The Traveler's Road to Decision

>> KWASANSKI: Hello, everybody. I'm Marsha Kwasanski and I oversee industry and marketing
at Google for the travel industry. Welcome and thank you for joining us today for the
latest of our travel-themed series of co-presenter webinar. Over the course of the past year
or so, Google has partnered with OTX on the number of some studies similar to what we'll
be presenting to you today. The common theme of our studies with OTX is an effort to understand
how travel planning is changing in this economy, and the role of the Internet in the travel
decision-making process. Today, we'll share with you the latest findings from this research
about the booking process in today's ever changing environment. In this study, we analyzed
the planning and decision-making process for leisure travelers, business travelers and
the affluent segment. The majority of the insights we'll be sharing today during the
webinar will focus on the non-affluent consumer and business segment. If you wou!
ld like to hear more about the findings from the affluent audience, as well as any specific
sub-vertical information for air, auto, hotels and cruises, please reach out to your Google
account team. Today, you'll be hearing from Jessica Hoenes, our Account Planner at Google,
Yvonne Damm, Director at OTX, and Julie Cannova, Executive Vice President at OTX. Now, just
a few housekeeping items before we begin, the webinar will run approximately 30 minutes,
with time for Q&A at the end. Please feel free to submit your questions through the
webinar using the webinar chat tool. We will address these questions during the Q&A portion
at the end of our prepared remarks. If you would like a copy of the presentation deck,
please reach out to your Google representative after the webinar and we'll be sure to get
you a copy. We will also have a recording of the webinar available at our Google business
YouTube channel within the next few weeks. Now, I'll turn the presentation over to!
Yvonne to share the results. >> DAMM: Hi, everybody. So, in terms of the
objectives of the study, Google helps to understand costumer's research and gather information,
as Marsha said, throughout the whole travel decision-making process. Understand that this
is a general ANU. It did not focus specifically on Google users or search users, but rather
everybody in their travel planning process. Further, we sought to understand how the travel
planning changes in the current economy. Does the Internet play a significant role in travel
planning versus word of mouth or print, television, et cetera, and does the research process change
by traveler type as mentioned? There are personal travelers, business and affluent leisure travelers.
Also, does online video influence the travel decision-making process and how? The survey
covered a broad spectrum going from general travel, and through the four areas of hotel,
car rental, airline, cruise, and also there was a destination section. In terms of the
sampli! ngs, we surveyed 5,002 consumers who have
traveled at least once for business or personal purposes in the past six months. And then
we did the augment of 1,500 affluent personal travelers, and affluent is defined as having
a household income of more than 150K. These interviews were conducted in April, probably
10th to the 27th of this year. Some of the key findings that we found, this top of line--most
consistently, we find that business travelers are more involved and more passionate about
traveling than personal leisure travelers overall. You'll find out that they travel
more overall, they consider themselves experts more so than personal vacationers. A higher
proportion or members of travel rewards programs. And they consume all types of travel-related
media more so, like books and televisions. We found that the Internet, of course, is
used to right the purchase funnel and most powerful tool in prompting people to actually
book a trip, as well as, obviously, provi! ding information and teaching people about
travel. Search engines, an d that is any search engine, are used by 6
in 10 travelers. And searchers plan to shop around more than non-searchers with that.
Over half of the personal and business travelers interact with online travel videos in all
stages of travel planning, that includes watching them, uploading their own and commenting on
other people's videos. Travel reviews and online videos that come from more objective
sources are trusted more than solicit that come from the travel industry itself, such
as cruise lines and hotels and the airlines themselves. And so, now we get in to the personal
travel outlook. You see the outlook is strong. Eighty two percent of people who travel for
leisure purposes plan to take the same amount or more personal trips in 2009 than they did
over 2008. And one of the interesting things that we see is that, well, the well-personal
travelers are taking the same number of trips that they took last year. They are being more
cautious in their spending. Accordin! g to an industry trade association, the price
of the average air fare has actually declined by about 13% in the first quarter of '09 compared
to '08. And the price of the average hotel room has declined by 7 1/2%. And this may
reflect shorter trips to a more moderate choices by consumers but it may also reflect the fact
that consumers are responding to lower prices in the industry overall. But, you know, the
good news obviously is that people are still traveling despite the economy, they're just
being a little bit more cautious in the way they're spending their money. And the Internet
plays into that, in that they are using the Internet as a tool to make sure that they
are getting the most advantageous pricing. This outlook for travel is especially good
for the affluent leisure travelers, 86% of them plan to take the same amount or more
in 2009 than last year. However, even though this looks good for 2009, personal and affluent
travelers will adjust their booking beha! vior. Over half of them, a majority say, they
plan to spend more time shopping around before actually booking travel
because of the state of the economy. These reflect they're quite more cautious. Actually,
people are limiting resources because of the economy. But also could be indicative of the
more savvy traveler who knows there's new deals to be had. And then slightly less than
half of everybody, they plan to take more mini-vacations rather than longer holidays
than they have in the past. Probably only travel if they find good deals. And also,
they plan to take more of a wait-and-see approach rather than booking travel well in advance.
