7 Digital

Advertising Trends
for the Travel
Industry in 2020
Presented by

Naxos, Greece
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 2

Executive Summary
The past decade has been a period of dynamic
change for digital advertising in the travel industry.
Consumers have adopted smartphones at a rapid
pace, putting mobile and cross-device campaigns
at the center of industry ad strategies. Meanwhile a
growing trend toward automation and algorithm-
driven techniques like programmatic advertising
is remaking the entire process of how marketing
campaigns are planned and managed. On top of
all this, a continuously growing universe of new
ad formats like social, connected TV, and more are
forcing industry executives to make hard decisions
about where to allocate limited ad budgets.
Each of these changes is creating new challenges, as
well as opportunities, for travel industry marketers.
How should the industry use the growing wealth
of information it now has about traveler habits to
better understand and target customers while
simultaneously delivering more relevant products?
What’s the best way for marketers to stay ahead
of continuous changes in travel shopping habits?
Which ad formats and buying techniques will yield
the highest return on investment?
In this report, Sojern and Skift examine seven trends
that will shape digital advertising in the travel
industry in 2020, offering a roadmap to the most
important strategies, ad formats, and techniques
marketers will need to embrace in the year ahead.
The seven trends we’ll focus on are as follows:
1. Personalization, Loyalty, and
the Traveler Data Dilemma
2. Industry Gets More Sophisticated
with Social Advertising
3. Travel Advertisers
Prioritize Creativity
4. TV and Video’s
Advertising Convergence
5. Automation Takes Over Ad Buying
6. Multichannel and the Continuous,
Always-On Marketing Strategy
7. Privacy Comes to the Fore of
the Advertising Debate

The f inancial stakes riding on answering these

questions correctly couldn’t be higher. According to
eMarketer, the travel industry will spend more than
$9.8 billion on digital advertising around the world
in 2019. If those in the industry are not careful about
how and why they align their marketing strategies
with the shifts mentioned above, they risk falling
behind, or even worse, not connecting with today’s
fickle and demanding travel consumer.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 3

Table of contents
Introduction 5

Personalization, Loyalty, and the Traveler Data Dilemma 7

Industry Gets More Sophisticated With Social Advertising 11

Travel Advertisers Prioritize Creativity 14

TV and Video’s Advertising Convergence 17

Automation Takes Over Ad Buying 19

Multichannel and the Continuous, Always-On Marketing Strategy 21

Privacy Comes to the Fore of the Advertising Debate 24

Conclusion 26

About Skift and Sojern 27

About Skift Masthead

Skift is the largest industry intelligence platform
providing media, insights, and marketing to key
sectors of travel. Skift deciphers and defines trends
for global CEOs and CMOs across travel, dining, and
wellness sectors through a combination of news,
research, conferences, and marketing services.
About SkiftX
SkiftX is Skift’s in-house content studio. SkiftX
produced this report in partnership with Sojern.
Vice President, SkiftX / Katherine Townsend
Director of Creative Strategy, SkiftX / Matt Heidkamp
Research Editor, SkiftX / Jeremy Kressmann
Editorial Strategist, SkiftX / Paul Brady
Editor, SkiftX / Alison McCarthy
Strategist, SkiftX / Sonali Sen
Associate Brand Strategist, SkiftX / Dawn Rzeznikiewicz
Project Manager, SkiftX / Gianna Greco
Video Producer, SkiftX / Jose Marmolejos
Designer / Andrea Yang-Yanez
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 4

Executive LETTER
Remember when movies portrayed 2020 as
something far-off and futuristic? Well, now it’s
just around the corner and, while it may not be
the future described by Hollywood, things have
definitely changed. In less than 25 years, the world
wide web was born, Google and Facebook forever
changed the game, and OTAs have risen f rom
nothing to near-dominance. The modern digital
consumer now shops for travel 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, 365 days a year—from their smartphones…
and their laptops and their tablets. And f inally,
marketing has blended with data science, allowing
brands to effectively reach travelers with custom,
personalized messaging.

For more than a decade Sojern has studied the

complete traveler path to purchase. We’ve figured
out how to use data, our travel audiences, some
pretty amazing technology, and actionable travel
insights to power digital marketing campaigns for
some of the world’s biggest brands. Those insights
are more meaningful today than ever before as we
attempt to increase both personalization and privacy, Stephen Taylor
which is the new expectation of consumers. Chief Revenue Officer
Sojern
We believe the following seven trends will significantly
impact the travel marketing industry in 2020. Here
are strategies, ad formats, and techniques marketers
must embrace to get ahead of the competition.

Our business is about empowering travel marketers

through data and we hope these trends provide a
roadmap to help you do just that.
 Empowering Travel
Marketers Through Data.

Identify, understand, and target travelers

at all stages of their path to purchase.
Sojern is built on more than a decade of expertise analyzing the
complete traveler path to purchase. The company drives travelers
from dream to destination by activating multi-channel branding and
performance solutions on the Sojern Traveler Platform for more than
8,500 customers around the globe. www.sojern.com
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Introduction
Over the past 10 years, the travel industry’s marketing
ecosystem has seen unprecedented change. This
includes shifts in consumer behavior caused by the
proliferation of mobile, a significant evolution in
ad-buying techniques and formats, and a growing
trend toward marketing automation. Each of these
digital innovations has opened up new opportunities,
as well as some new challenges, for the industry.
But as this ecosystem continues to mature, a
number of questions about how to respond to it are
now emerging. How should the industry use the
wealth of information we now have on traveler habits
to better understand and target customers while
simultaneously delivering more relevant products?
What’s the best way for marketers to stay ahead
of continuous changes in travel shopping habits?
SkifT + SOJERN 6
Which ad formats and buying techniques will yield
the highest return on investment?
The financial consequences of how travel firms
respond couldn’t be higher. The travel industry is
expected to spend $9.81 billion on digital advertising
globally in 2019, according to eMarketer. This aligns
with the conclusions from Sojern’s 2019 Digital
State of the Industry Report, which found that travel
marketers allocated 47 percent of their ad budgets
to digital in 2018 and two-thirds planned to spend
even more on it this year. To stay competitive, it is
imperative that marketers understand the evolving
trends and technical capabilities across digital so
they can make smart decisions about how to deploy
that spend for maximum impact.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 7

