Ryan Bifulco

Articles by Ryan All articles by Ryan

• Travel With A Purpose in Marketing: Travel on 03/29/2016
  

  Travel goes hand in hand with sustainability and charity. After all, we are the Hospitality Industry and with that comes responsibility to the local communities in the form of economic development and volunteering. We travel to many places because of their natural beauty and that must be preserved as the visitation and tourism increases. We also travel to experience new cultures and what better way to make an impact in a community than to volunteer.

• My 2-Year-Old's Take On The Sharing Economy in Marketing: Travel on 09/29/2015
  

  My two-year-old is learning how to share. She knows if she does not share her toys, then word will spread around the neighborhood and nobody else will want to play with her. Or at least that's what we tell her to encourage a more open mind about parting with her toys. Sharing economy sites like Uber and Airbnb also recognize good sharers. They highlight positive reviews which in turn steers more demand toward the better Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts. Uber and Airbnb can also pinpoint precisely which drivers and hosts need help with customer service as poor service reflects negatively not just on the individual but on the brand.

• Boosting Purchase Intent With Native Advertising?  in Marketing: Travel on 06/30/2015
  

  Native advertising is booming. EMarketer projects $4 billion in U.S.native ad spending for 2015 while Business Insider forecasts $8 billion. If we meet in the middle, that is a $6 billion market and more of the travel sector should join this party. Yes, we have seen some early adopters embrace native like Marriott, Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue but we should see many others in 2015 and into 2016 as roughly two-thirds of marketers plan to increase their native budgets this year. I shouldn't have to search for hours and hours on Google looking for travel examples only to find old stats from native campaigns that were run a while back.

• Travel Trends For 2015 in Marketing: Travel on 03/31/2015
  

  With a multitude of travel trends right now, I was having a tough time picking just one to write about. So I thought it would be a great time to share some thoughts on four key trends to focus on to help your travel or tourism business thrive in 2015. Since we all read 10 articles a day about mobile and social, I am going to cover some other hot segments that tend to get less coverage.

• How To Attract More Millennials in Marketing: Travel on 12/30/2014
  

  For years, the travel industry has buttered their bread by catering to the Baby Boomers. It makes sense that people who are retired and have plenty of free time would travel more than average. But over time, Gen Y has grown up and now represents a massive opportunity for the travel sector with around 70 million people in the 18-34 age bracket.

• The Mysteries Of Mobile in Marketing: Travel on 09/30/2014
  

  Mobile is awesome and it is the future, but we seem to have a lot of mixed messages on mobile. Here are some thoughts and stats on the mysteries and misconceptions of mobile.

• What Can Native Advertising Learn From 'Homeland' And Jason Bourne? in Marketing: Travel on 08/05/2014
  

  I'm a big fan of spy shows like "The Americans," "Homeland" and the "Bourne" movie series. The top operatives in these programs have one common thread in that they are able to assassinate somebody plus make it look like it was an accident. That is what truly makes them a rare pro. Native advertising done right also takes a pro.

• How Machines Will Become 'Agents' in Marketing: Travel on 04/29/2014
  

  We used to drive to see a travel agent to book our family vacation. What if your house, watch or car knew you well enough to book your next trip? Can inanimate objects and devices from our daily lives leverage enough data to make our vacations more enjoyable? Sounds way off in the future but the Internet of Things is already here. Twice as many things are connected to the Internet as people.

• Meta Search Turns 14 in Marketing: Travel on 01/02/2014
  

  With so many people talking about meta search these days, you would think it was a brand new digital marketing channel. Not so, as SideStep and FareChase got the ball rolling in the travel sector in early 2000. I remember helping SideStep set their first advertising rate card a couple years later. I also recall that GDS companies and OTAs were a bit scared of these new kids on the block at first. Many of the travel suppliers were in "talk to the hand" mode for the first few years which looking back now seems unbelievable. Some people predicted that meta would replace traditional OTAs which is funny considering that Expedia just invested $632 million in Trivago.

• Social Media Treat Without The Tricks in Marketing: Travel on 10/28/2013
  

  Even though I used to enjoy a little "Mischief Night" when I was much younger, I've decided to keep this article on the treat side. Social media can give you tons of treats and benefits if you know which pitfalls and tricks to avoid.