And one of the things that we're seeing is that there is a longer window between the
time that people begin their research process and the time that people make their booking
decision. And that has a lot of very interesting implications. One of the, you know, the thing
that that means is that there is a much longer opportunity for the industry to get better
their message out to travelers. But it als! o means that there are a lot more touch points.
One of the things that we're going to be talking about shortly is the fact that consumers are
using social media a lot more as part of their travel education process. So, you know, those
new channels are available now to marketers to get their message out. And the longer,
you know, the longer window does have that positive implication and that it does allow
more touch point for a longer period of time. It also does allow for a more competitive
industry, meaning that consumers have a longer period of time to be exposed through a lot
more options. So, that does elevate the importance of making certain that the message is out
there during the entire time that consumers are in the research process. So, instant summary
then on the ledger travelers, the vast majority of them planned to travel just as much or
more throughout 2009 than they did last year. But their booking behavior has changed. They're
going to be more cautio! us. They shop around more and they wait until
they are confident they found the best deal before actually booking.
Now, moving on to the business traveler, how are they different? The outlook looks slightly
less optimistic than for the personal; 20% say they plan to travel more in 2009 and that
was versus 25% for personal travelers. And the reason for this despite the--is mostly
because of those decreased travel budget, and also to a lesser expense increase in travel
prices and change in corporate travel policy. Interestingly though, in the first quarter
of '09, again, we did see a similar trend in the business travel market as the consumer
travel market where the average price of the airfare has declined by almost 13% and the
average price of a hotel room they'll book for business travels did decline by about
9%. And we did actually see a spike in fares of economy class seat for business travel,
indicating that business travelers are continuing to travel, but they are conscious of the fact
that their budgets have been cut. And if they !
want to be able to continue to travel, they do need to make more moderate choices, and
that's reflected both in the lower average price of an airline ticket and in the fact
that a lot more coach class tickets are being sold to these travelers. One of the--perhaps
one the most surprising findings that we have was that, we find business travelers are more
likely to book a package than personal travelers. Thirty-four percent agree that they typically
book packages that all together, say, a flight and car rental. And affluent travelers are
the least likely to book. Compared to a similar study that was conducted in April 2008, we
saw that there was only 25% of business travelers that they book package, the business increased,
presumably due to the economy. And the business travelers are more likely to access travel
information on a mobile device, that's versus personal travelers and the affluent travelers.
One-fourth say they do and this also is up from the study conducted!
in 2008 when only 13% of these travelers said they used a mobile devi
ce to access travel information. Business travelers are more likely to be members of
the travel rewards program; 83%, a large majority, versus just 58% of leisure travelers. The
most common are the frequent flyer rewards program and then hotel points and car rentals.
Nearly half of business travelers say they always or frequently make time for leisure
activities when they're traveling for business. And this is up, again, from a study last year,
when only 35% said they did. This might speak to how people these days are being more savvy
with their money and they're getting more banks or their company to book. As mentioned
earlier, business travelers are very involved and passionate about traveling, more so than
personal travelers. They're more likely to say they like traveling to places they haven't
seen before and exploring new places. And they read more about travel and watch more
about travel on televisions. They also see themselves as giving advice to their friend!
s and being this person that their friends come to. As well as calling themselves an
adventure traveler more so than leisure travelers. So, in summary, business travelers are more
likely to seek out money-saving package deals, versus personal and versus last year. They
are more likely to access travel sites from their mobile phones. And they're more likely
to tack more time for leisure when traveling for business. And also, they're more passionate
about travel in general. And now, I'm going to pass off to Jessica.
