoft sites (9%) and Yahoo sites (6%), according to the Citi’s Annual ‘Net Influence Report.

In turn, Priceline and Orbitz Worldwide acted as a source of Expedia traffic at a pace of 7% and 4%, respectively, while Google sites (16%), Yahoo sites (7%) and Microsoft sites (6%) also chipped in as traffic drivers to Expedia in January 2012, the Citi research shows.

Among other online travel agencies, Orbitz’s top traffic driver was Google (14%), which just edged Expedia (13%) as a traffic source to Orbitz.

Other leading referral sites for Orbitz weren’t even close to Google and Expedia. Yahoo sites referred 5% of Orbitz’s traffic in January 2012, followed by the Kayak network and Microsoft sites, which were responsible for 4% each of the Orbitz traffic.

It is interesting that although Orbitz and Kayak have been at odds during the last couple of years over changes that Kayak made to its advertising practices, which Orbitz alleges violated a contractual exclusivity provision, Kayak has steadily acted as a referral source for Orbitz at a 4% clip over the last three January’s, the Citi research shows.

Citi breaks down Travelocity’s traffic-referral sources as Google sites (12%), Yahoo sites (8%), Expedia (7%), Micrsosoft sites (5%) and Priceline (2%).

Among other leading online sites in the U.S., Southwest Airlines doesn’t look to online travel agencies for referral traffic because the airline refuses to distribute its flights through the OTAs. Citi depicts Southwest’s leading traffic referral sources as Google (16%), Yahoo sites (15%) and Microsoft sites (7%).

When looking at the leading websites in the travel vertical, Google is the most influential source of traffic and has been slowly, but steadily, increasing its referral share from 12% in January 2010 to 13% in January 2011 and 14% in January 2012, the Citi research shows.

In addition to its gains in the travel vertical, Google has also been increasing its influence as a traffic referral source in the finance vertical (13%). But, Google has seen its influence wane somewhat in the media (22%), retail (15%), autos (14%) and health (15%) verticals.

The advertisement will run for February across a number of television channels with the aim of reaching people the site might not otherwise attract.

It is part of  a £3 million above the line marketing campaign which will run over the course of the year.

Tom Valentine, Secret Escapes managing director says:

“Online is very different, it’s people who are looking for a a holiday break. On television the target type is a person that probably doesn’t know we exist. We’re not the most massive brand right now so it is about telling people about Secret Escapes now.”

He adds that the company aims to double membership from its current base of just over a million in a year and is currently recruiting one new member by word of mouth for every member it otherwise acquires.

The ad will be supported by communications with the site’s existing member base as well as social media and other digital activity.

Secret Escapes, which was founded a year go (TLabs here), announced details of second round funding in October as well as a string of partnerships including a deal to provide hotels and city breaks to lifestyle site Achica via a white label.

Here’s the ad in full:

During February, both the exterior and the interior of the subway shuttle, which runs from Times Square to Grand Central Station, has been decked out to appear like a Royal Caribbean ship.

The cruise line is calling it the Royal Shuttle.

And, Royal Caribbean International has created a photo album on its Facebook page and has asked fans to upload photos of the shuttle and to tweet them to @RoyalCaribbean, with the hashtag #RoyalShuttle. Here are a few of the images:

Where else can you step off your stateroom balcony right into Grand Central Station?

The marketing blitz comes at a sensitive time for Royal Caribbean, which like Carnival Corp., has seen cruise bookings plunge over the last few weeks because of the Costa Concordia disaster.

Costa is a Carnival brand, but it has hurt bookings for Royal Caribbean and other lines nonetheless.

While booking volumes for Royal Caribbean have declined “by low to mid-teen percentages” in North America, Royal Caribbean says, the drop-off in European bookings has been “higher.”

Royal Caribbean attributes booking declines in Europe, which “vary significantly by country,” to extensive media coverage in the region about the tragedy off the Italian coast.

The fallout from the January 13 Costa Concordia accident occurs during Wave Season, the busiest time of the year for the cruise industry.

Many cruise lines and travel agencies curtailed marketing immediately after the incident, but now they are getting back into gear.

MMG Worldwide and Y Partnership have merged today to form MMGY Global, claiming the combination of the two agencies (previously based in Missouri and Florida respectively) will create the biggest travel marketing agency in the world.

The pair bring a client roster of over 200 travel companies under one roof, including the likes of Hilton Worldwide, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Choice Hotels International, Silversea Cruises, Namibia and Mexico Tourism Boards, and Travel Guard.

As well as four offices in the US (which will be retained), MMGY says it will continue its affiliate agency relationships in ten countries around including the UK, Thailand and Canada.