Comments by Ryan All comments by Ryan

• Travel Trends For 2015 by Ryan Bifulco (Marketing: Travel on 03/31/2015)
  

  For more info about Culinary Tourism checkout the World Food Travel Association. My friend, Erik Wolf, heads it up and is the top expert in the world on all things related to culinary tourism.

• What Can Native Advertising Learn From 'Homeland' And Jason Bourne? by Ryan Bifulco (Marketing: Travel on 08/05/2014)
  

  Howie, thanks for your feedback. Here is the link to the report: http://www.sharethrough.com/2013/05/infographic-native-advertising-effectiveness-study-by-ipg-media-labs/ I believe we are still very early on in measuring the true effectiveness of Native as many publishers and brands are just now testing the waters. I don't think Native has failed millions of times but yes the industry still has plenty of challenges to overcome.

• What Can Native Advertising Learn From 'Homeland' And Jason Bourne? by Ryan Bifulco (Marketing: Travel on 08/05/2014)
  

  Paula, yes I saw it and especially enjoyed the humorous video. I agree that news sites need to either not do native or do a much better job of alerting their users. For native to thrive it will need to add value to users which means the quality needs to improve.

• Native Advertising Predicted To Dominate Digital In 2014 by Gavin O'Malley (Mobile Marketing Daily on 01/09/2014)
  

  Good info on Native. My article from April also has some great insight on Native and custom content which comes in various flavors: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199237/travel-like-a-native-advertiser.html

• Managing Revenues: Not As Systematic As You Might Think by Gary Leopold (Marketing: Travel on 01/06/2014)
  

  Gary, great stuff as always and agree in some ways alarming. At some larger chains they do have separate ecommerce groups or distribution planning teams that take on a lot of things and free up the revenue management folks to actually forecast, overbook and optimize. But at many individual properties the rev manager has to wear a lot of hats. As a former revenue management guy, I would like to see more attention on this discipline. Marketers can only be as good as the rest of the parts in the process.

• Marketers Struggling To Integrate Media Channels by Laurie Sullivan (Online Media Daily on 11/11/2013)
  

  Great article and good to see the topic brought up in general. I wrote a complimentary piece for MediaPost here with info about convergence analytics and tracking from a variety of sources: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/205650/why-your-travel-company-needs-to-jump-on-the-conve.html

• 10 Easy Email Secrets For The New Year by Ryan Bifulco (Marketing: Travel on 01/29/2013)
  

  Yes time of day is key and different for each person. Also some studies show that a shorter subject line does better so worth testing.

• Social Media Affects Purchase Decisions, ARF Finds by Erik Sass (The Social Graf on 01/23/2013)
  

  Erik, great article as I'm always excited to see more research supporting Social Media since there are so many people who still doubt it. I have a few case studies and stats that further support your piece if you want to review: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/186208/social-media-generates-bookings-and-roi.html#axzz2J0fQVf2N

• Is It Time For The Caribbean To Have An Airline Of Its Own? by Gary Leopold (Marketing: Travel on 11/05/2012)
  

  Gary, great article and glad you are raising the awareness to help flush out solutions to help the region. I have always felt that there are so many amazing beaches in the Caribbean. But what sets a destination apart is their air lift and of course a little marketing magic.

• Social Media Generates Bookings And ROI by Ryan Bifulco (Marketing: Travel on 10/30/2012)
  

  Guys, thanks for your comments and feedback as I do agree that social concierges have plenty of upside. In the last part of my article I too stated the positive ROI from customer service and customer engagement when it comes to social media. I also agree that if a brand is using social media as a one way channel to push sales that it will fail. But many brands do have a social media strategy and do use social media as a 2 way communication channel which does lead to stealing market share and increased revenue. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, comScore, Clickz, eMarketer, Expedia, Travel Weekly, Mashable, MediaPost, Compete, Business Insider and many others have research showing that social media produces bookings, conversions and ROI. If you have personally seen otherwise that is fine but to say that social media does not work for an entire industry is not accurate. My article was actually saying that if you only measure direct bookings from a Facebook widget then you are missing the true ROI from social media. Social should not be looked at as a separate distribution channel, but rather a part of an integrated marketing approach.

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