Keeping an organization in tune and on script with the evolution of its brand and communications is critical to ensuring a consistent customer experience and an engaged workforce. All the more important for we travel marketers, since experience is our business.

With all the discussion around behavioral targeting (and its privacy implications), have we forgotten that most of us are here primarily to bring new customers into our pipeline? Lest we have, I'll devote the remainder of today's column to a couple ways travel advertisers are utilizing technology to generate new customers.

Why do so many travel brands ignore so many of us?

Mainstream media and your brand marketing play a role but, increasingly, it is the channels and commentary beyond our control that consumers seem to be most influenced by. That's why finding a way to maximize the interplay of the social media channels is critical.

Unless you're paying for third-party targeting data, you're very unlikely to encounter competition in bidding for specific audiences the way you would in search. And, this is why we're seeing data-driven search engine marketers giving display a whirl for the first time in a long time.

There are no signs of the American love affair with their pets waning anytime soon, which means that the opportunity is sure to grow. With people again starting to travel, there's never been a greater need to differentiate your brand and appeal to a targeted audience.

We must continue to remember that for all of the fancy points of differentiation we strive to find and market for our brands, these three basic areas will always matter as much if not more to our potential customers.

To those who are not in the travel industry, the July 1 announcement that Google has agreed to acquire flight information software company ITA Software Inc. for $700 million was just one more routine purchase for the ad search giant which vaguely said it would "create new ways for users to more easily find flight information online, and we're looking forward to welcoming them to Google." If you are an Online Travel Agency such as Expedia or Travelocity and a Meta Search site like Kayak, the announcement gave you that armrest-gripping, stomach-churning jolt that you get when your plane drops …

Until now, technology to manage display this way didn't exist; now it does and the marketers best positioned to take advantage of it are the search marketers. So go do it!

Everyone seems focused on green. And there's nothing wrong with that. We've got to take better care of the planet and anything the travel industry can do to support that is welcomed. But that's only the beginning of the role tourism can play in improving the world.