Both companies were created and schooled in the traditional advertising world of TV, papers and radio, but have since pushed their digital credentials to the forefront of the portfolio of tools, including analytics, brand development, advertising and digital marketing, CRM, web and mobile development and social media marketing.

The July 16, 2001, Seattle Post-Intelligencer story noted that Microsoft planned to sell its controlling $1.83 billion stake in Expedia to Barry Diller’s USA Networks.

That was great news for Erik Blachford, then Expedia vice president of marketing, who went on the become Expedia CEO.

“My struggles over the years have been about getting more money from Microsoft,” the 2001 story quoted Blachford as saying. “This adds the money and exposure we need to turbocharge our brand.”

Well, the Expedia brand certainly got turbocharged into one of the largest travel brands in the world.

USA Networks, which became IAC, did the Expedia deal with Microsoft in 2001, and four years later IAC turned around and spun off Expedia into a public company. Microsoft had created Expedia as a division in 1996.

It is interesting to see how corporate strategy gets turned on its head as time goes by and events intervene.

At the time of Microsoft’s sale of Expedia to USA Networks, Microsoft was saying that it wanted to get out of the business of creating content because it didn’t want to compete with partners in various verticals.

And, in 2008, seven years after Microsoft sold Expedia to get out of content creation and the travel vertical, Microsoft acquired Farecast to get back into content creation and the travel vertical.

Microsoft eventually turned Farecast into Bing Travel, a brand which some would argue could use some turbocharging.

But, turbocharging the Bing Travel brand is not part of Microsoft’s strategy as it promotes Bing as an all-encompassing search brand and has bigger fish to fry.

That is, of course, until today’s corporate strategy gets turned on its head again.

After launching a Russian language site in March 2010, Momondo.ru is now the company’s third largest market after Scandinavia and the US, and Russia is its fastest-growing market.

Momondo.ru features search results from 11 online travel agencies and searches are split evenly between domestic and international flights.  The top airlines searched are Aeroflot, Lufthansa and low cost carriers such as Airberlin and Airbaltic.

And, when considering airlines and online travel agencies, the top three appearing in search results on the Russia site are Ozon.Travel, Bilet-on-line and Biletix.

Martin Lumbye, a Momondo partner, was visiting the US the other day and talking about Russia. 

Lumbye  says it is essential to have a Russian-language site in the country and to tailor marketing efforts to local culture.

Momondo competes against airlines, OTAs and Skyscanner in Russia, which likewise fields a Russian language site in the country and claims to be the market leader.

When it comes to taking local culture into account, Lumbye says Momondo’s marketing efforts and partnerships in Russia are lifestyle-oriented or “much more open-minded” than you might find in other countries.

For example, Momondo has collaborated with the Russian edition of Glamour magazine to host Ginger Splash parties.

“Super-chic Momondo,” as parent company Cheapflights puts it, created the drink with an assist from the European Bartender School.

With three contractors, including some marketing people, in Russia, Momondo has also wrangled some air time on MTV in Russia to promote the brand.

The Russia market, of course, has its own characteristics.

Momondo estimates that only about 7% of air tickets in Russia were booked online in 2010.

Of course, Momondo specializes in online air and hotel search and doesn’t process bookings itself, but passes leads along to OTAs, airlines and hotels.

Online booking and electronic products require promotion in Russia.

In that regard, the Momondo.ru homepage today has a sizable feature on “What is an electronic ticket (e-ticket)?” and “How to use an electronic ticket.”

Meanwhile, it is estimated by various sources that only 13% or perhaps 20% of Russians have passports, Momondo says.

And, in 2011, Momondo cites estimates that the online travel market in Russia should reach 200 billion rubles (about $6.2 billion).

“The competition is not as big in Russia yet as compared with the rest of Europe,” Lumbye says.

But, given the opportunities for online travel players in Russia, that may be a temporary phenomenon.

Formerly known as Aircell, the in-flight Internet provider created a wacky, new character, Trav Lehrman, who has his own website [sounds like travel airman] and is featured in the TV spots. Here is one of the ads:

The theme for the campaign is “Land on Top of Things,” meaning you can be productive when opting to use Gogo in-flight Internet while flying.

Trav Lehrman has his requisite Twitter account for the social media component, and Gogo is running a sweepstakes for lifetime free inflight Wi-Fi and a $10,000 shopping binge up high.

Gogo provides Wi-Fi onboard all domestic flights for AirTran, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America, and on select flights for Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

In a marketing campaign consisting of display ads, social media, a microsite, an animated TV spot with claymated characters and a video, Hotels.com argues that its iPhone and Android apps allow for hotel bookings on the fly.

