Business
Last year Hawaii Tourism (Australia and New Zealand office) worked with four travel agents to develop the “Agents of Aloha” travel trade program. In this podcast episode (Episode 40) we chat with Ashlee Galea Country Manager Australia at Hawaii Tourism Oceania to talk through the program. We start off by talking about how important the travel trade is to the destination of Hawaii in both the holiday research and the actual booking process (listen in for specific stats). And then talk about how social media or digital more broadly as vast become a key way to train the travel trade as travel agents are spread throughout all of Australia so digital channels can help in reaching agents. Hawaii Tourism currently have a trade website and an online specialist training program for the travel trade and email newsletters are also used in the communication strategy. More recently a YouTube channel has been established for the travel travel with webinars and the new 'Agents of Aloha' training videos (which we will discuss). Hawaii Tourism is also currently setting up a blog that will be valuable for both consumer and trade. We then get into the details and logistics of the Agents of Aloha campaign including why the campaign was developed and some of the logistics of how the campaign come together. "We wanted to show the breadth and depth of the destination beyond the sun, sand and surf and do it in a way that was fun, engaging and educational." Video consumption is growing and video can be used for agents to learn (listen in to the 8.30 minute mark). "We decided we wanted to do something with video, something we could launch visually at our roadshow and something we could roll out online so it has longevity and use in the digital space" From the 9 minute mark we talked about how the 4 key agents were selected. From the 10 minute mark we discuss the campaign logistics including selecting the right videographer, developing the itinerary, selecting the agents, getting buy in from partners/industry, run the famil and then upon return phase two starts. We go into detail about selecting videographer from the 11.45 minute mark. This is very interesting for those looking at video projects. From the 14.20 minute mark we talk about success metrics and if the campaign was deemed a success. "We didn't have to script what they said...we had them do everything we knew would blow their mind and that would come across in the video and then educate the person watching." From the 18.30 minute mark Ashlee discusses the next steps of the campaign now that the videos have been produced. Very interesting. "We all want to maximise our investment in whatever way we can....we plan to use the footage for all sorts of stuff moving forward. That one famil although it was a huge undertaking, the content we've now got..." "Death by powerpoint is over" From the 21 minute mark we talk about further way social media is involved including incentivising sharing while on famils. We discuss if a separate consumer verses trade social media channels is required. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKh8MNQfCkP0Q2Jf_147jme-C0prznL3v And the travel trade site here The post Communicating with travel trade through social media and digital: Ep #40 appeared first on Holly G.