>> HOENES: All right. Thank you, Yvonne and Julie. I'm going to dive in to some further
findings now, just further go the online phase, we informed the search engines in the research
process, and also how online videos are being utilized throughout the purchase cycle. So,
let's dig in to this portion. And hands down, the Internet has been the most popular trip-taking
resource. So, we asked both personal and business travelers to site which sources they use on
taking a trip, and this graph here shows the percentage of respondents that chose that
particular source of information. So while the number one answer is the same across both
segments, so notice that there are some major differences in the other sources, personal
and business travelers frequently use. So most notably, we want to point out that personal
travelers tend to rely on word of mouth and informational brochures more frequently while
business travelers look to travel agents and 800 numbers more often. So!
mething off we get in today's feature [INDISTINCT] to ask travelers what sources they can to
use for their next trip and interestingly enough, the Internet and some frequent for
personal travelers and 2% for business travelers while most other information sources stay
the same or decrease. And we think that same sources that people are happy to see information
they find online and they're pretty seamless the value that they find there is just going
to continue to grow]. So we know then that if you target high income clientele that we
also want to look at travel planning habits for affluent segments. And the good news is
that we found that they were even more likely to use the Internet for trip planning. So,
in fact, 86%, that they currently go online for information and the same amount plan to
use the Internet when planning their next trip. So, we'll have more information on this
affluent traveler breakout available in the coming weeks. But we wanted to highlight thei!
r online travel activity to drive home that this information source is
relevant for all types of travelers. So, now we know that people are looking in the Internet
for information but how is this information actually being used? So the Internet, we have
all of the top resources and [INDISTINCT] its usefulness throughout the purchase funnel.
So we asked both business and personal travelers how they typically use the information they
found from all of the top sources that we decided in the previous slides so that would
be online, word of mouth, television, et cetera. And the Internet came out on top throughout
the purchase funnel. You can see here from initial education, helping travelers make
a decision to ultimately book in their travel. You can see that nearly one in three travelers
felt the Internet prompted them as opposed a travel component. And the next highest is
actually word of mouth with 15% of personal travelers and 28% of business travelers citing
word of mouth as a booking influence. So, we know that it's something difficul!
t to decide where to focus marketing efforts to reach travelers in different stages of
their planning. And we built this state that really shows that the Internet things to put
your message not the entire process, so especially in that crucial booking stage as you see here.
So let's take a minute to explore the second most influential source. We decide to stay
in with word of mouth. Everywhere--specifically interested in how user reviews influence traveler's
purchase decision. And we found that they are in fact influential with 41% of personal
travelers and 50% of business travelers say that they made plans based on the reviews
and experiences of others. So, knowing that the large percentage of travelers made decisions
based on the reviews of others; it's important to make sure that you're giving an outlet
for reviews on your sites, that you're paying attention to what's being said around the
web and that you're adjusting, making experiences before they become harmful!
to your business. And we all know that social media is making it eas
ier than ever for both formal and informal reviews that spread quickly. So, that last
point is especially important and I know we can all think of our favorite [INDISTINCT].
And we wanted to go another level deeper and see what types of reviews are most useful.
I mean, down here that business and personal travelers likely prefers to the previous,
some people like them over the expert experts. So, what we did here was ask travelers to
rate their level of trust on a scale from one to five and how much they trust these
two choices of reviews, peers versus experts. And while peers did obtain a slightly higher
level of trust, and so it's hardly to see that 57% of personal travelers and 63% of
business travelers have a higher opinion of expert reviews, and in this case experts primarily
being the traveled flyer. And further as this chart shows, business travelers are most accustomed
overall than personal travelers. So, I'm kind of point was to make here is that you provide
! expert reviews on your websites, we encourage
you to make this sound as authentic as possible. And in addition, create a form for regular
travelers to introduce the content will help you seem more trustworthy. And why is it important
to allow customers to comment on their experience because an increasing number of travelers
are sharing their experiences on the web. So as the chart demonstrates, business travelers
are even more likely than personal travelers to post a review, comment [INDISTINCT] or
participate in a travel related blog. And this isn't surprising when you consider [INDISTINCT]
in this previous section that I'm about to share that business travelers are more involved
in this travel process overall. So this numbers are even more compounding when you compare
them to similar study we conducted in the spring of 2008, unless we've already referenced.
