Guest post from Video and Beyond blog.
For decades we heard the mantra “Content is King”.
Design firms and companies alike, focused their web design and marketing campaigns on ensuring that they had content and lots of it.
And like one of the tombstones in this Tom Fishburne cartoon, those that follow this same strategy year after year are destined for the marketing graveyard, where complacent brands go.
Fishburne says in his blog that there are “three types of companies: rule makers, rule followers, and rule
breakers. It’s easy for rule makers and rule followers to get
complacent, particularly in industries that have been around for a
while”.
Which kind of company are you?
For over three decades, the travel industry has distributed its products electronically on a global basis. The rule makers set the tone and embraced the “content is king” mantra. Many became rule followers, thinking the leaders had set the bar high. But we are in fact largely a commoditized industry, swimming in a sea of same.
Fishburne paints a powerful picture when he talks about watching your progress against your competitors on a chart, which he calls watching the “worm races”. If you are not the rule breaker, you may find yourself in one of those dreaded and never ending races.
It is clear that content is still important, but there is a distinct trend back toward simplicity. Less words. More rich media.
We at Video and Beyond happen to believe that today, relevant video is the highest form of content, but so often is left on the project “to do list”, awaiting the elusive funding.
Video is not a project and it is not a fad. Video engages and it helps you convert the “looker” to the “booker”. In short, video sells.
So I am left wondering, why the travel industry is still
producing such content heavy sites – lots of words and images, the
majority of the time leading to a booking engine for the sale of commodity products, with price taking the lead?
Can it be that travelers are intrigued? With 1% conversion rates as standard online (unless of course you spend millions on consumer branding), I think not.
Where
are the rule breakers? Let’s integrate rich media together. Let’s
prove that it intrigues, that it engages and that it sells.
What are you waiting for?
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