With an assist from “extreme athlete and stuntman” JT Holmes, Hotels.com shows in the following video how you — or Holmes, at least, — can book a stay at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort while skydiving from 15,000 feet.

You can call it, as Hotels.com does, “extreme booking.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7eHinI95rc

The message is that the app is swift and agile.

Hotels.com doesn’t call out Hotel Tonight specifically about the relative speed of its app, but perhaps the latter can come up with a stunt to top Holmes’ free fall.

Just dropping a hint.

Meanwhile, Hotels.com states its mobile apps have been downloaded more than one million times and an iPad booking app is on the drawing board for the “near future.”

Travel companies face an increasingly complex digital market, as ecommerce continues to evolve at a rapid and exciting pace.

But how can data feeds help the travel industry promote products and services online and, more importantly, exploit a diverse array of digital marketing applications?

Digital marketing now embraces a wide range of online channels and applications. Established options such as affiliate, email and pay per click (PPC) search marketing have diversified and become more sophisticated.

Meanwhile, comparison shopping engines (CSEs), dynamic advertising (widgets, interactive banners), Facebook Commerce (f-commerce) and mobile commerce (m-commerce) are of growing importance to travel operators looking to promote what they offer online.

For consumers, the internet has become a primary research tool, enabling them to search for products using very specific ‘long tail’ search terms.

They also look online for the best deals, use their mobile phones to check prices when they are out and about and are more likely to look up a brand if a friend has recommended it.

The rate of change makes it hard for travel operators to keep pace, yet it is crucial that they have the tools and technology at their disposal to engage with the consumer regardless of the touch-point in play.

Product data feeds provide the means for distributing product information throughout the increasingly fragmented and competitive digital marketing landscape.

The data feeds contain product information such as availability, description/promotional text, pricing and images.

When built and managed properly, data feeds allow applications and websites to be quickly populated with rich and accurate product data and ensure that online consumers can easily find exactly what they are looking for.

However, data feed technology is not that well understood by the industry. Building and regularly updating feeds is resource-intensive, especially if the travel agent manages a large online inventory and markets their products through a wide range of partners.

Meanwhile, third-party agencies and affiliate partners need the tools and support to quickly filter and tailor data feeds to their specific needs.

They also need to convert product-level information into more dynamic and engaging consumer-facing content if they are to successfully drive conversion rates and sales.

The travel industry goes online, mobile and social

Advances in mobile and web technology, the power of social media and a tough economy have altered the way in which consumers engage with brands online and are driving a substantial increase in the number of consumer touch points.

The travel industry is responding by adopting a multichannel approach, building-out their e-commerce capabilities, seeking wider distribution of their products and services and new ways to engage and interact with consumers.

The multichannel challenge

The scale of innovation has opened a significant gap between the in-house resources of travel companies and the needs of the third-party applications and websites they employ to drive wider distribution of their products and services.

growing number of commercial applications now use data feeds, but only a minority of companies today are using them to their full potential.

In addition to the challenge of distributing product data feeds and updating them regularly, travel operators must also provide their partners with the tools and knowledge to exploit the feed to its full potential and the controls necessary for ensuring consistency in ad/brand messaging, as well as presenting engaging, relevant content and special offers.

Unfortunately all too often, it is left to a third party to extract from the feed the information in the format they need to convert it into consumer-facing content.

Feeding product marketing innovation

By extracting product data directly from the front end of the travel company’s e-commerce website, it is possible to create an accurate feed comprising rich product information encompassing the company’s entire inventory.

This feed can then be used to power a number of online marketing applications.

Tools are then necessary to trim the feed at a granular level to meet the specific requirements of the third-party application, as well as to build ‘creative’ such as banners and widgets and provide deep links back to the travel operator’s site. Lastminute.com for example uses a FeedCreator tool that enables its affiliates partners to segment the feed in any way they want – e.g. hotels under £50, or hotels in a specific city, and so on.

This allows them to display the relevant product information on their site quickly, easily and accurately.

A WidgetCreator tool enables customers to interact with the banner advert displayed on the affiliate’s site, the customer can choose specific products, and it will then dynamically populate the fields.

In some cases, the commercial application will be of sufficient scale to warrant a tailored data feed direct from the company. With others, such as long tail niche market affiliates, it is much simpler to make these tools available via a central hub/portal.

Thomas Cook, for example, created a hub to provide affiliate partners and advertisers with access to the latest information on its products, pricing and availability as well as online marketing tools that simplify the creation of advertising widgets, deep-links and adverts for publishers and advertisers, while providing Thomas Cook with greater control over its Affiliate Partner Programme.