And we've averaged the personal and business travel results here for simplicity but even
so you can see that o! nly 90% of travelers survey had posted a review.
And 5% have commente d on one and only 3% have participated in
travel related blogs, so we're seeing great growth in specific activities across the board.
As people grow more comfortable with [INDISTINCT] online and technology continues to make it
easier for people to simply connect to the Internet wherever they are. And we're seeing
more participation like travelers in all kinds of reviews. So, to some of these key points
of this section, we just really want to drive home that the Internet is far and away the
number one place to go for planning a trip. It actually prompts more bookings than any
of other top source of information and that reviews are becoming increasingly accordance
to travelers and then actually using them to influence their purchase decisions. So
this next sub-question is going to focus specifically on the role of search engines and [INDISTINCT]
and the reason, you know, that this information on search engines is so important is because
of the [INDISTINCT] covers you find! in the research process. So you'll see that
among all of the traveler-type surveys, 73% said that search engines are either extremely
or very useful in travel planning. For this--the [INDISTINCT] by travelers so as does [INDISTINCT]
but I'm sounding travel planning on the Internet and we know some only trail search through
all that travel queries are suddenly increasing every month an average of 13% year over year
in just [INDISTINCT] alone. So in fact search engines are a comfort to travelers that they
precuts a number of other travel things [INDISTINCT] among those business and personal travelers.
And so you'll see that search engines beat out OTAs, travel search sites also known as
[INDISTINCT] sites, travel review sites, destination-specific sites and travel planning sites as the most
typically used online source to plan trips among both the personal and business segments.
So I'll give you just a second to review these numbers and note that personal travelers util!
ize search engines more than business travelers. But the search engin
es were still the number one source for the business segment. So just to build on this
and so how exactly [INDISTINCT] reviews and what information people were seeking. This
next part shows the travel elements people said they either following or frequently use
search engines to find information about. So, overnight accommodations on the way in
dual segments, and I also want to point out the difference that a usership among these
two groups for car rental. We also think it's important to reach this fixed income travelers
that rely on search engines for travel information. And, I [INDISTINCT] get caught up in a number
of other reasons why search is important for travel marketers and the measurability, [INDISTINCT],
flexibility and et cetera, but, it's nice to take a step back into the firm that it
really is about the people and just being where your audience is seeking out information.
So we've been [INDISTINCT] differences between personal, business and even affluent t!
ravelers. So we also thought it would be interesting to [INDISTINCT] respondents into another category
which is searchers versus non-searchers and searchers being people who have use search
engines for travel planning and non-searchers being the most who did not. So, one of the
most interesting differences we found was that searchers were planning on shopping around
more for travel deals–-deals than non-searchers. So we asked both groups if they plan on shopping
around and researching more because of the current state of the economy and 61% of searchers
agreed or strongly agree that they would as compared to 52% of non-searchers. So this
[INDISTINCT] the fact that people visiting search engines are seeking information that
will sway them into making a decision and getting the right message in front of the
right person and during the right planning stage is crucial. So, again, a quick summary
that [INDISTINCT] from this section; search engines are rightly [INDISTINCT] e!
ven more so than OTAs and travel advocators and they're also used thro
ughtout the entire cleaning process for [INDISTINCT] thinking about funnel and your audience is
there throughout the entire, the entire conference from beginning to end. And that search engine
users tend to spend more time shopping around for deals versus non-users. So we all know
that the [INDISTINCT] is becoming more and more social and we've already [INDISTINCT]
travelers in utilizing some of the social aspects of travel content. And we discussed
this very well at travel review. But another element of growing interest is online video
and we're going to dive into that now. So the bottom line here, online video is becoming
an increasingly important part of travelers life and we see that 55% of personal travelers
and 65% of business travelers now say they went online videos at least once a week, and,
in fact, 16% of personal travelers and some 5% of business travelers [INDISTINCT] watch
online videos everyday. So these numbers are pretty compelling by themselves that e!
