The infographic below gives a simplistic view of the rapid growth of mobile data computing and usage- across all the major devices. The shift towards Tablet, M2M and Smartphones can be clearly seen …

Talking Book – At a glance!
This is in reality a very simple record-and-play audio device – manufactured for durability, Talking Book is designed for people with zero literacy and who still have not experienced the fruits of electricity. This portable device is utilized in the rural Africa to disseminate knowledge and current information in a very reliable and simplistic way. In Africa, where good transportation has still a long way to go, Talking Book is a splendid tool for teachers who complement their lessons with student-friendly interactive applications and audio books.

The philanthropists and field representatives procure Talking Books and record information about agriculture, health and education in their local languages and dialect. This stored information is then systematically permeated to every possible region which is willing to participate in the program – This program is always associated with an accompanying demonstration so that even a housewife / mother / grandmother can use it with ease.

Transforming life at birth!
Literacy Bridge is deeply involved in the maternity and maternal health programs in Africa – Talking Books are distributed freely to pregnant and young mothers as part of this program.

According to the Literacy Book founder -
“The devices will be loaded with health behavior messages created in collaboration with Ghana Health Service and UNICEF; and will include agriculture messages to help mothers identify and improve their production of crops that are most nutritious for children under five years of age. Simple messages, like hand-washing with soap and proper sowing of seeds, will result in behavior changes that are life-saving and life-changing. The project will show an extreme degree of transparency around the program costs to demonstrate to the world just how cost-effective the Talking Book is at improving health outcomes in a way that no organization has done before.“

Take a look at how Talking Book is helping the most impoverished rural families in creating a safer, healthier and a more educated society and next generation of African citizens…

Afri-Tech Johannesburg Summit (22th – 24th March, 2011) is a sincere attempt to create a mass scale awareness about the ‘synergy between the scientific community and the people of Africa’. This summit will witness the congregation of some of the most pioneering minds in the areas of Healthcare, Science & Technology, Education, Finance and Digital solutions – under one platform. We will need to churn out more innovations like Talking Book – which will work in favor of the African upliftment.

The easy availability and affordability of   cell phones and tariff charges has made this the most practical means of communication and business transaction for the developing world.

Mobile revolution took center-stage in US and Europe, and most of the first-round innovations were because of the customer demands in these technologically advanced parts of the world. But, the markets which are making heads turn are the emerging economies – China, India, pockets of South-East Asia and Asia Pacific.

China & India factor

In addition to being one of the most populous regions on the planet, China and India are also witnessing an unheralded economic  economic growth, which is translating into a mammoth expenditure in the areas of telecommunication and connectivity. To account for the region as a whole, Asia pacific had a telecommunication budget of $405 billion in 2009 – And analysts are predicting an expenditure of $815 billion in 2015. China and India will jointly account for $369 billion spend on communications. In terms of mobile phone subscriptions, Asia Pacific will have 3.1 billion mobile phone subscriptions in 2015 – up from 2.1 billion in 2009.

In terms of sheer numbers…

• China will continue to have the world’s largest number of mobile phone subscriptions at 957 million in 2015
• India is poised to become the fastest growing mobile consumer with almost 93% increase between 2009 and 2015 – which approximately translates into 871 million mobile subscriptions.
• The one important number for the internet marketers is the volume of smartphone subscribers that is expected by 2015. Asia alone will be home to around 347 million smartphone users in another 5 years.
• To cap it off – Asia Pacific has the highest number of mobile phone subscriptions of all world regions, yet the potential is far from being exhausted.

credit: www.copperbridgemedia.com

Catching the customer at the right moment and right location increases the probability of conversion in this age of non-stop marketing. As the travel shoppers move away from the static media avenues like TV, PC, LapTop etc…, the only channel of connecting to them is through their mobile devices – Mobile phone, Smart phones, iPhone, Blackberry…

