Michael Leander's marketing masterclass in Athens was attended by 65 travel and tourism marketers. The full-day event covered trends in travel marketing, content creation, customer experience design, and social and mobile strategies. Attendees participated in interactive exercises and workshops on developing an elevator pitch, mapping the customer journey, and leveraging mobility. The masterclass emphasized understanding customer behavior, building trust, engaging customers in conversations, and focusing marketing activities on the customer experience.

1. The soul never thinks
without a picture. Aristotle
FORWARD
Travel & Tourism
Marketing Masterclass
Athens – 23 October
Michael Leander’s Masterclass in Greece attended by 65 top marketers from the Tourism &
Travel Industries. Organized by The Institute of Communication and supported by SETE,
Marketing Greece and H Hotels Greece

2. FORWARD
Travel & Tourism
Marketing
Masterclass
Athens – 23 October

3. How do most people make
buying decisions?
With logic
With emotions

5. 10:00 Part 1 – Trends & Interactive Exercises
11:00 Break & Group Hug
11:15 Trends continued + content concept and social
13:30 Lunch
14:15 Create a great booking experience with maximum
impact – Ricardo Alencastre, virtual presentation
15:00 Coffee break
15:30 Integrated marketing + Toolbox
17:30’ish The End

6. Interactive workshop

7. 2 pieces of paper decides your outcome
To do and reminder
To do right after the workshop
Your reminder list

10. The purpose of marketing
is to acquire, convert,
sustain and grow
customers whom then in
turn will attract other
customers through
referrals

11. DIRECTION
- purpose
- strategy
- tactics
- execution
- measure
11

12. It is never about
channels or platforms,
but all about
understanding …
> exactly what you want to
achieve
> when you want to achieve it
> how you are going to
achieve it
> Which details you need to
pay extra attention to in order
to accomplish what you want

14. Email: michael@michaelleander.me
@michaelleander
#fwtourism2013
facebook.com/michaelleandernielsen
Pinterest.com/michaelleander

15. Let’s show how social we are
• Foursquare: Check-in to “Forward: Greece
Travel Marketing Masterclass”
• Twitter: Use hashtag #fwtourism2013

16. Get fat –
eat less

17. Complexities of a market place,
complicates travel decisions
• Trust > is it safe, can I trust information given?
• Hear say > 1st, 2nd, 3rd hand information
• Alternatives > ABOA (Attributes, Benefits,
Objections, Answers)
• Accessibility > Flights, domestic transport
• Infrastructure >
• Perceptions> cost, environment,
• Name & brand > A country, a region, an island, a
city, a bar?

19. Your elevator pitch
• Pitch 3 important areas related to marketing &
sales you want to fix within 6 months
• Write in bullet form
• 2 people to present their “pitch”

20. My elevator pitch
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
…
…
…
…
…

21. The Power Of
A Name

22. Good or bad brand name?

24. Cola in Ghana - What is the problem?

25. What is the problem?
Lumia in Spanish?
Peugeot in South China
Biao zhi

26. Extra large bags in Finland
Snow in Iran

27. Reputation
Globally /
Locally
Accessible
Your
name
ONLINE
Your name
in context
Own it !
SEO
technical

28. www.namechk.com

30. Thoughts about branding and
finding your unique value proposition
1. What defines you?
2. What describes you?
• How can you link that to the overall Greece
brand?
• What are the consequences of locking what
defines you in respect to the different markets
you address?

31. Which reads the most words
pr minute – the eye or the ear?
2.500 words per minute
125 words per minute
The eye reads 20 times faster than the ear @michaelleander

32. Visuals stir emotions
in a heart beat

33. People talk about
pictures, share
them, LOL at
them

36. Make sure the
message is
somewhat
relevant to your
brand / offering

39. WHAT DOES
THE PICTURE
ECONOMY
MEAN FOR
YOUR
MARKETING
ACTIVITIES?

40. Meet Good ‘ol AIDA
A = Attention (Awareness)
I = Interest
D = Desire
A = Action

41. Challenge: from eyeballs
to reel interaction?
Make sure you
include USP’s
and/or branding
when appropriate
Stir an
emotion
Call to action:
Links and
descriptive
text needed

42. Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

43. Your market is both men and women. You
can only use one picture. Which do you choose?
Man also known as male
Woman also known as female

44. Can we set a new
world record
together?

45. Your target
prospect is
exposed to
6000 advertising
messages every
single day

46. Buyers are becoming more
and more cautious
Trust is critical
Remember your trust emblems
(positive associations, testimonials etc.)