ven more so when you realize that only 41% of both personal and business travelers said
they want online videos with such frequency a year ago. So, again, looking back to April,
2008 study and you can see this tremendous growth in such a short period of time. And
so what about travel videos, specifically, and 36% of personal travels and 56% of business
travelers say that travel videos are among the type of videos that they watch. So this
goes [INDISTINCT] telling as well, up 15% in our previous study and that's 15% with
the number for both personal and business travelers. So what this all tell us and it
tells us that online videos are becoming a prevalent part of a traveler's life and they're
watching a variety of content that travel videos are increasingly important to them.
And when it comes to online video, I know there are probably a few kinds that [INDISTINCT]
of our mind. So we wanted to take a look exactly ready [INDISTINCT]. And we found out further
way, more! travelers are watching videos on YouTube than
any other videos sites. For this is all types of videos whether it'd
be for news, entertainment, you know, travel, et cetera. And it is also interesting to note
that Hulu site is really for [INDISTINCT] content is a big rate video source for that
[INDISTINCT] travelers. So they're really spreading out viewership among a lot of these
other sources. And we think this is because of [INDISTINCT] to this point. You know, how
over 1 billion videos day to day, 20 hours of content uploaded every minute. It really
wasn't be surprised [INDISTINCT] video stores because it's so big. And we know how frequently
cover people on online videos and where they bought them [INDISTINCT] when and how they
are being used. So one of the most interesting findings in our online videos guides was that
travelers are utilizing online videos throughout the entire purchase funnel. So we asked travelers
that watch online videos identified one in the travel booking process they consulted
them and interesting here that th! roughout every stage business travelers watch
videos just more frequently than personal travelers. And this is in line with our other
findings about business travelers. They are more interested in travel content, [INDISTINCT]
reviews more often, and now they're video using entire as well. And this identifies
even more cash points you have to reach them before they made this travel decision. Up
with reviews is also want us to see how travelers trust content from different sources. And
we found that both business and personal travelers trust the content of videos made by people
like them. As view percentage points more than videos, then average reviews, business
travelers are also more trusting overall. We've also [INDISTINCT] video content is [INDISTINCT]
by 35% of personal travels and 43% of business travelers. Marketers still has ways to go
before it will have the majority of the [INDISTINCT]. So, this is a great way to keep in mind that
considering the type of vi! deos to produce. A video is a more user generated
looking field as li kely to be expected more lightly than one
that clearly professionally produced. And [INDISTINCT] it can't have, you know, really
strong quality content. They're trying to bring some values to the [INDISTINCT] than
a normal users cannot. And, remember that you're going to need expert on what you have
to offer and really give that message out there. So we've been talking a lot about video
viewing and [INDISTINCT] but another thing that we really wanted to do, make not of it
just uploading these videos, so how are they getting there in the first place? [INDISTINCT]
done, again, business travelers are more likely to upload their own travel videos than personal
travelers. And we see that 6% of personal travelers and 16% of business travelers say
that they've uploaded a travel video at least once in the past six months. And when we compared
this to a similar study again back in April 2008, these numbers are really interesting.
So to break it down, a year ago almost 3% of pe!
rsonal travelers and 4% of business travelers said they had uploaded a travel video in the
same six months timeframe, it was a major growth year. And that, that increased in after
sharing further support for growing socialization of the travel process. So from the earliest
research pages to the documentation of these post-travel experiences, travelers are really
becoming more comfortable with using this [INDISTINCT] along the way. So most of you
are in the titled section summary in here, and the use of online travel videos is steadily
increasing throughout all stages of the same process. As video viewers are little more
trusting of videos created by peers, and YouTube is still the number one site for people to
go for online videos of any type. So now we've been talking through these things, we were
talking quite--graph this presentation, but we wanted to have one final wrap up and to
help you generate some thought starters that you can take back to your team. So we're!
going to start by revisiting our initial list at key takeaways here.
So, you know, as an online search at the very beginning, we comment business travelers are
more involved and passionate about traveling than personal travelers. And a few questions
that this might raise is, are you reaching out to them in the right channel? Does your
message speak to their passion and travel expertise? And secondly, the Internet is used
throughout the purchase funnel and is the most powerful tool in prompting people to
actually book a trip. So are you investing the right amount of time and energy in your
online strategy? Are you covering all the places where people are searching for information?