This report looks at some of the opportunities, In this report, Sojern and Skift examine seven trends
challenges, and emerging best practices offered by shaping digital advertising in the travel industry
the current digital marketing landscape. A few larger in 2020, offering a roadmap to the most important
themes emerge. strategies, ad formats, and techniques marketers will
need to know in the year ahead. The seven trends
The first is that today’s travel consumers are we’ll focus on are as follows:
increasingly screen agnostic, choosing to complete
a variety of shopping tasks across devices, browsing
1. Personalization, Loyalty, and
sessions, and trip occasions. This presents marketers
the Traveler Data Dilemma
with a new challenge: It’s still surprisingly difficult to
track and target customers effectively across those
screens and buying sessions. That said, cross-device 2. Industry Gets More Sophisticated
campaigns and re-targeting are becoming par for the with Social Advertising
course as marketers try to keep up with consumers’
complicated paths to purchase. 3. Travel Advertisers
Prioritize Creativity
In addition, more stringent rules about privacy
and data protection are further complicating how 4. TV and Video’s
marketers use what they know about customers to
Advertising Convergence
deliver more tailored interactions and advertising. The
struggle lies in balancing privacy with personalization,
5. Automation Takes
which consumers increasingly expect from all
businesses operating online. On top of all this, new Over Ad Buying
laws such as the European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) complicate decisions 6. Multichannel and the Continuous,
about the methods marketers use to collect and Always-On Marketing Strategy
protect personal information and consumer data.
7. Privacy Comes to the Fore
Meanwhile, digital travel ad formats and buying
of the Advertising Debate
techniques continue to evolve. As marketers head
into 2020, they should be prepared for the surprising
resurgence of spending on brand-building formats
like television ads, which are gaining new interest
thanks to the new digital-style targeting strategies,
the advancing complexity of social media and online
video, and the ongoing growth of automated, real-
time ad-buying methods such as programmatic.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Personalization, Loyalty, and the
Traveler Data Dilemma
Today’s digital marketing ecosystem offers marketers
more opportunities than ever to personalize nearly
all aspects of the travel buying experience, whether
those are offers, advertising, products or messaging.
Best of all, a growing body of research suggests
that travel consumers increasingly want and expect
these types of customized travel interactions from
their favorite brands. However, it’s increasingly
important that personalization is done in a way
that is thoughtful, respectful of a user’s privacy, and
contextually relevant. Otherwise it runs the risk of
backfiring, potentially hurting a brand’s reputation.
That’s why a key objective for many travel brands
in 2020 will be figuring out ways to get more
SkifT + SOJERN 8
sophisticated in their personalization efforts, using
what they know about travelers to continuously refine
how they collect and deploy this type of marketing
personalization to serve their business objectives.
The consumer perspective on personalized targeting
is clear: The modern traveler increasingly expects —
and wants — their interactions with travel brands
to be personalized. Consider the results of a recent
survey by Epsilon, in which 75 percent of respondents
said that they think “it is very cool when they receive
personalized offers” and 68 percent said they believe
it’s worth sharing personal information in exchange
for offers, discounts and product recommendations.
Very closely connected to the idea of personalization
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Most consumers appreciate personalization where benefits/incentives are tailored to them.
75%
68%
68%
64%
64%
57%
Source: “The power of me: The impact of personalization on marketing performance,” Epsilon, 2018
in the travel industry are loyalty programs, which
are an important vehicle for brands to deliver the
bespoke experiences travelers now demand. Today’s
most forward-thinking travel brands go well beyond
points accruals and use loyalty programs as a
customer relationship tool, allowing them to develop
a more sophisticated understanding of a consumer’s
needs at any given moment.
Kurt Weinsheimer, chief solutions officer at Sojern,
offers the example of a hotelier who uses data to
personalize his or her offers and in-destination
experiences. Let’s say a loyal customer is running
three hours late to check in. The hotel could send a
text reassuring the customer that their room is being
held, maybe even have their favorite drink on hand.
“You can combine loyalty data with behavioral data
gathered from the trip-planning process to provide
custom, unique and meaningful experiences,”
Weinsheimer said. “The best travel brands are already
working with partners to use data and technology in
this way.”
SkifT + SOJERN 9
I think it is very cool when I get personalized offers
It is worth giving my personal information to a company in
exchange for offers, product recommendations, discounts,
etc. that are personalized for me
I have noticed that companies have been able to recognize
me across the various ways that I interact with them to
provide a personalized experience
Most companies do a good job creating a custom-tailored
experience for me based on having my personal information
I have noticed that companies are getting better at using
my personal information to deliver a better, personalized
experience for me
I am confident that the companies I give my personal information to
will use it in the most secure way possible
More critically, not personalizing content can
backfire. In a 2019 Infogroup study on personalization,
90 percent of respondents called messaging from
companies that is not personally relevant “annoying.”
Further, 40 percent said they would be willing to
switch to brands with more effective personalization
in their marketing communications.
“You can combine loyalty data with
behavioral data gathered from the
trip-planning process to provide custom,
unique and meaningful experiences.”
“It is increasingly important to incorporate
personalization in marketing strategies. The risk in
not doing so is annoying consumers who are starting
to expect more personalization,” said Susan Borst,
vice president of the Mobile Marketing Center of
Excellence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB),
a trade group that represents the digital advertising
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Top marketing challenges in the travel industry
46%
45%
45%
45%
44%
42%
42%
42%
41%
Source: “The State of the Travel Industry Report,” Sojern, 2019
industry. “The key to success is to figure out how
to personalize without being creepy, based on the
information the customer has previously supplied.”
The “creepy” factor hints at the challenge in
executing personalized campaigns, which can be
quite complex. In 2018, 46 percent of travel industry
marketers listed their top challenge as “delivering
personalized ads and offers in real-time.”
One challenge is balancing personalization with
privacy to ensure compliance with the latest
regulations — and to ensure the level of individual
messaging is appropriate to the channel in which it
is received. For example, travelers may expect brands
to execute a deeper level of personalization within an
email as compared to a display ad. Another challenge
is personalizing effectively when campaigns are
executed in multiple formats and across many
channels and platforms.
SkifT + SOJERN 10
Delivering personalized ads and offers in real time
Achieving ROI and profitability targets for my
advertising investments
Targeting travelers during a specific point along
their path to purchase
Keeping up with the fast-paced advertising
and technology landscape
Understanding how to use my customer
data more effectively
Driving direct bookings
Managing pricing and profitability across my
distribution and marketing partners
Proving incrementality
Reaching new travel audiences
“There’s enough data. However, I think figuring out
how to use it the right way is the tricky part,” said
Adam Kasper, executive vice president and managing
director of iProspect, a digital performance marketing
agency that works with a number of leading travel
brands. “It’s still very much in development, having
a robust understanding of who customers are and
what their preferences are.”
For a traveler planning to visit a destination like
Mexico City, serving an ad about a hotel is
straightforward. But the marketer still lacks enough
information to determine whether that traveler
is searching for the destination for a personal or
business trip, how many people are going, and
what kinds of activities they plan to do once they
arrive. Kasper said marketers are often dealing with
incomplete information that makes it hard to “really
determine intent at any granular level.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 11

