4 Nov 2015, 13.30 -13.55

WTM Globale Stage

 

 

This seminar was oganised by Travel Perspective and Facebook. The leading social network’s head of travel (Facebook) talks about where Facebook is going and how travel brands can take advantage of the opportunities that Facebook’s 1.5 billion users offer. Mobile is still paramount in development at Facebook. This company also owns other platforms such as: Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp. The speaker of this seminar is: Lee McCabe, Global head of Travel Strategy, Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The travel industry is really changing,  a long time ago travelling was a luxury product and only a few people could afford it to travel. Lee McCabe mentioned: “But the technology has now turned that on its head, travel markets can reach the customer more and the people have so many options…”.  He mentioned some trends where the travel industy, but also Facebook have to deal with.

Mobile
The first topic where Lee McCabe talked about was “Mobile”, a lot of things became mobile. Mobile is not just a technology anymore, it’s now a consumer behavior. But also more mobile devices like smart phones, tablets and laptops are becoming more popular and more customers are also booking via those devices their trips. Only in Europe were 22% of the total bookings made via a mobile device (Travel perspective, 2015). Just think about the smart phones, those became part of peoples life. People are using them for more and more things e.g. for travel to plan, to book, to talk to our friends, etcetera. There are now almost 2 billion smart phones on the planet. Until four years ago Facebook also changed the focus from desktop to mobile. The mission of Facebook is: to make the world more open and connected.

 

Media consumption
The next trend is media consumption, this aspect is stacking and not shifting. A lot of people are multi screening, this means e.g. somebody is watching TV, with a laptop in front of him and is also using his smart phone at the same time. Nowadays we are spending around twelve hours a day consuming media and 25% of the time that we are consuming media is mobile. The TV time is decreasing and especially the younger people between 18 and 34 years old are not watching TV that often anymore.

 

Mobile first
This created a more immersive and connected experience. People will use more and more connected devices which are powered by apps. Apps can reach the people so incredibly fast. Lee McCabe showed an example of how fast channels can reach 50 million people, that is shown in the box below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people are spending more time in apps as well, now it’s around 37 hours a month that people are spending in apps and Facebook counts for 20% of this amount. McCabe says: “Apps becoming smarter and smarter, the companies who are developing these apps are getting smarter”.  Now companies also put sensors on smart phones e.g. health apps. But apps are coming everywhere: in the car-desk boards, hotels, airplanes, VR, etcetera.  

Sharing and connecting

Moreover, how people are sharing and communicating is changing, people are using more and more pictures as communication, but also videos and VR/ AR is upcoming. Customers have the possibility to check out the destination, hotel room, and so more. Tourist will be able to understand the landscape more easily very well of the destination they are travelling to, due to better technologies.
A lot of the apps which are popular are all able you to communicate an connect with others, I think this is quite interesting. Now Facebook is also working on Messenger for businesses, KLM will be the first one with Facebook messenger. Customers don’t have to email or call anymore.

 

Convenience
McCabe mentioned: “Apps are making everyone’s lives easier”. But there are also challenges for businesses, because a lot of services are replaced by mobile devices. For example in a hotel, you don’t have to use the film hiring anymore you have Netflix.

Context
“Everything is competing with everything else, what kind of business you are you are competing with all the others”.  Personal relevance is what counts in marketing now, they have to target very specifically and use creative things to message a persona and this works. Companies have to understand the perspectives of individuals instead of the group of people.

 

McCabe says: “Almost everything is online now, but the industry is behind and travel is not the only one which is behind”.  But I think this can be a huge opportunity and mobile will continue to drive this change. Business should really go mobile and share and connect with their customers. Moreover, I’m sure if Apps are making every bodies lives easier, because a lot of older people are struggling with all the technologies and also apps and what I already mentioned it is challenging for the companies, because parts of their services are displaced by apps for example.