• by Todd Wasserman , March 8, 2023

It's been a mild winter in much of the United States, but many consumers are still attracted to the idea of taking an island vacation. If you’re a travel brand looking to get attention, you may want to take a tip from The Out Islands of the Bahamas, an area that comprises 700 cays and islands from Abaco to Inagua. The Out Islands ran a mobile campaign last fall that got good results.

The campaign’s rich-media engagement rate was 3.87% which is five times greater than the benchmark average. Its rich-media clickthrough rate was 2.35%, 126% above the average.

Marketing Daily spoke with Vivian Teddi Mur, the director of travel and tourism for Aki Technologies, an Inmar Intelligence company, and Kerry Fountain, executive director, Bahama Out Islands promotion board, about the process. Below are excerpts of the conversation:

Marketing Daily: This was the first time that the Out Islands used Aki’s solution. What were the results?

Vivian Teddi Mur: We outperformed, particularly in the engagement against industry benchmarks and what is typically seen.

Kerry Fountain: Rich media engagement standard benchmarks are .50-1.00%, and  our performance here was 3.87 percent after just one month.    

Marketing Daily: What accounted for this good performance?

Fountain: Capturing our consumer's attention effectively gets harder and harder in a cluttered online world. If we can choose to deliver our message to when our top prospects are most likely to engage with our brand and offering,  it just makes sense.    

The strong response rate is due to a consistent brand voice, relevant and beautiful creative that was personalized by audience segment,  and a compelling message.   We were pushing out ads when we should, not just when we can.

Mur: Our approach encompasses artificial intelligence using a moment strategy. We are delivering ads, not just because we can but because we should, when the consumer is more likely to be receptive.

Marketing Daily: How do you know the right time to send a message?

Mur: It's an intersection of receptivity and relevance in messaging. We personalize a message to a given target or subsegment, a persona. And then we deliver that ad on the right screen, when technology tells us the consumer is more likely to engage.

Marketing Daily: What do you mean by mood technology?

Fountain: The travel planning journey and decision process is laced with so many nuances. When you are in the mood to think about a vacation and offshore travel, you are in the mood!

That is what MomentsAI (Aki’s moment-based and personalized technology) does for us. It identifies the right time and consumer state of mind -- the right mood -- to send a message.