Anshuman Bapna is a famous personality in India’s travel startup ecosystem for all the right reasons, from the interesting things Mygola did every now and then to the quirky video announcing the acquisition by MakeMyTrip. Since the acquisition, he has been inducing startup like agility in the travel booking giant working as Chief Product Officer. A while back at the TiE Travel Marketing Summit 2016, he shared some insights from the mine of booking data MakeMyTrip has and also some learnings from the Mygola days. Here are the highlights:

Anshuman Bapna, Chief Product Office, MakeMyTrip

Don’t forget the desktop yet

There is no denying the fact that mobile is increasingly becoming the tool of choice for travellers to get inspired and even book in most cases. However, the conversions on desktop still continue to run high and that isn’t something that can be ignored. Travel is often a cross device purchase which is why the desktop continues to hold relevance and businesses should account for that.

Age divides platforms

Another interesting insight Anshuman shared was that while a very significant fraction of new users were coming to MakeMyTrip through mobile, they weren’t very loyal. The desktop users had a tendency to stick around for longer when compared to mobile users. Younger users are on mobile while relatively older ones are more biased towards desktop.

Travellers are spontaneous

The hotel category has exploded in domestic market and the online penetration has gone up significantly over the past 18 months. More travellers are planning last minute which means more than a third of hotel bookings on MMT are taking place on the same day. Anshuman shared that MakeMyTrip considered adding new tools to cater to last minute bookings only to realise that their mobile web version was already serving as one offering good conversion for same day bookings.

Sell to the right audience

MakeMyTrip has been promoting through different channels including TV commercials. On observing that large fraction of their users belong to the 18-35 year bracket with most of the new user acquisitions happening in 18-24 segment, they tweaked their marketing campaigns. Which is why they brought in younger movie stars to represent the brand in TVCs to connect better with the audience.

Experiment for quick growth

He also shared how the Mygola team used to list down sets of experiments for different marketing channels. They will then try 40-45 marketing experiments in less than a year, draw inferences, fine tune the strategies and repeat the process. According to him, content only has 30 percent contribution in getting the word out, rest is distribution and that is what one should focus on.

Marketing and technology aren’t exclusive

Recalling some of the experiments at Mygola, he emphasised that leveraging technology in marketing can produce great results. At one point, the Mygola team built a basic program to simulate conversations to help people posting travel queries on Twitter. As this picked up, they were getting more than half of the sign ups from Twitter which is a big number for a single social platform.

Join the community of travel marketers to discuss the upcoming trends and stay ahead of the curve.

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As the industry shifts to mobile and media consumption patterns change, media companies are the first to adapt to the change. They have to stay ahead of the curve as it is crucial for them to ensure their content reaches where their audience are. Lonely Planet is one of the biggest names in travel publishing and the brand has been following the trends closely. In fact it is one of the first media brands to get onboard the recently announced Google Assistant to help Google answer travel related queries. With the evolution of new media platforms, travel brands are exploring them to market their products better. During the recently concluded TiE Travel Marketing Summit, Naveen Seshadri, COO, Lonely Planet engaged in a discussion with Daksh Sharma, Founding Partner, TravHQ to shed some light on the new trends that are emerging in travel marketing and how Lonely Planet is adapting to this shift. Here are the key highlights of the session:

(L to R) Daksh Sharma and Naveen Seshadri

Inspire the right way

The very first point Naveen highlighted is rather obvious yet often overlooked by brands. For most of the travel brands, a very important part of the marketing strategy is to educate and inspire travellers. However, they are not looking for the obvious destinations anymore. The content on your social platforms should go beyond that and educate people about something new which could be of more interest to them.

Build your own community

While the ceiling is dropping on travel publishing, Lonely Planet has found room for itself by constantly experimenting and with the brand value. There is a significant increase in number of self publishers or bloggers on different platforms which offers collaboration opportunities for brands to leverage the reach and provide content. However, brands also have to consider the fact that they might not be loyal to one brand. Which is why brands should look at building their own communities or work on a hybrid model with them so that they don’t keep hopping brands and lose relevance.

Smartly package quality

The internet is flooded with listicles. “10 things to do when you visit Mumbai” is the kind of content audience love, probably because it is easier to skim through text content that is divided in smaller parts. However, this format spoils rich, well researched content. Publishers should look at striking a balance between such instantly consumable content and deep, research driven content. Along with text, videos offer a great way to pack more information in an easily consumable format and brands should experiment with videos if they aren’t already.

Don’t try to boil the ocean

While it is good to set optimistic goals, it is never a good idea to invest heavily in advertising in early days. Trying to outspend OTAs and metasearch services won’t yield anything fruitful. The best approach is to define your niche and selectively target the set of audience with a certain degree of personalisation. This will not only increase conversions but also drive loyalty to some extent. With a small set of well targeted audience, you will be able to better match the expectations and thus leave a better impression.

Structure well

We have seen travel startups often find smart use of data and technology to create amazing products. However, in a bid to lead on the technology front, some fail to spend enough time on the user experience. Make sure that you are putting efforts on fine tuning the interface and offering a good user experience (Read how BlaBlaCar is doing it). Only then the users you have acquired with your marketing efforts will stick around.

If you are planning to add videos to your marketing plan for 2017, here are some tips for you from the experts.

The post Highlights from the fireside chat with Naveen Seshadri, COO, Lonely Planet, during TiE Travel Marketing Summit appeared first on TravHQ.

There is an increasing number of platforms for travel brands to connect with their audience and it’s the same story with formats. Playing the creative note, brands are competing against each other in a bid to stay on top of their customers’ mind but that isn’t all child’s play. To stay ahead of the curve, travel marketers have to keep learning and adapting to the change.

TiE Delhi, in order to help with the same, is hosting the Travel Marketing Summit 2016 this Friday (September 30). We have the full agenda of the event and the sessions certainly look interesting.

Following the opening address, there will be a fireside chat on the Emerging trends in Travel Marketing. Naveen Seshadri, COO at Lonely Planet and Daksh Sharma, Founding Partner at TravHQ will discuss what marketing trends we will see in travel. Following this, Anshuman Bapna, Chief Product Officer at MakeMyTrip will share insights on the behaviour of young digital consumers which can help brands better tailor their strategy.

Ajay Jain, Founder, Kunzum.com will talk about the opportunities in India’s travel market which will be followed by Dishad Master from Mercury Himalayan Explorations sharing tips on the art of storytelling and how content marketing can be the best sales tool.

TripAdvisor is the undoubted leader if we talk about user generated content. Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India will talk about the power of user generated content and how platforms like TripAdvisor can be used to engage audience. There will be many other exciting sessions that will offer insights on important topics like finding the right platforms for marketing a travel brand and best practices to drive engagement among others.

Navneet Kaushal, CEO, PageTraffic and Ashish Chopra, Head-Content Marketing, ixigo will share top tips from their experience of promoting startups on a shoestring budget. Ashish is the man behind all those quirky videos by ixigo and has received various awards for pulling such successful campaigns. Certainly the right man to learn travel marketing from.

If you are a travel startup, we would love to hear your story. Connect with our team at the event. The event will be hosted at WelcomHotel Sheraton, Saket, New Delhi. You can avail discounts on registration by using promo code “travHQ”. Register here.

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