Ultimately, technology platforms will continue

to enhance their solutions so that automated
“Personalization has to be trip-based personalization is more achievable at mass scale,
rather than demographics-based.” said Brittany Richter, senior vice president and head
of products and services at iProspect. Until then,
marketers should focus on immediate opportunities
Weinsheimer notes another challenge: While like dynamic ads that simplify the process of
companies may have a lot of data on their existing personalization. For example, her agency uses in-
customers’ interactions with their brand, they know house tools to dynamically change landing pages
very little about how those individuals are interacting based on information about site visitors.
with competitors. For new customers, there’s even
less information available. That makes using intent By using the tools and data available to understand
signals as part of marketing strategy instrumental. intent and personalize their efforts, travel marketers
can demonstrate to consumers that they care about
“You need to understand how to access those what they want and are ready to deliver it.
broader intent signals and act on those signals and
understand that I’m not just a business traveler,
I’m not just a family traveler, I’m not just a romantic
“You need to understand how to access
getaway traveler, I’m all those things. What I’m
those broader intent signals and act on
looking for depends on the day and when I can
those signals and understand that I’m
squeeze in a few minutes to plan the next trip,” he
said. “Personalization has to be trip-based rather not just a business traveler, I’m not just
than demographics-based.” a family traveler, I’m not just a romantic
getaway traveler, I’m all those things.”
Another option to better understand this customer
intent is to seek out partners who have the data to
supplement the first-party information marketers
have on hand. For example, according to Adweek,
travel brands are working with Facebook to identify
users who have demonstrated an intent to travel
but have not yet locked in a destination, and the
brands are using that information to deliver dynamic
marketing that moves prospects into the next stage
of consideration.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Industry Gets More Sophisticated
With Social Advertising
In 2020, social media will continue to evolve for travel
marketers. But instead of just being perceived as just
a brand-building tool or a place to engage customers,
social media’s role is starting to transform into a
powerful driver of travel e-commerce as well, offering
different ways to sell directly to users and increase
the return on investment. Several social platforms,
including Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat, have
developed creative ways for marketers to use content
as a way of selling products — now you can swipe right
on a photo of a tropical resort to make a booking.
This new paradigm matches a similar shift in how
consumers use social content and advertising to
inform their purchase decisions. Facebook estimates
SkifT + SOJERN 12
that 68 percent of millennials get travel ideas from
the social network, and that 60 percent do the same
on Instagram.
Now, marketers are seizing on the growing
sophistication of social ad-targeting tools by directing
greater portions of their spend into the channel.
Social media advertising hit $29 billion in 2018, 30
percent more than in the year before, according to a
report by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Paid
social is the name of the game for distribution of ads
and content, as organic reach and engagement is
difficult to achieve with most social media platform
algorithms,” said the IAB’s Borst.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 13

