Ad Campaigns

Travel and tourism advertising isn’t dead, but if you’ve spent any of your hard-earned budget on it lately, you know that it has changed dramatically. Are consumers still reading magazines? Are they actively watching television programs, or using TiVo to skip the commercials? Can they pick out your tourism advertising campaign from the thousands of destination and resort advertising messages they see every day? In many cases, consumers are opting out of advertising’s line of fire, but it may not be cause to abandon your time-tested channels. It may just be time to reconsider the way you integrate travel and tourism advertising into your marketing strategy.

Tourism advertising has evolved rapidly

An Unlikely Shift In Power

New media outlets and more informed audiences have changed the world of travel and tourism advertising. Consumers now have the power and luxury of tuning out intrusive advertising. They’re more sophisticated and can quickly ferret out false claims and over-promises. And if they’re disappointed, they will strike back with scathing reviews and blog-posts. Nowhere is this more true than in the travel and tourism advertising industry.

Helping Travel and Tourism Companies Adapt

As a resort and tourism advertising agency, Wanderlust helps travel and tourism companies adapt to this new model of advertising. We understand it has limitations, but it is still possible to create value by leveraging advertising’s inherent strengths. Successful tourism advertising requires seamless integration between online and off-line efforts, both reinforcing the power of a single message. It requires keeping up with an ever-expanding menu of media options and fine tuning media buys to dial in very narrow niche markets. Sometimes travel and tourism advertising requires that we create the medium ourselves. But most importantly, it demands resourcefulness in identifying your best prospects and finding creative, cost-effective advertising campaigns to reach those markets, however small or specialized they may be.

The Old Advertising Formulas No Longer Work

If your rely on the old formulas for your tourism advertising campaigns, you might as well throw your money out the window (an act which is guaranteed to attract attention). But if you embrace the new travel and tourism advertising paradigm, if you bridge alternative and conventional media with messaging that transcends both, and if you’re smart, you can reap the benefits of tourism advertising in the 21st century. Just ask the marketers at two very successful companies that still rely on advertising to energize their brands: Disney and Southwest Airlines. It can work for you, too.