Either way, data feed technology and tools create a single platform of distribution upon which both the company and its partners are able to innovate and rely upon.

Email service provider (ESP) ExactTarget for example, combines multiple types of data sourced via enterprise web analytics – such as transactional, profile, CRM, and behavioural – to build highly-targeted direct digital campaigns.

When combined with a company’s data feed that is rich in product-level information, ExactTarget is able to personalise each direct marketing communication based on the types of offers the consumer has looked at previously, villa holidays in Cyprus for example, combining this with current similar offers.

Behavioural retargeting is a relatively new area as well. Criteo is a major player in the retargeting space and enables online travel companies to re-engage with potential customers who have left their website using dynamic banners containing the most relevant product-specific recommendations.

These are generated in real-time for each individual, with the level of personalisation and conversion rate directly influenced by the quality of the company’s product feed. “Category bidding” allows the travel company to optimise and set a cost-per-click (CPC) threshold for each product category based on margin and profit goals.

Categorisation is defined by the advertiser and managed within the product feed, translating into ad creative where for example different holidays displayed in the same ad can have different CPCs, depending on how they are categorised.

Entering new channels and delivering results

Mobile and social media remain nascent opportunities, but product feeds are helping the industry make inroads into these channels too.

Rather than focusing on rebuilding a conventional browsing or navigational experience, mobile-friendly formats can be created directly from a data feed using filters and categories to present the exact product information and images the consumer is looking for.

However, data feeds can be just as effective in simplifying the mobile browsing experience by presenting product information trimmed from the data feed. Regardless of whether the mobile website includes m-commerce functionality, the key factor is that product information reaches the consumer properly presented and rendered in mobile browsers.

Similarly, advertising widgets can be created using data feeds and embedded within social media sites just as easily as with any other affiliate site. In a social media site such as Facebook, for example, the widget can be posted to a wall and if ‘liked’ by someone, automatically ‘shared’ to their friend’s wall, thus ensuring a viral media effect.

The important aspect here is to ensure that a deep link generator tool is also used to drive traffic back to the travel operator’s site in order for the transaction to be completed. In some cases, the booking can be placed in the travel operator’s online basket ready for purchase.

This avoids any commission being applied by the social media site for hosting the actual transaction, and ensures the travel company also has the opportunity for re-targeting applications.

The commercial applications of data feed technology are already delivering impressive results in terms of driving incremental revenue for many of the largest and well-known travel brands.

Club Med for example has seen a huge uplift in sales from the agencies using their data feeds. On average, they achieved a 40% increase in sales year on year.

For those that have not yet bridged the gap, it is important to consider data feeds as a “chicken and egg” scenario.

Innovative applications only become possible once the product data feed has been built, thus the question travel companies need to be asking themselves is whether they are prepared to invest in order to take advantage of emerging online channels.

NB: This is a guest article by Lee Brignell-Cash, managing director at FusePump.

The French actor was in a spot of bother earlier this week after it emerged he had, err, taken a leak on the carpet of a CityJet aircraft after the seatbelt sign was turned on for take-off for a flight from Paris to Dublin.

Inevitable high profile headlines ensued, Depardieu has since apologised.

Ryanair, of course, just wants to take the piss…

[Clearly some irony in all this given the stories a few years back about Ryanair threatening to introduce pay-to-pee on some flights]

But is it a fad, a tech-media driven piece of hype that will disappear within a year? Or is it the beginning of a new trend in consumer engagement?

And, more importantly, how can we apply this in hotel marketing or in giving better service to our guests?

In short, for the uninitiated: QR (Quick Response) Codes are used to divert an offline consumer to an online mobile platform. Consumers can scan the 2D barcode with a mobile device, upon which they are diverted to a website landing page or access all other sorts of information, including web addresses, personal or professional contact information, or Facebook action/promotion pages.

There are, of course, several QR apps which you can download for free.

The key element to consider when using QR codes is around “added value”. You have to give consumer something that they did not have yet. You can use them for the “win a prize” approach, or when trying to push a special offer or other types of deals.

But our guess is consumers are getting a bit tired of all the special offers thrown at them. Recently, I was reading an article on the Backlash of the Groupon Effect. Apparently, consumers are getting saturated with offers every day.

So we have looked for another angle and are, instead, using QR codes to improve a guest’s service experience.

QR codes are used on cards in the rooms, notices in elevators, at the concierge desk and message boards in the lobby to engage clients with tips on where to dine or what to do during their stay.

Upon scanning the QR code, users are diverted to the hotel website’s blog which contains the latest events, restaurant tips, attractions and activity recommendations, our favorite shops, etc. From here the guest can also navigate to social media pages.