This broader trend applies to the travel industry as
well. Social made up the largest share of digital
ad spend for travel marketers and brands in 2018,
comprising 31 percent for small advertisers, 22
percent for mid-size ones, and 18 percent for large
advertisers, according to Sojern’s “State of the Travel
Industry” report. Fifty-five percent of respondents
also planned to increase their spend on Facebook
and Instagram this year.
“Facebook is important because of the size and scale
— you just can’t beat their audience. And because
consumers are on the platform to think about and
aspire to travel, you have to be there,” said Choice
Hotels International marketing executive Brent
Bouldin. “Our team is testing every aspect of our
Facebook campaigns, from photos to call-to-action,
to see where our audiences are interacting with us.”
Facebook Travel Ads (previously called Dynamic Ads
for Travel) and Facebook Stories in particular saw
some of the biggest growth among travel marketers
in the Sojern study, which noted that more than half
of travel marketers planned to use these solutions
— as well as Instagram ads and Stories — in 2019.
Snapchat, Pinterest, and Twitter were also popular.
One in three travel marketers planned to leverage
Snapchat and Pinterest ads in 2019.
The interest in all things social doesn’t stop at these
platforms. In fact, iProspect’s Richter also notes that
Twitter has shown strong performance in driving

How travel marketers are using and anticipating using social ads

Used in 2018 Plan on using in 2019 Don’t currently use or plan on using Not familiar

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

Facebook Facebook Facebook Instagram Instagram Snapchat Pinterest Twitter

Ads Dynamic Ads Stories Ads Stories Ads Ads Ads
for Travel

Source: “The State of the Travel Industry Report,” Sojern, 2019

7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 14

traffic, bookings, and brand lift for iProspect’s travel
clients. “Travel is one of the few verticals where we
see actual performance from Twitter.”
Sojern’s report also notes that Facebook and
Instagram dominate because they continue to
innovate with new ad products and enhancements
for marketers. Facebook, for example, offers
audience-targeting options within destinations,
hotels and flights. Its travel ads for retargeting
draw availability and pricing from marketers’ sites,
presenting the most relevant products based on
what interests the user. Facebook also continues
to hold an advantage in reach, brand awareness,
and personalization, according to the study, while
Instagram is seen as a better way to showcase a
property or a travel experience because of its visual
nature. Richter also said the Stories features on
Instagram and Facebook Travel Ads have both shown
strong performance for clients.
“Facebook and Instagram dominate
because they continue to innovate
with new ad products and
enhancements for marketers.”
“There isn’t a KPI that they cannot, at some scale or
other, address,” he said, listing off a few: video views,
brand metrics, lower-funnel conversion metrics. “It’s
scale, it’s targeting, it’s diversity of formats. [Social]
provides a lot of different ways in for brands.”
“Travel is one of the few verticals where
we see actual performance from Twitter.”
Another trend Silver has noticed is that social
platforms such as Facebook are working together
more with brands, creative agencies, and certified
Facebook Marketing Partners to share ideas and
best practices for how to improve the performance
of social campaigns. “We’re trying to facilitate more
connection between creative agencies and Facebook
and the social platforms,” he said.
By working hand-in-hand with social media
companies and their marketing partners earlier in
the creative process, travel marketers can ensure that
their campaigns reach the right audiences with the
right message at the right time.