47. Trust icons
- established
- size / volume
- testimonials
- association
membership
- awards

48. Short attention span, loads of intrusion
- how do you cut through the clutter?
Brain
filter
Do I know you?
Do I need you?
Can I trust
you?

49. How do you avoid being bottom of mind

50. How to get into the Mind Box?
Unique
passionate
emotional
authentic
focused
interactive
meaningful
…

51. Significant changes in
the age of discovery
Transparency & trust
Relevancy
Customer intimacy
Multichannel mix
Immediacy

52. Direct to consumer

53. The biggest change is what?
Touch is
the biggest change

54. Trends driving 2014 and forward

56. Marketers don’t spend enough time trying to
understand movements in buyer behavior changes

57. Key trends changing buying behavior
• Traditional buying behavior = easy to map

58. Key trends changing buying behavior

59. The new shopping experience
• Often starts in search
• Increasing
percentage starts in
mobile search
• M-commerce on the
rise in Western world
• F-commerce
expected to take off

60. Understand the customer buying processes
and how social plays a role, if any

61. Mapping the buying process
Try this exercise (use your own situation or the one below):
Product
Marketing academy
Pricing
€ 5.000 + potential travel expenses
Target audience
Senior and junior marcom management, CEO’s of
SMB’s
Benefit
Accredited, international and local trainers
Delivery
Physical room and virtual rooms

62. Changes in buying behavior impacts
the sales cycles tremendously
No sex on
the first
date
Referral &
recommendation
OTS* high to
get a reaction
Latency
increase
incubationtime
*OTS = Opportunity to see

63. But I am
ready !

64. OTS = Opportunity to See
must increase
• Remember: people take longer time to make a decision
• Higher frequency will not hurt you as long as you are well established in the Mind-Box
• In email marketing, be sure to differentiate messages based on open, clicked, no action

65. THE OTS CHALLENGE
Message
Action
Increase opportunity to see by 3, 5, 10
Message
Message
Message
Message
Message
Action

66. Start & hooked
Engaged & interacting
Stop and transact. Or pause.

67. Google’s remarketing (AdWords)

68. Match content and offers to stages –
use persona’s if relevant to your situation
Prerequisites
> Profile insights
> Content to match
> Good database &
marketing execution
system
> A clear objective
driven plan on what
you want to
accomplish

69. Think about
top, mid and
end of funnel
and focus
ferociously
on the end
goal, short
and long
term
Bottom of funnel is where the action takes place –
engagement need to drive your audience towards
the bottom of the funnel
69

70. The Danger of Band
Wagon & The
Urgency of
Mobility

72. New opportunities to interact
and get a response from your
audience using QR codes (or not)

73. Me too, me too, me too,
me too, me too, me too !

74. Drink and scan –
if you can !

76. Scan and
download
a book

77. But why
mobility
now?

78. Quick fix: Social and mobile are
intrinsically linked

79. The Urgency of Mobility &
Opportunities in 2nd Screen

80. New challenges,
new opportunities
Touch

82. Does she scroll?
• Average pixel length of
a vertical scroll?

83. Responsive web design – make sure you deliver a
good to great experience across all devices

84. Responsive websites
1
2
Laptop view
Smartphone view
Navigation (1) and Sectors (2)
Responsive design takes the Navigation
are in one format for the typical
and Sector callouts and formats it
user (laptop/desktop).
automatically to give easy access for the
mobile user).
Check your own website on your smart phone
or tablet. Are you happy now?