This is a simple way to increase the guest service level in a hotel, and at the same time connect the guest through social media platforms such as the property’s blog, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ profiles.

We have introduced this concept with several of our clients: Hotel de Londres in San Sebastian, The Signature Hotels in Saudi Arabia and HTEL Serviced Apartments in Amsterdam, among others, and received very positive feedback. And we are using it for our own hotel management blog as well.

We recommend driving consumers to a specific promotion or landing page, not just your hotel website.

In the beginning you will need to educate your guests and include a call to action. Tell them what to do: “Scan this Code for our Latest Restaurant, Shopping and Tourist Tips”.

People need to know that after scanning the code they will receive some cool or interesting information. In the absence of a blog, send them to the local tourism or visitors bureau website or mobile app.

You could also use it as a promotional tool to offer a discount on drinks in the bar or dinner in the restaurant, and offer 10%-25% off during certain hours for those who scan it.

In fact, you could say the QR Code Happy Hour has arrived…

NB: More information and guidance on QR Code marketing.

What the company seems to have – except for one, obviously – is what appears to be a fiercely loyal membership base, so where better place to try and improve its somewhat tainted image of late.

Running on its homepage and mailed to members, Airbnb has launched a new member drive by offering a substantial incentive – free money.

The tell-a-friend campaign works by producing a postcard style graphic which members are encouraged to send round their networks, via email, Twitter, Facebook et al.

If the friend of a member books a trip after following a particular link, a $25 coupon is mailed. If a friend lists their property on Airbnb, say hello to a $75 coupon.

It’s hardly a ground-breaking piece of direct marketing, but it illustrates the faith Airbnb has in its member base that it can launch such a programme.

But Wouter Blok, chief marketing officer of European accommodation site EasyToBook, asks in a blog post if the tactic is tantamount to spam, especially if those receiving it send around their entire network on multiple occasions.

“If you share the link four times a day on Twitter, send wallposts to every FB friend and an email to all your contacts it probably will [feel like spam]“, he says.

Canny use of a company’s fans or just trying to keep a lower profile given recent events in the life of Airbnb?

Nowadays, in order to get the same level of impact (both live and in the subsequent push to YouTube) companies are having to think more creatively.

Step forward Hawaiian Airlines, which attempted its own flash mob mid-flight at 38,000 feet recently by serenading passengers with a hula dance group between San Francisco and Honolulu.

The clip already has managed to achieve, by wonderful coincidence, 38,000 views on YouTube in just six days.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcwy1qsQ6sY

However, as Jaunted notes, some passengers seemingly couldn’t care less or had even noticed the gentle and mesmeric swaying of hips and arms in front of them.

“We just hope the applause woke them up at the end of the performance,” the article says.

Now some cynics might be slightly curious about the crisp and large sound of cheering and clapping kicking in at around 4m20s, at the end of the show.

Not Tnooz, of course, although an official at Hawaiian Airlines, when asked, insists that neither the music or applause were dubbed into the clip (“all was recorded onboard”).

Does it fumble the celebrity partnership or do an effective job?

The NFL star, who co-authored the book, The Sportsman: Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey,  provided Bing Travel with his 10 Favorite Places (from Russia to New Zealand) and Travel Wish List (Israel, Turkey, Philippines etc.), and submitted to a Q&A: Traveling the World with Dhani Jones.

The 10 Favorite Places slideshow has a social media tie-in. You can add one or all of the 10 destinations to the Bing Travel Wish List on Facebook app.

Then there’s a three-part series of YouTube videos, Travel Tips with Dhani Jones, replete with some nice destination clips. For example, here’s part one:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQvrcMF8oo

Uploaded to YouTube some time July 19, part one had three views as of this writing.

As outlined in Bing’s Travel blog, Bing then gets highly self-promotional.

“We asked Dhani to share his favoirte Bing Travel tools that can help you make your travel dreams into a reality…” according to the blog.

Paraphrasing the linebacker, these are Jones’ favorite Bing Travel tools:

• Searching on Bing (“Stop searching and start finding”)

• Bing’s Price Predictor,

• Bing’s hotel rate indicator, and

• Connecting to Bing through Facebook to see which friends live in a particular destination.

A very convenient and not-so-original list.

So, it’s a trendy marketing strategy for a company to partner with a celebrity and to use that person’s renown to drive traffic.

Bing’s effort with Jones on the surface has all of the seemingly required efforts — a celebrity name, a destination slide show, video clips with Jones on YouTube featuring inspiring destination images, and integration with a Bing Facebook app.

How good — or bad — a job has Bing Travel done so far with its Dhani Jones partnership?