Rob Silver, group vice president and national media

lead at Publicis Media, an agency that works with a
variety of global travel brands from the hospitality
and tourism sectors, said he has seen travel brands
direct more dollars toward social because platforms
like Facebook and Instagram are delivering better
and better results associated with clients’ key
performance indicators (KPIs).
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Travel Advertisers Prioritize Creativity
The growing importance of social platforms isn’t just
affecting where ad dollars get spent. It’s also forcing
an overall increase in the quality and creativity of
ad campaigns on such platforms. User attention
spans are short, and the competition for eyeballs,
particularly on social media, is unprecedented.
Facebook estimates that users spend 2.5 seconds on
a piece of content when browsing the social platform
on a desktop and just 1.7 seconds when doing so
on their phones. That means travel brands need to
make a quick impression or, in the face of all the
eye-catching images competitors are posting, risk
missing their performance goals.
“There’s definitely more thought being given upfront
to creative,” said Silver, of Publicis Media. “We’re
trying to get more upstream with the planning
SkifT + SOJERN 15
of creative, and the intersection of the media and
creative so that the agency [or] publisher ... has more
time to build optimized creative for the platform, as
opposed to scrambling at the end.”
While the travel industry has often focused its
marketing efforts in the past on digital formats like
search and display, the growth of social strategies
(and more avenues to showcase their offerings) is
prompting travel marketers to be more artful in their
approach. The most common way of doing this is
by using higher-quality images. But it also involves
using creative that’s designed specif ically for the
social platform or channel where it will run.
Consider, for example, the rise of the Stories format
on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, a recent
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
phenomenon that demands a specif ic kind of
creative, which tends to be vertically, rather than
horizontally, oriented.
“A few years ago, the concept of vertical videos
didn’t exist,” said Volkan Cagsal, CEO of Adphorus,
a travel marketing data science f irm that helps
travel brands design more effective and scalable
ad campaigns. “Now people can take videos on
their camera without tilting their phones. They can
share their videos the same way they hold their
phone. Facebook responded to this user behavior
by launching Stories. It’s more immersive, visually-
engaging, and just one of many mobile-f irst
innovations that we anticipate. If travel brands are
not adapting and embracing vertical formats like
Stories, they’re missing the mark.”
Social channels are a place for organic content
that has an authentic feel to it, without being
unprofessional — a tricky line to walk as a marketer.
“If travel brands are not adapting and
embracing vertical formats like Stories,
they’re missing the mark.”
It’s also worth noting that it’s not just social media
fueling this push for greater ad creativity. Video
is another ad format that increasingly demands
original, channel-appropriate creative to capture the
attention of today’s distracted consumers. Consider,
for example, video ads created to run alongside
streaming content, which must be of a high quality to
deliver a seamless experience to audiences. Viewers
expect the ads that interrupt broadcast-quality
content to have the same production value. When
they don’t, it can disrupt the immersive experience.
And even when video ads are not running next
to broadcast-quality content, marketers need to
be clever about their distribution and production
strategy if the goal is to have them widely shared.
SkifT + SOJERN 16
“Marketers must think beyond simply
repurposing traditional ad creative to
ways that they can serve content with
an organic and spontaneous feel that
matches the platform.”
As the amount of user-generated video content
on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram
increases, marketers must think beyond simply
repurposing traditional ad creative to ways that they
can serve content with an organic and spontaneous
feel that matches the platform.
Kasper of iProspect says his team is tailoring video
to the distribution platform more often now, such
as shooting six-second commercials to specifically
use on digital platforms. “Not too long ago, online
video and social video was usually TV spots being
run,” he said. “We try and test and take advantage of
new formats as they come out. It has changed the
creative strategy.”
One example of how brands can satisfy the growing
demand for video is with Sojern’s Video Lab tool. It
was recently used by IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Middle
East team to help drive revenue to their properties
in Saudi Arabia around a religious trip called the
Umrah. The team knew its target audience would
respond to video creative, but didn’t have the budget
to build a full video campaign. Using the tool, the
team was able to create a video based on static
images, designed to reach in-market travelers who
were already engaged. The result was a two-cent
cost per view while beating the video completion
rate goal. The outcome demonstrates the value of
identifying an opportunity and making the effort
to build thoughtful creative that fits a campaign’s
purpose and audience.
Best of all, technology and data are now helping
more travel brands improve their strategies for
designing effective ad creative. One example is the
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
growing use of dynamic creative, which brings the
real-time optimization methods of ad bidding and
buying to creative placements. Dynamic creative
uses A/B testing and redeploys creative based on
performance, target, seasonality, geography, and
more, with minimal oversight. Travel marketers are
now able to use dynamic creative to ensure that the
message they send resonates with audiences and
fits what they are seeking.
A willingness to analyze data must also be at the
core of media and creative planning to ensure that
brands engage audiences, the IAB’s Borst said.
She points to brands such as Away luggage that
are using storytelling techniques, influencer
marketing, and user-generated tactics to build
community and loyalty.
“Travel marketers are now able to
use dynamic creative to ensure
that the message they send
resonates with audiences and fits
what they are seeking.”
“We’ll see a rise in the use of interactive formats
such as augmented reality and playable ads that
are designed for engagement, many of which are
opted into by the consumer, meaning the consumer
chooses to interact with the ad — or not,” she said.
SkifT + SOJERN 17
“A willingness to analyze data must
also be at the core of media and
creative planning to ensure that
brands engage audiences.”
Social platforms are helping support this data-
driven approach to creative development, offering
more sophisticated tools, an expanding universe
of ad formats, and more opportunities to rapidly
scale whatever happens to be working best. Travel
marketers can easily test headlines and images, for
example, to see what works on a specific platform,
Borst advises. High-quality images are expected on
Instagram, whereas more interactive content such as
GIFs may work better on Twitter, she notes: “This can
be time consuming to plan upfront, and may add
to costs in terms of multiple images, but the impact
could be significant to meet your goals.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
TV and Video’s Advertising Convergence
The decline of television audiences will continue to
be a key challenge for travel marketers in 2020 and
beyond. But even as advertisers adjust their media
budgets and targeting for this post-TV era, new TV-
like advertising opportunities are emerging, part of a
growing convergence between traditional television
and online video ad formats.
The shift is largely due to changes in consumer
behavior, as how and why consumers watch television
content evolves. Consider a recent infographic from
Sojern, which cited data suggesting that half of pay-
TV viewers under the age of 32 will “cut the cord” by
2025, and that 67.5 percent of Internet users around
the world will be watching digital video by 2021.
The initial takeaway from these results may seem
troubling. But this rising consumption of digital
video is ultimately a good thing for travel marketers
SkifT + SOJERN 18
because, unlike TV, it increasingly allows them to track
performance and provide new layers of interactivity.
“If we really want someone to click the site so we can
nurture them, it’s going to have to be digital,” said
iProspect’s Richter. “Whereas if … exposure to it is
enough, then we might want to go the TV route.”
Video is a compelling and immersive medium for
marketers to share the experience of travel. It’s also
extremely popular with a broad base of consumers,
considering the average American consumes 10.5
