Why Setouchi DMO chose Adara to enhance their marketing efforts
With the development of technology, the need to adopt digital marketing is undeniable. Furthermore, the increasing demand of inbound travel to Japan creates competition internationally for DMOs in Japan. The question is, how do you use technology to set yourself apart from other DMOs?
Travel Voice sits down for an interview with Setouchi DMO and Junko Morishita, Country Manager, Japan, Adara to discuss the evolution of the market and why Setouchi DMO chose Adara to enhance their marketing efforts.
Read the translated interview below.
The cutting edge digital marketing that DMOs desire
Why Setouchi DMO chose Adara to enhance their marketing efforts
With the development of technology, the need to adopt digital marketing is undeniable. Furthermore, the increasing demand of inbound travel to Japan creates competition internationally for DMOs in Japan. The question is, how do you use technology to set yourself apart from other DMOs?
We asked the Setouchi DMO about tourism marketing and how they adjust to the constantly evolving market. Setouchi, known for their advanced marketing, has implemented Adara, the world’s travel data co-op providing digital solutions, and STU48, an idol group, into their marketing efforts.
Identify travel purchase patterns and potential customers
“2019 will be a reformative year in digital marketing for DMOs”
Says Junko Morishita, country manager of Japan for Adara, the world’s leading travel data co-op. A data co-op enables companies to share data, which helps marketers gather online travel shopper’s site visit, search and booking data, enhancing digital marketing efforts for travel and tourism marketers.
“Adara data enables precision marketing”, says Junko.
Founded in 2009 in Silicon Valley, Adara sees more than 850 million unique traveler profiles every month from over 200 global travel brands including United, Marriott and Hyatt. After entering the Japanese market in 2016, Adara has partnered with ANA and HIS, both top travel brands in Japan. With these recognized traveler profiles, Adara is able to provide unparalleled digital marketing solutions.
One of the solutions Adara provides is Adara Impact, a measurement solution for tourism and DMOs. In 2018, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) adopted this tool, which is Adara’s proprietary platform collecting travel data such as, flight/hotel search, booking and loyalty status. Junko says, “By partnering with over 200 global travel brands, travel companies are able to gain unparalleled insights into purchase patterns and identify potential customers.”
The analytical capability is incomparable to any tourism marketing solution seen up until this day. Adara is able to capture a holistic view of website visitors and ad viewers, which includes data points such as, search, hotel/air booking and visitation – if they end up visiting Japan or not. Partners are able to measure the true economic impact of their marketing efforts.
How technology changes the management for a travel business
Adara captures travel purchase patterns, also known as the customer journey in real time. Targeted ads can be delivered in real time to potential customers showing website activity and is available for use in Adara Impact almost instantaneously. Junko states, “Digital marketing up until today relied on looking into the buyers’ site visitation history and promotions using videos. However, this does not show their purchase signals. Adara is able to deliver, through our services and tools, a holistic view of the customer journey, which shows every step from intent to purchase. This is created using our proprietary algorithms, and an analysis of traveler profiles and loyalty programs supplied by our data partners.”
With the increasing demand for in-bound travel in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics approaching, there are companies and organizations that want to adopt Adara Impact to gain insights into inbound travelers and measure their digital marketing efforts.
Stories of technology like this may sound like rocket science for those who are not involved in the field. However, digital marketing is a reality that many executives must face. Junko talks about the Japanese inbound market, “When planning a trip, Japanese travelers have a tendency to start their search by looking at transportation, such as flights, whereas, Adara data shows inbound travelers decide their destination and accommodation first.” Moving forward, it is crucial to implement data-based travel marketing, not only digitally but offline as well.
An advantage with Adara is that their data security is reliable. The data shared by partners is hashed so the browser cookies and any private information is unidentifiable. Furthermore, when using the data, shareability is managed by each partner where they have precise control over who can access their data and Adara maintains transparency for companies contributing to the data co-op.
As mentioned above, there are many companies, such as ANA and HIS, that are implementing Adara’s technology. Among these companies, the Setouchi DMO, consisting of 7 prefectures in the Setouchi region starting with Hiroshima, was the first one to implement Adara Impact back in 2016. They are known for their leading (advanced) marketing efforts such as sponsoring a concert for a Setouchi region based idol group, STU48 and providing e-learning programs for travel companies focusing to bring in in-bound traffic.
Tomohiro Muraki, Setouchi DMO’s marketing advisor and CEO of Intheory, says, “As a DMO we are in charge of destination marketing and responsible for raising awareness for Setouchi. We execute both online and offline promotions, and PR oversees, yet Adara’s technology was the only one who offered a solution to clearly show the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.”
“Adara Impact instantly shows a promotion’s effectiveness, which allows me to make a decision on the spot.”, says Tomohiro.
Setouchi DMO was created to enhance the Setouchi region as a tourism destination. Setouchi consists of seven prefectures; Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Tokushima, Kagawa and Ehime. There are DMOs in Japan that cover multiple prefectures, but a case like Setouchi, covering such large ground is a rare case in Japan.
Tomohiro has been involved with the Setouchi DMO since their launch. He started off by researching how DMOs in the US were operating, and soon found out they needed understanding from government administrators who support them in order to look over seven prefectures.
Some DMOs in the US are supported by a system called Tourism Improvement District, which brings in additional revenue when travelers stay at a hotel. To ensure they have a financial resource, and to implement such a system in Japan, there is a need to visibly show campaign effectiveness.
“We were able to visually see for the first time, how our website ads lead to users searching for travel and actually making flight bookings. I realized that this is what we needed.”, says Tomohiro. Junko from Adara continues, “We strive to become the digital marketing expert in the travel industry. We have the strength in being able to share data through our data co-op where companies can now reach potential customers in a way they couldn’t before. We want to support tourism in Japan by bringing in more DMOs, local governments and travel companies into our data co-op and enhance their destination marketing efforts.”
Adara Impact enabled marketers access to insights into the travelers search and booking behaviors in one view
Although Ehime prefecture was the first government to implement Adara Impact, Kagawa prefecture and the executive committee of Setouchi international Art festival used digital marketing efforts to promote Setouchi International Art Festival on April 26th. They used targeted ads towards English-Speaking countries, such as the US, UK and Australia, to drive visitation to the official website and, measure and analyze travelers who booked tours and purchased ancillary tickets for the event.
Additionally, on May 29th , Adara will officially start offering the Destination Marketing Cloud, which delivers robust searching and booking insights ensuring more accurate messaging, personalization, targeting and insights.
. The Destination Marketing Cloud enables destination marketers to apply traveler behavior intelligence across the Learn, Act, Measure and Modify process to win share of wallet and increase lifetime value. Created for tourism brands, the Destination Marketing Cloud delivers robust searching and booking insights ensuring more accurate messaging, personalization, targeting and insights. Unlike airlines, hotels and attractions, which hold customer transaction data, DMOs and governments have struggled for many years gathering and analyzing traveler data. Destination Marketing Cloud provides digital solutions for tourism marketing though Adara’s travel data co-op where Destinations will be able to access traveler data, analyze it and execute on-point promotions.
The Destination Marketing Cloud enables destination marketers to apply traveler behavior intelligence across the Learn, Act, Measure and Modify process
Adara Impact is a digital marketing tool that creates a win-win relationship. There are many DMOs and governments that implement such technology to stay one step ahead of the game.