Is it a model for other travel companies to follow or are there some shortcomings?

And, American Airlines is currently participating in a beta test of the streaming video portion of the new multimedia platform.

Aircell currently provides Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi services in more than 1,100 aircraft for domestic flights in the U.S., and the Illinois-based company rebranded to Gogo, with a new logo, in a bid to branch out beyond Wi-Fi and into the in-flight entertainment realm.

The new platform, when it is fully developed, would offer streaming video, TV, gaming, ecommerce, flight information and social networking, officials say.

In the ecommerce realm, Gogo has partnerships with Gilt Groupe for designer fashion labels and services, and OpenTable for restaurant reservations.

In a conference call today about the new platform and company rebranding, CEO Michael Small explained that users would be able to use the platform to learn the flight’s arrival gate number, access weather information, get help with missing baggage, order some food, book a restaurant, and rent a car.

“We want to make us [Gogo] everyone’s favorite part of flying,” Small said.

On the streaming video front, Gogo says it has partnerships in place “with major Hollywood studios and will feature recently release movies and TV shows.”

With the new offerings, Gogo hopes to expand its base beyond business travelers to consumers throughout the aircraft.

It also is telling airlines that they can customize the platform so it can “exude the airline brand,” says Neils Steenstrup, vice president of product.

Gogo’s airline customers include AirTran, Delta, Virgin America, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

American Airlines currently is testing the new streaming video service and it is slated to be launched next month, Gogo officials say.

The platform itself will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2011 on Delta flights and will be rolled out with Gogo’s other airline partners by the end of the first quarter of 2012, officials say.

Gogo worked with design firm IDEO to design and develop the new platform.

Gogo will retain the Aircell name in its business aviation activities.

In fact, how do you promote a hotel with the internet moving so rapidly with seemingly new developments every day, week and month.

Here is a simple ten point plan on how to market a hotel property:

1. A story worth sharing

Your hotel needs to have something unique, refreshing or innovative. Your hotel needs to have a story to it which people like, and think worthwhile to share with their friends.

Good service is at the basics of all of everything, this you have to get 100% right.

Being remarkable (ie. worth making a remark about) is not that hard either if you think of it. How about handing out an ice cream at check-in during the warm summer days? Or invite all hotel guests to a delicious fresh French roast coffee when they arrive at the hotel.

2. Regional and national press

PR has, and will always be, important to reach your domestic market. Make sure you build a good relationship with journalists and editors of regional and national newspaper and magazine publications.

This way if they want to do a travel story, you are the top of their list.

3. GDS and consortia

For some they are seen by many as a dying breed, but the global distribution systems are reinventing themselves, and are still an important source of business and leisure travel for many destinations.

Moreover, mega agencies like Amex, ABC Corporates Services, TQ3 Travel Solutions, World Trabel BTI and Carlson Wagonlit are very effective distribution channels to reach corporate travelers of large corporations.

4. Online travel agencies

The posterboards of the hotel and travel industry in the online age, are among the most important distribution channels.

Their commissions and models vary – analyze them well to make sure they add value to your overall strategy.

Be certain they aren’t just shifting direct business away from your direct sales efforts, but really generate incremental bookings.

5. DMO

Local Destination Marketing Organisations work hard to attract groups and events.

You should approach them and work together with them to attract corporate and leisure groups during low and medium demand periods.

It will help you to diversify your hotels’ market mix.

6. Tourist offices and convention bureaux

Talk to your local tourism office and find out how they can help you to promote your hotel.

Make sure you have a representative listing on their website and that you are well promoted in their office when tourists come to town.

The convention bureau should be your other best friend. You should be on the top of their list for group requests for conferences and city wide events in your destiantion.

7. Sales reps

Have a sales representative put your hotel on the local map with local businesses nearby.

Visit prospective and current clients regularly, bring the gifts, meaning smart and real gifts. Spoil them rotten, and make them addicted to you.

8. Website and SEO

You will need an optimized website for your hotel. If you want to generate direct sales through your website think keyword searches and consumer segments, before burying yourself in the design aspect.

Your store can be pretty, but you need people passing by and stepping in to have a chance at a sale. SEO is very often heavily neglected.

9. Social media and review websites

Yes, we know by now (I hope so at least) that we need a FaceBook, Twitter, FourSquare, Gowalla, YouTube page and profile.

We have to manage our presence on these social media actively and create fresh new content every week and month.

A blog is great tool for this.

Next, manage your online reputation. Encourage your guests to leave reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor. Incentivise if needed.