hours of media daily, per Nielsen. That includes
linear television and all the digital ways to consume
video — including over-the-top video services, TV
everywhere, linear addressable TV, and video-on-
demand addressable TV.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Marketers have to adjust to this multiplatform, multi-
device world by tailoring video to suit the way it is
consumed, rather than focusing on the medium. The
notion of investing in “advanced TV,” the IAB’s term
for all the ways video is consumed digitally, is gaining
traction. A report by the IAB found that, in April,
59 percent of ad buyers planned to increase their
advanced TV spend in the next 12 months, with half
expecting increases in over-the-top (OTT) budgets,
referring to advertising integrated within TV and film
content streamed over the internet.
“Marketers have to adjust to this
multiplatform, multi-device world
by tailoring video to suit the way
it is consumed, rather than focusing
on the medium.”
“We’re also seeing the blending of TV-digital budgets
with buyers looking for more unified approaches
to planning, executing, and measuring their video
campaigns across platforms,” said Eric John, deputy
director of the IAB’s Digital Video Center of Excellence.
Despite this growing convergence, Silver said,
many brands are still creating video assets for each
platform to ensure they resonate. Innovations in ad
targeting, formats, and ad platforms are opening
up the possibilities to further specialize each piece
of content. New ad lengths like the six-second spot
are becoming more common, as is creating content
specifically for Facebook and YouTube, which is the
second most popular search engine after Google.
Over half of travel marketers also planned to use
Instagram in 2019, according to the Sojern report.
Connected TV also presents an opportunity, as in the
case of GoUSA TV, a connected TV network launched
last year by the destination marketing organization
Brand USA. The channel offers curated video content
to inspire travelers to visit the US.
SkifT + SOJERN 19
The platform brings together the best of the TV and
digital worlds by offering the scale of traditional TV
with the precision targeting once associated only
with digital. According to stats shared by Sojern,
connected TV has a 95 percent completion rate,
26 percent stronger “attentiveness level,” and is 67
percent more effective than traditional TV.
Perhaps even more interesting is that more ad
platforms are now starting to test programmatic ads
for connected TV. According to Sojern’s Weinsheimer,
this new ad technology is a “…a game changer,
offering the precision targeting of digital, lower CPMs,
and more flexiblity to utilize shorter-duration creative
within TVs traditional premium environment.” As
an additional benefit, the technology will likely help
advertisers to better reach cord-cutting audience
segments like Gen Z and millennials.
The programmatic TV opportunity is expected to
only grow. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of
connected TV users in the US is expected to grow
from 168.9 million to 200.4 million, according to
eMarketer. Further, 76 percent of those who still have
linear TV have at least one connected-TV service,
according to Telaria.
As the ways to reach audiences through video
become more sophisticated and it becomes easier
than ever to target messages at specific audiences
and measure their effectiveness, travel marketers
should make sure they deliver content that aligns with
the intended medium and consumer expectations.
“Between 2017 and 2021, the number
of connected TV users in the US
is expected to grow from 168.9 million
to 200.4 million.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Automation Takes Over Ad Buying
The single most transformative use of automation
in digital advertising is programmatic buying. Today,
the technique, which refers to the use of software
algorithms instead of humans to make ad buys, is
making advertising more real-time than ever, helping
encourage marketers to shift from more sporadic,
campaign-style approaches to a more continuous
advertising strategy. It’s also helping advertisers to
better optimize and tweak their campaigns as they
progress, helping to improve their effectiveness.
Automation is also making it easier than ever for
marketers to reach audiences anywhere online —
including search listings, social media platforms, and
mobile — with content that is relevant in real time.
In 2018, an estimated $46.6 billion went towards
programmatic display advertising in the US,
according to eMarketer. That figure is expected to rise
SkifT + SOJERN 20
to $65.6 billion by next year, representing 86 percent
of all digital display advertising.
While it has made its mark primarily in display
advertising, programmatic is also becoming a more
common strategy for other formats, like video.
By 2020, programmatic video is expected to
account for 83 percent of all US video ad spend,
representing a 171 percent rise from two years prior,
according to Sojern.
“One of the exciting things about programmatic
advertising ... is that it’s moved from the old days
where you blindly targeted against travel content,
to where you can actually target travelers when
they’re ready to book,” Weinsheimer said. “This
makes sure that your money is being spent efficiently
and effectively.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Another big advantage of programmatic is that it
levels the field of play so that smaller brands can get
the most out of their spend, said Lina Ang, general
manager of Asia Pacific for Sojern.
“You used to evaluate media plans on a
quarterly basis, and then it was monthly,
and then it was weekly, and then it was
daily. Now it’s real-time.”
“Small hotels who could never afford to hire an entire
marketing department and creative agency can tap
into a technology partner like Sojern to automate
their audience targeting and dynamic ad creation,”
she said.
When programmatic is then paired with artificial
intelligence, a technology that helps marketers
identify hidden patterns in their ad campaigns and
then optimize according to the suggestions, it allows
advertisers in the travel sector to access even more
efficiencies. As the feedback loop between digital ad
planning and optimization gets shorter and shorter,
more marketers in travel will increasingly rely on AI
tools to help them manage their campaigns.
SkifT + SOJERN 21
“You used to evaluate media plans on a quarterly
basis, and then it was monthly, and then it was weekly,
and then it was daily. Now it’s real-time,” Mark Rabe,
Sojern CEO, said at the Skift Tech Forum last year.
“Pretty soon, you get into the self-optimizing loops
where AI just takes over. You say, ‘Solve this problem
for me. I want to sell as many airline tickets as I can
over the next month: ‘Take over.’”
This trend will also improve how marketers measure
campaign success. “Even though our industry looks
at clicks and other proxy measures as standards,
when you apply AI and machine learning to that, you
realize they have very little to do with that outcome,”
Jack Smith, chief product officer at GroupM, North
America, said at the 2018 Nielsen Consumer 360
event. “AI can help trace the actual moment when a
traveler is inspired to take action or make a purchase,
which may have nothing to do with a click.”
“Small hotels who could never afford to
hire an entire marketing department
and creative agency can tap into a
technology partner like Sojern to
automate their audience targeting
and dynamic ad creation.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Multichannel and the Continuous,
Always-On Marketing Strategy
The way travelers plan trips has fundamentally
changed. Whereas in the past travel marketers were
able to easily predict when most people would be
booking (for instance, key purchase periods like
holidays), today that journey is less clear. Instead,
many travelers are likely planning multiple trips
at once, using a variety of devices to research and
shop at the same time, and conducting research
throughout the entire year as they look for inspiration
for future travel.
In this era of the always-on, always-searching traveler,
marketers need to adopt a new, more responsive
strategy — one that is able to sense and adapt to
consumers’ demands and their varying intent signals
SkifT + SOJERN 22
they provide. That’s not to say that marketers should
stop planning campaigns such as a winter getaway
promotion — far f rom it. Instead, the always-on
paradigm suggests they need to be more open to
experimenting with new ways to use data to inform
digital advertising strategies. This means capturing
more customer intent data outside the typical
seasons when travelers are thinking about their
winter getaways and employing seasonal campaigns
paired with a continuous marketing strategy.
Such an approach must also encompass all the
digital engagement channels travelers are using to
consider trips, whether those are mobile devices,
laptops, browsing sessions at the office, or purchase
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020 SkifT + SOJERN 23