And search engines are used by six in ten travelers and searchers plan to shop around
more than non-searchers. So are you in front of searchers when they are doing research?
Do you search campaigns, relay the right message to consumers in all different stages? And
fourth, over half of business and personal travelers interact with online travel videos
and in! all stages of their travel planning. So do
you have videos on your website and other popular video sites? Are you driving people
to them? And do you have a popular video strategy in place? And finally, share travel reviews
and online videos that come from more objective sources are still trusted a little more than
those from travel industry experts, although the level of trust has increased over time
for industry experts as well. So we just want to make sure that you're providing valuable
insights that a normal user couldn't and that you have a place for customers to post their
own personal experiences and that you're paying attention to the message that they're getting.
So with that, we just want to say thank you for your time, try to keep it as short and
sufficed as we could, and this does conclude the presentation portion. We noted and copied
the steps along the way. We're going to take a couple of minutes to go through these questions
and we'll go back to answe! r them and employ it at another time. So those
of you who need to jum p off now, thank you for joining. You will
be receiving the copy of the text shortly, and if you have any questions I would like
you to press any of the timings and more details, and please feel free to reach out to your
Google team. Again, we'll have some more materials and, you know, we can—there are all the
sites that you believe you have some breakouts on sub-vertical and offer us some more information
on the outward traveler section, and those will available in the coming weeks as well.
So we're just going to pause for a couple of minutes, review some of your questions
and then we will start answering them shortly. >> Okay, we'll start with our first question.
The question was, do you think business travelers use novel devices more to access travel info
because novel devices have become more capable recently?
>> I think I can take this one. We didn't ask this question, specifically. This is for
those that had talked with us. We do know that the number of private label devices are
growing and from other studies, you know, that are already out there, we do know that
business travelers, because of their mobiles, they are more likely to own these devices.
So I think that's definitely a possibility. I know that the--they did it with refill teams
and consumer package goods teams here. So do note that BlackBerry really targets moms,
and so those devices, you know, that's why that moms have a high Internet usership as
well. And so, I would imagine those would be more personal travelers, but everyone is
getting mobilizing in just the fact that business travelers are on the run a little bit more
than the other traveler probably is the main reason for the increase. So it's a great hypothesis.
>> So, we have another question about whether we have a breakout of the engines that were
being used, and whether being has had an impact on the travel space.
>> They--we'll see. Actually--this is actually increasing, and you can see the dates that
the study was conducted were on early to mid April. That was before being interested. So
we didn't ask specifically about that we travel, you know, through MSN, Innerwell, et cetera.
And we do know that the vast majority use Google and, you know, 60% or more, followed
by Yahoo, and MSM behind. >> And there was also a question about what
qualifies as an expert opinion. Is that a travel agent or surfing some more? And then
furthermore, do you think that there are less incurring to trust expert opinions because
travel is a fairly universal activity? >> I think so. At this time, we can really
specify or clarify exactly what an expert was? But the question was worded said it was
clear that they were asking reviews from people like them, you know, and other travelers.
Or at first, I know that one of the questions specifically said, an expert such as car rental,
hotelier, you know, cruise, et cetera. It's actually coming from this apart from themselves.
Also, we see that–-the second part of your question, that people are less than inclined
to take expert opinion because travel is a fairly universal activity, that everyone travels
to some extent. I really think that people automatically have a little bit of a bias
if someone who's speaking on behalf of a company, and they may not think that they are going
to be as authentic or as honest as open about other alternatives and maybe using that experience
or something themselves. So I think it's just that more personal aspect. You know, I wish
that something is coming fro! m a friend or, you know, from family or a
colleague or some of them are really already have a high level of trust versus kind of
a no-face no-name figure. So, I think it's more personal if we can make those actions,
simply, the more they'll resonate with consumer. >> Okay. Great. We also had a question about
whether travelers are watching videos directly on the supplier site, as well or is it recommended
to have the presence on YouTube? >> So, we do see people watching videos everywhere.