Your profile on the hotel and travel review websites needs to be active and dynamic. Oh yeah, don’t forget to respond! You have to be involved…

10. Mobile

Finally, hotels are starting to move beyond their own website into mobile marketing.

Don’t think a mobile app is something every independent hotel needs. Let’s start with a basic mobile website which allows you to easily navigate an image gallery of the hotel and has a simple click to call button.

From there you can work on integrating your booking engine and develop a more advanced mobile hotel website step by step.

Extra! Warning: Tour operators and wholesalers

The model is broken, and they are only a necessary evil that hotels need to use until they have redeveloped themselves into OTA / IDS style agencies with dynamic sell rates, respecting the hotels’ distribution needs.

Extra2! Warning: flash sales

One thing you shouldn’t do, and that is getting on the flash sales train. You will only dilute your business and slash your average room rate down to levels that your hotel will incur revenue losses instead of generating incremental revenue.

Extra3! Warning: dead trees

Last but not least, don’t spend too much money on printing brochures etc – we are, after all, in the digital age…

NB: More information on hotel marketing from Xotels.

The three-sided “power tower” or Smile Station, as Hipmunk puts it, has AC outlets to plug in your myriad devices, plus each side touts a different tourism landmark in Oregon.

Here’s an image of the recharging station, replete with Hipmunk branding:

So, if this clever marketing ploy works for Hipmunk, how can the startup afford to scale this thing up?

Will you soon be seeing Hipmunk recharging stations at JFK Airport or at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris?

The short answer is that Hipmunk has installed one power tower in Portland for now and there are no grand expansion plans.

“At the moment, we don’t have plans for any more power towers, but that might change if we continue to receive such positive feedback from fans and new users,” says Hipmunk spokeswoman Jacqueline Tanzella.  ”It was a really fun project, and was born out of our own pain points in traveling. We hope that we put a smile on people’s faces during a somewhat mundane and tedious task.”

So, why Portland then?

Tanzella says Hipmunk selected Portland Airport because it is a small market with a mix of business and leisure travelers.

“We wanted to conduct a small, controlled experiment to see if our fans would notice,” Tanzella says.

Some noticed inside and beyond the airport, of course, because Hipmunk mentioned it in a blog post.

Digital and social media have opened the floodgates to real communication between brands and customers.

Despite the wealth of consumer data now available, many travel brands are failing to effectively utilise it to deepen its understanding of customers and improve engagement through tailored and relevant communications.

To stay ahead, travel brands and tourist boards need to integrate thinking across every discipline, know the value of every touch-point and put the customer at the heart of every communication.

This requires a step-change in thinking and a very different approach to marketing – one where customer intelligence sits at the heart of all activity.

The intelligent customer

A shift in the balance of power between brands and customers has occurred. Individuals know more about the products they buy than ever before.

Early stages in the buying cycle used to be driven by what the brand chose to say in its advertising and marketing. Now they are initiated by the way consumers pick up those messages – or even create them in the first place.

Social media has given the consumer a new power: market intelligence is available to all, via comparison websites, user reviews, blogs and ratings; it is accessible online and through the mobile phone.

Hearing the voice of the consumer, acting on what it is telling the brand and reflecting the individual’s needs and desires in a conversation is now what makes marketing engaging.

It also makes it more effective. Marketing has to become smarter.

Intelligent marketing

Travel and holidays are enormously emotionally-driven purchases and are one of the most researched purchases consumers make.

The potential to ignite interest and spark conversations through imaginative marketing is therefore incredibly exciting.

The challenge travel marketers face is that consumers and their purchasing decisions are varied and multi-faceted – they’re dealing with individuals, not mass markets, and with shifting roles, not fixed identities.

Driving creative messages, content and even the online experience needs to be supported by data.

Creative ideas built on insights should give the consumer a clear sense that the brand understands, recognises and respects them – in other words, something they can trust and will want to buy into.

Get it right and it powers a campaign beyond what classic marketing has ever been able to achieve. Intelligent marketing is all about leveraging data to generate the best understanding of the consumer, to identify appropriate and powerful propositions that match their needs and wants, to express that knowledge creatively and to use the consumer’s preferred channels to deliver the message.

By using customer intelligence that way, what starts as a conversation steadily becomes a deeper connection.

Thinking about data

Putting this approach into practice is more challenging. For one thing, a data tsunami has hit organisations, unprecedented levels of transactional data across channels and behavioural data flowing from every touchpoint.

Processing that data is no longer a technical challenge; turning it into valuable insights is.

Consumers are no longer buying holidays, they’re buying experiences. This requires brands to re-evaluate how it categorises its products and services.

Purchasing decisions aren’t solely driven by age or lifestyle, therefore traditional segmentation methods that use FRAC variables (Frequency, Recency, Amount and Category) no longer cuts it.