checkouts at home. This means that multichannel
campaigns are now par for the course, and marketers
must deliver a seamless, consistent message
if they hope to be effective. To illustrate what such
a journey might look like for a single traveler, follow
the example of “Eric,” a typical travel consumer
planning his family’s visit to an amusement park, in
the graphic below.
Not only is Eric changing the parameters of his trip
as he goes along, he is also using his mobile and
desktop devices interchangeably as he shops for
options. In addition to what’s listed, he may also be
posting about his trip on social channels or browsing
social media pages and recommendation sites to
get ideas for what his family should do on the trip or
where they might stay. All of this suggests that the
trip-planning behavior many marketers have long
taken for granted may not be as simple as it seems.
“Apart from the time that we are looking forward to
going on a trip, we are getting inspiration throughout
the year,” Cebeci said. “It’s not like I’m all of a
sudden waking up and I’m looking to go to Vietnam.
I get that information f rom my social network,
from research or contacts that I got exposed to in TV
and magazines.”
To keep up, marketers must reexamine their
strategies so that seasonal campaigns are not the

Eric’s Path To Purchase

Eric plans his perfect family amusement park vacation from dreaming through planning to booking.

May 26 May 29–30 June 13

April 25
One month later, Continues with 14x Hits Amusement
Hits Amusement Park
narrows travel dates mobile searches on Park A homepage on
A homepage four
with 10x mobile Amusement Park mobile & selects
times on mobile
searches B’s homepage travel date of July 22

August 2 July 9
July 23 June 13–July 9
Two months after
Searches for On mobile, compares
Converts for planning starts, books
Amusement Park A Amusement Park A’s
Amusement Park B different Christmas trip
on mobile for seven-day Hotel with upper-upscale
on mobile with Amusement Park
trip on November 6 and luxury hotel brands
A on mobile

September 1 September 6–
August 6 October 1 October 1–3
Converts on mobile
Four days later, Searches for flights Searches and books
for a one-day trip to
converts for November from NYC to Orlando a car from airport
Amusement Park A
6 trip on desktop for six people for for November 6 trip
for September 4
November 6

