How the 4.0 Traveller will interact with 4.0 travel advertising
by Claire Scannell
The global traveller is changing. As the way people research, book and engage with travel evolves, so does their expectation on what they should receive in terms of brand messaging, interaction and experience at every point along the customer journey. The most effective way to engage with the 4.0 traveller throughout their entire airport is to move with them. By adopting the latest innovations in technology and treating their customers as individuals, brands can successfully complement (rather than compete with) the trusty mobile phone for consumer attention.
WTM recently released their predictions and analysis on the trends and innovation in tourism and the hotel trade, and offered up some key insights on how innovation is changing consumer behaviour.
One such insight was that “the 4.0 traveller uses a mobile phone at every stage in the purchasing process: from inspiration for the trip to the return home.”
You may be tempted to think that with the advancement of tech on the mobile phone, people will be so focused on the screen in their hand that they’re less interested in looking at the advertising around them, but we know that’s just simply not the case.
Additional insights from the WTM article included experiences as a current trend, along with VR and interactivity. This got us thinking, it’s completely possible to connect these trends and innovations to your advertising strategy in order to strengthen the connections you can make with potential customers and capitalise on this unique and lucrative environment.
- Experience-led advertising
The key to unlocking successful experience-led advertising is within the buying experience. As consumers are more and more expectant to be able to immediately browse, download or purchase online, a key component of the advertising strategy for any experience-led or experiential advertising would be the consumer journey. Ensuring that whatever installation is present within the airport space clearly communicates the brand and the offering, but also has a clearly defined call-to-action and the process that the consumer needs to go on to complete that action is seamless and, where possible, incorporates their own mobile device to complete a transaction or find out more information.
- Interactive digital advertising
The opportunities for digital advertising within the airport space are ever-increasing, and including opportunities for travellers to directly interact with your brand via screens within the departure/arrivals space is a great way to leave a lasting impression on their minds as they continue their onward journey. Whether that’s purchasing a their travel insurance or browsing experiences available at their destination, using interactivity is also a way to enable new customers to provide key details such as their email address which allows you to stay in touch long after the airport experience is over. It’s important to note however that if you are expecting customers to hand over valuable personal data, they will expect something in return, so considering your overall communications strategy as part of specific airport activation is a key component in building brand loyalty.
- VR
The airport environment is a great place to incorporate VR into your advertising strategy. As there is a long dwell time and a captive audience who are open to engaging with their immediate surroundings you have a unique formula to build a strong connection between brand and customer before at the last opportunity before they continue their onward journey. The VR market in the UK alone is predicted to be worth £354.3 million in 2020, and the increase in the past few years is largely in part to the eager adoption of the technology by consumers. No longer solely restricted to the immersive world of gaming, virtual reality is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives, meaning this is a great time to consider incorporating VR into your advertising strategy.
At Outlook Media we are always exploring new and innovative ways that we can help our clients to connect with their customers and the adoption of these technologies into the airport advertising space is going to open up more and more opportunities to do so. We will be heading down to WTM London 2019 and would love to chat through any of the ideas we’ve laid out here in person. Come and find us there or get in touch below to set up a meeting and make sure we don’t miss one another!