Two very similar people could have very different perceptions of a brand and/or destination. Brands now need to understand why consumers look at a certain destination or service and what sort of experience they’re trying to achieve.

For example, is a prospect looking for an active adventure holiday or does a more sedate, cultural preference underpin their holiday desires.

Re-categorising segmentation by experience and consumer attitudes rather than products/services in this way requires data sources that discriminate between individuals and add value.

Additional external digital data such as web browsing behaviour and email engagement data can provide the vital clues about what consumers are thinking, their personalities and their preferences.

Consumers will make their own choices, what’s important is that when they make those decisions brands recognise what they’re doing in a way that triggers the right CRM activity.

The consumer now expects brands to reflect the customer intelligence they have gained at every touch-point and in all communications, anything else just looks lazy.

The marketer therefore needs to know how to apply customer intelligence to the creative output, the selection of media, the content used to populate touch-points and to understand which insights are achieving that all-important relevance and resonance.

NB: This is a guest article by Ian Stockley, managing director for Indicia.

Marketing brand, product and service with an integrated paid search AND television combination has produced outstanding results for many industry leading travel brands.

Obviously, with the online retail environment becoming increasingly competitive, executing a well planned strategy can give you the leading edge over competitors.

But how to do it?

Consumers are increasingly spending more time online whilst watching television. TV segments are now more likely to drive people to search engines, with research showing that 67% of online users are driven to search by an offline channel.

A recent study has shown that when marketers coordinate TV commercials with online marketing programs, television can influence up to 40% of searches for a brand.

So with this knowledge and proven benefits, what are the step by step ways you can implement an effective online, offline campaign?

1. Planning

Commonly, paid search is executed by a different vendor, to the seller. Effective planning from the outset of the campaign is crucial to its success. Planning involves investigating what other advertising mediums the seller is planning to use with the campaign – ie. social media.

When and where will the segment/advertisement be shown? Who is the audience? What are their key demographics? What is the best way to generate brand salience by the customer, the feeling that your brand is appropriate for them?

It is essential to know the key messages and slogans that are being televised or advertised.  Which leads us to the next element…

2. Integration

Keywords and slogans are fresh in the mind of the TV viewer.   Capitalising on these words makes your product or service stand out, in what can be an overcrowded paid search ad space.

Our company recently undertook the paid search for, Getaway Lounge [TLabs Showcase - Getaway Lounge], which launched its travel group buying site on a three minute television segment. The company was able to attract 1,000 sign-ups in less than an hour by producing ad copy utilising the brand, the travel destinations mentioned throughout the TV segment and the presenter’s name.

You need to convert interest into conversions by reinforcing key messages.

3. Bidding

Bidding on keywords and phrases used throughout the TV segment will cost you less due to the low competition for the search terms.

Viewers will search for these keywords and phrases so make sure you are bidding on them.  Phrases are cost effective bids, due to their length, generally three-five words, so use them!

Low competing keywords means higher ROI.

4. Relevance

Utilising targeted keywords and phrases derived from your TV segment, ensure paid advertisements are relevant.

Relevancy of the keyword to the ad and the users search query, leads to a higher click through rate (CTR) for your ad which increases Quality Score and lowers your overall cost per click (CPC).

5. Budgets

Make sure you maintain a healthy budget, particularly when the TV segment goes to air.

Consumers searching for your keywords after the TV segment has aired are extremely valuable so don’t miss them with inconsistent ad placement due to careless budgeting.

NB: This is a guest article by Frank Grasso, managing director of Australia-based digital marketing company E-Channel.

A study of 800 UK property owners by TripAdvisor found that 75% of hoteliers are prioritising mobile as a new booking channel, contrasting with a still substantial 62% of B&B owners.

Property owners are placing greater importance on mobile, online marketing and social media techniques, TripAdvisor claims, with the study also indicating the most popular methods of showcasing deals to customers:

• 75% – own website
• 39% – email
• 25% – user-generated review sites
• 22% – social media
• 20% – online travel agencies
• 14% – direct mail newsletters or coupons
• 8% – travel agencies
• 5% – blogs

Meanwhile, hoteliers have also shared their most common deals offered to customers – two of five hoteliers offer a room discount, 38% go for special amenities, 37% free parking, 14% free night’s stay, 9% deals on local tours and activities.

TripAdvisor, inevitably (thus the release of the survey), comes out top for 71% of hoteliers as their “most effective” social media channel.

Facebook works for 16% of hoteliers, but a lowly 4% cite Twitter and just 1% mention FourSquare or LinkedIn.