Image Credit: www.burningthebacon.com

Let’s envisage a simple scenario – You are traveling towards Disneyland with your wife and four kids and you know that everyone in your battalion will be competing with each other to get the best and most number of rides -  your wallet is going to get a serious dent (sure, you are putting up a brave face!). As you get nearer to the dream destination, you receive a message on your GPS / iPhone – The message is a summary of all the discounts that you can avail of inside the DisneyLand by using a promotional code which you just received inside the message. You make a quick mental calculation and suddenly the finances look upbeat – You might be able to take $500 – $700 off your final budget. That’s not bad…Mobile marketing does get a customers’ eye – with extreme targeting

Caesar’s Palace is one first big names in the hospitality segment to utilize the mobile marketing menu – by utilizing the GPS mobile app targeted at visitors. Guests at Caesar’s can get all the on-spot information on their mobile phones – restaurant hours and rates, booking facility, list of performers in The Colosseum. Visitors to Caesars Palace can opt-in for this GPS app which will provide customized discount and offers to venues in proximity to the user. So, as long as you are staying in Caesar’s, your every movement will be tracked just to give you the best offers in your current location. That’s a win-win situation for both Caesar’s and its guests.

And Caesars i s not alone in this race to tap the sentiments of customers when they are most likely to take a decision. This trend is reflected in the exponential growth of mobile marketing and advertising – it is projected to reach $50 billion by 2014 from it’s current figure of $29 billion. According to a Forrester study-

• “54 percent of online business travelers and 48 percent of online leisure travelers who have web-enabled mobile devices have used the channel to look up travel-related information such as a flight’s on-time status, driving directions or hotel room information.”
• “18 percent of business travelers and 15 percent of leisure travelers researched hotel availability on their mobile devices
  in the past year.”

In addition to the point-of-sale persuasion ..aka Location-based marketing, Mobile devices are also being utilized to create opt-in list for future Email Marketing campaigns – Which we will be discussing in our next post.

Keeping aside the undisputed benefits of video proliferation over the targeted networks, the major obstacle for online marketers is consistent creation of quality videos and further engaging the potential customers with the video. As many marketing division would secretly reveal that it is indeed a demanding task to consistently churn out high-engagement videos. Sears Holding (K-Mart), while understanding the twin importance of quality video marketing as well as the engagement of the customer community, adopted a unique and unorthodox approach towards video based persuasion – By launching BillionPoints.

What is BillionPoints.com?

This is a KMart-Customer managed site which accepts 45 seconds videos describing the best way to spend the 1 billion cuctomer points. This site came into existence after Sears decided to publish consumer generated videos and aimed at promoting its ‘Shop your way rewards program’.  “The contest is a fun way to engage our more than 17 million members while also giving them the opportunity to help others,” says Scott Freidheim, executive vice president, operating and support businesses. That’s one of the most effective examples of customer engagement in the online video arena. The online video that receives the highest number of votes will be adjudged the official winner in Fall 2010. While the winner keeps the 50%, the rest of it goes to various charities selected by the winner.

“Rebuilding Together is thrilled to be one of Sears’ chosen charities for this exciting, national campaign,” said Gary A. Officer, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together. “This campaign highlights the great philanthropic philosophy Sears Holdings embraces through countless employee-volunteer hours and millions of dollars it donates each year to important causes, such as Rebuilding Together.   This is a great way for Americans to get involved, win a great prize, and support their favorite cause simultaneously.”

Business trips and related tourism, which is an important segment of travel industry has shown a certain decline since the last year. Following data supports this fact.

• Globally, domestic business trips declined by 3.2% in 2009 while international business arrivals plunged by 7.2%
• Spending by domestic business travelers fell by 6.2% while spending by international business travelers plunged 14.6% in 2009
• Germany, United States and United Kingdom accounted for 41% of the decline in international business departures.
• The Middle East was the only region to experience moderate growth (4.6%) in business arrivals in 2009, mainly in Saudi Arabia.

However, the blame of decline in business trips is generally fixed on the advent of electronic media in business arena. Video conferences, teleconferences, video calls and online chats have vanished the distance between the people and merged the globe more smoothly as a single marketing platform that is approachable anytime from anywhere. Also, electronic media has proved effectiveness in instant communication that is turning to be the key differentiator in business success. This has curtailed the business travelling need to the bare minimum.

How can internet marketing help?