Dreaming Planning Booking

Source: Sojern, 2019

7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
only time of year they are engaged. A data-driven,
always-on approach ensures that marketers will
be able to pick up on early intent signals when Eric
begins planning his fall trip in spring and to be able
to respond to those early in the process, while also
using that data to improve personalization as he
moves further along the path to purchase.
“Once we’ve got them in a database
and they’re part of a CRM [customer
relationship management] program,
we can have this ongoing conversation
with them and control our message
to them in a way that we want.”
Brands should focus on creating what iProspect’s
Kasper calls a “connective experience” with
consumers, carrying them from the first exposure or
impression of a brand all the way through to when
they book, experience the offer, and then become a
repeat customer.
“We’re very close to being able to understand that
entire customer journey,” he said. “Once we’ve
got them in a database and they’re part of a CRM
[customer relationship management] program, we
can have this ongoing conversation with them and
control our message to them in a way that we want.”
SkifT + SOJERN 24
Doing so is a bit more challenging with future
customers, who have not yet been identif ied in
a CRM program, but several best practices have
emerged for successful execution. A travel marketer’s
approach should focus on building campaigns that
integrate each of the following five principles:
1. Holistic — Campaigns must take into
account all consumer interactions with the
brand throughout their shopping journey,
not just what they buy.
2. One-to-One — Advertising customization
should extend to each specific consumer,
not only to broad segments of consumers
like leisure or business.
3. Always On — Marketers must always be
in market rather than only at specif ic
seasonal moments, so that they can be
ready to deliver the right message at the
right moment in the purchase journey.
4. Dynamic — Campaigns must be able to
adapt to changing traveler whims and trip
motivations as they evolve in real-time.
5. Iterative — Campaigns are no longer
static, and “set it and forget it” is not an
option. As work proceeds past launch,
smart marketers try to interpret the data
found in early results, test their original
assumptions, and then ref ine their
approach when necessary.
When such a continuous multichannel approach
is taken, marketers position themselves to win the
sale by generating improved insight into customer
preferences, better targeting parameters for
campaigns and ongoing dialogue with customers
as they move from planning to purchase. All of these
are a recipe for success in digital marketing today.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Privacy Comes to the Fore of
the Advertising Debate
The implementation of the European Union’s
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on
May 25, 2018, was a def ining moment for digital
advertising. The law has implications for just about
any travel business with operations not only within
the region, but also in other parts of the world
as well. In the US, California has passed its own
privacy law that will be implemented next year, and
other states are also discussing the possibility. This
means that compliance should be top of mind for all
travel advertisers in the year ahead.
“We’re operating in a much more restricted sort
of way, especially with global clients when you
think about what we can do in Europe,” said Silver
SkifT + SOJERN 25
of Publicis Media. “We’re having conversations
like, ‘How do we drive better personalization
through data?’”
But despite the challenges, many brands appear
to be rising to the occasion, putting in place
safeguards to ensure they comply with these
new privacy standards. Consider that in the eight
months following the implementation of the
GDPR, the IAB Data Center of Excellence and
Accenture Interactive found that two-thirds
of European brands actually increased their
spending on programmatic adver tising, a
format that demands a high degree of customer
data to function effectively. This suggests that
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
companies can in fact ensure data privacy for
consumers while driving demand for bookings by
leveraging responsibly sourced, permission-based
first and third-party data.
Brand safety is also a growing concern for any
company operating online. Whether that means
ensuring ads are placed next to appropriate
content, or that reducing ad fraud in programmatic
advertising, it’s essential that travel brands
continue to work closely with publishers and ad-
tech companies to review procedures, ensure
appropriate safeguards are in place, and monitor
activity on an ongoing basis. Third-party tracking
tools are a way to get a handle on brand safety,
as is working with ad exchanges that have direct
relationships to publishers.
“Companies can in fact ensure data
privacy for consumers while driving
demand for bookings by leveraging
responsibly sourced, permission-based
first and third-party data.”
“Accountability is something that we talk about a
lot, and I think that holding partners and publishers
accountable is important,” said iProspect’s Richter.
“It’s something that’s always top of mind.”
SkifT + SOJERN 26
“Transparency goes a long way in
assuring consumers that data sharing is
a way to improve relevant advertising.”
At the same time as concerns about brand safety
are challenging digital marketers, security concerns
are complicating the collection of data because
breaches can make customers’ sensitive information
available to hackers and hurt brand reputation along
the way. As marketers try to gather more and more
data on their customers, and as hackers devise
ever more sophisticated methods of compromising
consumer data, travel marketers will need to
stay on their toes to ensure they responsibly gather
and safeguard consumers’ personal information.
Further, they must ensure that they take a leadership
role in using data in compliance with best-practice
privacy standards.
Transparency goes a long way in assuring consumers
that data sharing is a way to improve relevant
advertising. By opting out, consumers are not
reducing the amount of advertising they will view —
just its relevance — and they are also less likely to reap
the benefits of tailored marketing that allows a brand
to provide rich, specialized experiences designed to
establish trust and loyalty with the customer.
Even though consumers have a strong preference
for personalization, travel marketers will increasingly
have to ensure that it doesn’t happen at the expense
of consumers’ online privacy. Best practices include
using information that isn’t personally identifiable
whenever possible, working with a third-party
consultant to establish data procedures, and
reevaluating those procedures routinely to ensure
compliance with current standards.
“We’re constantly trying to calibrate where we are as
it relates to privacy,” Silver said. “All those things are
impacting how we are planning and buying media.”
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
Conclusion
In 2020, the travel industry’s digital advertising
ecosystem will continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Many
of the radical changes that kicked off the industry’s
current era of digital transformation, including
the adoption of mobile devices and multichannel
buying, rapid deployment of advertising automation
technology, and a proliferation of new advertising
formats, have already sent shockwaves rippling
across the travel industry. But these innovations
are no longer a novelty. Instead, they have quickly
become the new normal for the industry, with real
business consequences for travel companies that
choose not to adapt.
Despite the challenges, a growing range of solutions
are now helping travel advertisers evolve for this
new consumer era. Whether the evolution involves
an increasing need to balance the demands of
SkifT + SOJERN 27
personalization and privacy, new strategies to address
the convergence of ad formats like TV and video, the
rise of automated advertising, or the shift toward a
multichannel, always-on marketing approach, travel
marketers now have the advertising strategies and
tools they need to thrive.
It’s true that travel advertising may be more
complex than ever. And there’s no question that this
complexity has created new challenges for those in
the industry. But that complexity has also unlocked
incredible opportunities for those who know where
to look, offering unprecedented methods to target
potential buyers, highly engaging creative formats,
and radically more effective tools to make ad
campaigns more measurable and successful. It’s up
to those in the industry to put them into action.
7 Digital Advertising Trends for the Travel Industry in 2020
ABOUT skift
Skift is the largest intelligence platform in travel,
providing media, insights, marketing to key sectors
of the industry. Through daily news, research,
podcasts, and Skift Global Forum conferences,
Skift deciphers and defines the trends that matter
to the marketers, strategists, and technologists
shaping the industry.
SkiftX is Skift’s in-house content marketing studio,
working collaboratively with partners like Adobe,
Airbnb, Hyatt, Lyft, Mastercard, and many more
on custom projects to engage the world’s largest
audience of travel influencers and decision makers.
Visit skiftx.com to learn more or email skiftx@skift.com.
SkifT + SOJERN 28
About SOJERN
Sojern (sojern.com) is built on more than a decade
of expertise analyzing the complete traveler path
to purchase. The company drives travelers from
dream to destination by activating multi-channel
branding and performance solutions on the Sojern
Traveler Platform for more than 8,500 customers
around the world. Recognized as a Deloitte
Technology Fast 500 company six years in a row,
Sojern is headquartered in San Francisco, with
teams based in Berlin, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong,
Istanbul, London, Mexico City, New York, Omaha,
Paris, Singapore and Sydney.
Visit sojern.com to learn more.