85. Content recommendations on
mobile (Google Plus)

86. Prioritise video in your mobile
optimised site.
Video content highly
effective for engagement &
conversion

87. Social media and mobile marketing
• Have a single goal in mind for
each channel
• Optimise each social presence for
mobile (e.g. Facebook apps)
• Time your mobile focused posts
• Favour image and location based
marketing
• Use mobile apps to manage your
account and activity

88. What is SOLOMO?

89. Community engagement – picture
economy
• The secret lives of
luxury shoes
• Photos are
submitted through
Instagram using the
hashtag #BGShoes
• Image is placed on
Bergdorf’s map of
Manhattan

90. Gamification
- adds interaction, repetition & sharing

91. … deeply personal
www.lumosity.com

92. Mobility &
nd
2
Screen

93. 2nd screen opportunities

94. Google Currents
- automated publishing
- increase readership
- experiment with
“tabletized” publishing
-opportunity to attract
a new audience
- serve existing audience
better

95. How does
mobile & relevant
”time and place
offers” tie in with
the overall
customer
experience and
your
webpresence

96. Automated campaign a
massive success ... In Turkey
• Sign-up via
qualification
• IVR
• Different Axe girl
calls every day
Think: Solves a real problem in a fun way
(service) and generates continous awarenesss

97. 7 proven senses to consider for your
digital marketing activities
• Lust; the anticipation of pleasure, (which we crave)
• Mystique; an unanswered question that intrigues us and
makes us want to solve the puzzle
• Alarm: the threat of negative consequences, which demands
immediate response
• Prestige: symbols of rank and respect, which earn us status
and admiration
• Vice: rebellion against rules, which tempts us toward
“forbidden fruit”
• Trust: certainty and reliability, to which we give our loyalty
• Commonsense; use your commonsense

98. Which senses do this Westin
mobile add play on?

99. Mobility is everywhere and is becoming
the de facto standard for finding stuff
•
•
•
•
•
•
Think about Google Maps & Places (be there)
Think about Google Plus (Google +)
Think about Facebook & Places
Think about Foursquare
Think about Location Based Services
Think about how hard it is to find good
interactive apps about Greece in general

100. What is there to think about?
Mobile
Web
Mobile
App
 Good for engaging
new prospects
Can work well as a
client retention tool
 Cheaper and quicker
to market
 Stronger at driving
call to action through
push messaging
 Provide an additional
touch point
 Ideal for digital
coupons, special user
events and offers
(local, regional)
Mobile
Ads
Targeted
 Performance based
 Drive traffic,
downloads and
conversion of any kind

101. 5 Minute Exercise
What can you do (or what can Greece do) to
leverage mobility
– Describe an idea or a project, which will help your
brand (or the brand of Greece) attract more
customers or retain/grow customers

102. Experience

103. Subject: Things you want to know about your stay with us

104. The experience
starts and ends
with marketing

109. The ways to share content, influence
and opinion have exploded
CONVERSATION ECONOMY
109

110. Your customers are talking about you –
question is; are you part of the conversation?

111. How can you get your
customers to review
your facilities on
video?
111

112. Reviews: Answer
every single review –
personalize the
answer, add value
112

114. AID+LIRA
Attention > Interest > Desire + Like – Interaction – Recommendation - Action
Engagement
Share is good
Action is best
Like is NOT a currency, engagement is @michaelleander

115. The power of social is in the share
Call to
action
Page likes
5.000
Shared
222
Reach
23.168
Clicks
?
Likes
74

116. The Power of Paper

117. Make the onsite share easy - >
and make it count
Think about
- Images
- Shared text
- How to make
the share
convert

118. Now & Next Generation Online
Presence centers around ….
Customer journey /&
persona driven
approach
• Align content to
solve customer
needs
• Differentiate based
on prospect &
customer status +
win-back
Content in
context
Community
engagement
• Match buying vs.
selling cycles
• Relate content to
campaigns
• Establish stickiness
• Social engagement
• Attract, sustain &
grow membership
based community
Prerequisite = Strong backoffice
Engagement &
campaign
automation
• Personalized
• Relevant
conversations
• One data repository

119. … but
Nothing
beats the
Feel Good
Feeling

120. Listen & React

122. Real time media buying
And .. REDISCOVER
TRADITIONAL MEDIA

123. ROMI / Accountability

124. No more 80%

125. Big Data or Small Data?