This is the most proper time to give the electronic media the dose of its own medicine. Internet technology that has applied brakes on business related travel can be successfully utilized to put life back into it and compel more businessmen to go touring.

Reach out to maximum business clients: Internet marketing can reach a large number of prospects without causing a much dent in your marketing and advertising budget. Once your target client is reached, it becomes easy to undertake various tools that will help you to understand the business travelers’ pulse and preferences.

Explain advantages: You can explain the advantages of holding a conference at a venue. Emphasis may be laid upon the facilities and business related infrastructure available at the venue, personal interaction, network buildup, mass approach, etc.

Offer discounts: To pull businessmen out of their cubicles and make them travel across, emails can be sent to offer discounts in travel, accommodation, dining and other hospitality gestures. Banner ads are effective in attracting attention to the offers.

Offer memberships: Extend memberships of your agency and hotels to the business traveler. This may entice them to undertake travelling to avail membership benefits. Special benefits may be offered to business travelers if they travel with family and without business motive. Co-relating business trip with other tourism and travel types will benefit the industry and boost the number of business trips. Internet marketing can certainly accelerate the process.

1. Increased competition,                            and                                        2. Retaining loyal customers

Increased competition

As in any sector, increased number of players is creating increased competition among various segments of tourism and hospitality industry. To gain upper hand in the competition, players are offering attractive schemes and prices to the customers. This has opened various options for the customers and they are indeed trying to make the best of the money they spend. This is causing attrition of the loyal customers and they are willing to shift from old service providers to the new ones who are providing better options at the same or even less prices. The medium and small players may have to cut down on its profits in order to get the chunk of customers.

Retaining loyal customers

Increased competition has had its effect on the retention of old and loyal customers of hotel and tourism industry. It has become difficult for the medium and small operators to retain old customers. It is more difficult for them as their brand promotion and advertising budgets are often restricted and these will not guarantee effective return on investments. Though, retaining loyal customers require less effort than fetching new customers, it is equally easy to lose old customers if no proper strategies are implemented in this regard.

The solution is right here

Internet marketing is the solution that will address both of the problems, increased competition and retaining loyalty. Aggressive internet marketing strategies run with the help of experts can take the client ahead of other competitors.

Emails and newsletters are the best cost effective options to keep in touch with the old customers and keep them informed about various offers and schemes run by the client. These are also effective in reaching prospective clients and attracting them with the offers.

Internet is fast being utilized by the tourists as a medium to seek more information even before stepping out of the house. Prominent presence on the net by internet marketing and reaching out to the customers by newsletters is the solution.

This is the genre of tourist who may need consulting at any given time and at unusual places. And here is where the interactive travel counseling takes birth. Internet and mobiles are the two powerful and effective medium that can be a handy tool for interactive travel consulting.

Travel and tourism service sector still need to evolve in this aspect of tourism. Most of the agencies and tour operators often end up in drawing the tour schedule and arranging for stay and food. However, actual help may be needed in dire straits when no other source of information and guidance is available.

• Travel and tourism sector must consider setting up toll free numbers that can be reached from anywhere in the world and at any time irrespective of the time and zone a tourist is in. Providing around the clock direct contact with the agency from where the tourist started, that too in his / her native language will ease many troubles of the tourist roaming thousands of miles away.

• Making customized tourist plans and information available for internet access; and / or providing it on any portable medium like CDs and flash drives shall be very handy. Tourists can inform the agency in advance about their likely area of operation and seek maximum information about the same.

• Tourism must also collect the tourists who are willing to share their travelling experiences. Their information about the common problems faced at various areas they have recently visited may prove to be very useful interactive travel consulting source. Availability of contact numbers of previous visitors to the places where a tourist is planning to visit may be useful in seeking information in the need of the hour.

• Tour operators must also plan to setup consultation centers for the incoming tourists. Locals who had visited various places previously shall be made available to guide foreign tourists in solving problems and providing crucial information that common tour operators fail to give.

As more and more tourists are willing to trade the unbeaten path, interactive travel consulting is what is going to help them immensely. Tourism industry must gear up to for efficient interactive tourism consulting in near future.