So, there's actually some really cool tools in YouTube that can show you the discovery
of your video and where they're coming from. So, a lot of people are putting their video
in YouTube, and then embedding that player on all sorts of aspects around the web. So,
we do see a lot of dealership, you know, everywhere. And if we go back to that YouTube slide where
we showed online video, music--I know that YouTube was our far and away the leader, but
there are number of other sites that have some really strong penetration, as well. And
we didn't ask specifically about the prior site but--or OTA sites, or metasearch, et
cetera, but we do know that people are watching videos pretty much wherever they are. And
we would say because of the scale of YouTube and the fact that, that others are already
there looking at other content as well. That it makes sense to put your videos where the
majority of online videos are being watch! ed. So, we tend to encourage our advertisers
to put things up on YouTube, as well. >> Okay. Great. There's also a couple of campaigns
about how we would recommend setting up campaigns for business travelers differently than for
personal travelers. >> So, as the study kind of shows, there's
really just this high-level of passion in business travelers, so, really focusing on
their interest areas. The topic is in discounts or loyalties to various suppliers, as their
engagement with videos and user abuse, they're really focused on how that happened and the
drive and the amount of time that they spent on these tools, also knowing that they're
heavy mobile users. There's a whole other way to reach them and, you know, we can move
our campaigns that way. So, I would say, just to make sure that you're going to the right
venue and then adjusting your message accordingly as well.
>> Okay. We also had a methodology or definition question. What's defined as a travel video?
>> We, in the survey, we just had sample videos defined as travel log or travel video review,
or a travel video guide, et cetera. So, it's like this [INDISTINCT].
>> Okay. We also had a question about whether the study for and the higher propensity to
purchase their book after viewing travel video, like do we see a direct correlation between
people who viewed the video and then those that went on to purchase?
>> That's a very great question. We didn't trust that specific quick stream. We are partnering
with another research company right now to do a more in-depth quick stream analysis,
so working users from their initial query on Google, throughout the booking process.
So, hopefully, we'll have some more specific information on the types of queries where
people are going between queries to research information and that sort of thing, and certainly
coming back, when we get the result of that study back. So, that's not something that
we track, but we do know from the purchase channel that we showed that people are watching
online travel videos, again, throughout the entire process. So, they are helping them
to, you know, IDA, to look at specific destination information to come up with a final destination
idea and so on and so forth. So, they are being used throughout the entire process by
those who do view travel videos. So, I would imagine that they can influence the ultima!
te decision for both. >> There's also a question about the longer
window that we mentioned between the research and the actual booking, what is that average
window according to the study? >> So, actually, in that survey, we didn't
specifically ask how long the research window was. And again, this is more of a behavioral
study as opposed to attracting our quickstream-type study which--and we actually have some other
research on. So, we do know from previous studies, from the early--earlier this summer,
as a matter of fact that, the verified product category. So, for instance then, we'll see
that the time from a person search for a flight to an actual booking, within an average time
of 4.9 weeks, and for hotels, 5.1, and for cars, 2.6. So, again, we see that the goal,
on time to book the flight first, followed by the accommodation, and then finally, if
they are renting a car, the car rental component. So, that's looking with their queries, it's
getting longer, and again, people are waiting farther end to start looking at that flight
air component than they were a year ago. >> We have a question from a participant who
has been discussing travel videos with the clients in the past year, but they're struggling
because 90% of their client's bookings are overseas. So, how would we use video in that
example? >> I think the cool thing about video and
what we kind of showed is that everybody is using them. So, this study really focused
on user from the US, but if we would pick a global view, we can see that online video
is really appropriate in everywhere. So, the fact that YouTube, for example, that's obviously
what I know is the best. It's completely global as well, and has the presence in all of the
markets. I'm sure that your client has properties. It's really helpful because you can post a
single video and make it available globally. And you can also have some really cool features
now where you can add, within the video itself, you can add translations in the form of subtitle.
So, it's a really easy way to make one really clean nice video to show on YouTube and have
it available in a number of languages and for people all around the world.
>> Okay. That's great. Well, that actually concludes all of our questions. Thank you
again for joining us today for our Think Travel webinar series. And the Google account team
will follow-up with you with the details of the presentation as well as additional information
around the affluent segment and vertical specific task. Thank you and have a nice day.