Five clever ways travel brands can leverage DCO

Travel is back! But with all the pent up demand, how can brands stand out and attract travellers? Here are five clever ways travel brands can leverage DCO to give them an edge with creativity and relevancy. 

The key to attracting customers in any sector is to understand your audience and make sure you deliver relevant, key messages. And a powerful way to do this is through programmatic advertising is to leverage dynamic creative optimisation (DCO)

DCO gives you the ability to allow you to change your creative on the fly based on different data inputs, ensuring that people always see the right message for where they are in your customer lifecycle. 

Here are examples of five travel brands who are leveraging DCO to drive incremental ROI.

1. Plaza Premium

  • Goal: Plaza Premium wanted to encourage travellers to use their lounge before their flight or during transit.
  • DCO element: Location

With over 11 lounges to promote in North America, Plaza Premium used geo targeting such that the banner ad will show the lounge in the closest airport. For example, if you are in New York City, you will see lounges in JFK or Newark, increasing the relevancy and catching eyeballs. 

2. Jazeera Airways

Goal: Jazeera Airways wanted to drive flight bookings at scale.

DCO element: Currency and destination

For this particular campaign, Jazeera Airways was looking to promote 33 destinations, many of which do not share the same currency. Instead of the traditional method of picking which route to promote, Jazeera Airways were able to promote all routes through an API feed. On the banner ad, depending on where the potential traveller was based, they were able to see the cost of the flight in the local currency.

3. Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi

Depending on which part of the world you are in, a warm and sunny destination might just be where you want to be during winter. That’s exactly what DCT Abu Dhabi leveraged on. With the use of one template, DCT Abu Dhabi was able to seamlessly target a total of 15 origin countries, 61 origin cities across seven languages. As the message is localised with real time weather signals, this resulted in greater efficiency and more conversions.

4. JNTO (Japan National Tourism Organisation)

  • Goal: JNTO wanted to promote Japan’s seven passion points.
  • DCO element: Travellers’ interest

Japan has something for everyone. The Enjoy My Japan campaign targeted seven different types of travellers based on their interests – Nature, Outdoor, Tradition, Cuisine, Art, Relaxation, and City. For example, if someone is a foodie, they were be shown a banner ad that showcases the rich Japanese cuisine. By doing so, JNTO was immediately able to capture the traveller’s attention, build a connection, and ultimately heighten the intent to travel to Japan.

5. Viking Cruises

  • Goal: Viking Cruises wanted to drive cruise bookings.
  • DCO element: Multimedia canvas

A picture paints a thousand words. Viking Cruises understood that and leveraged it using visuals to build travellers’ interest. With one interactive banner which included images, videos, search bar and even 360 view of the cabins and exteriors, travellers could easily immerse themselves. Moreover, once someone starts engaging with the banner, data was collected and aggregated, allowing for Viking Cruises to continuously understand their prospecting travellers better.

Watch the full video

More benefits of DCO and examples

DCO brings about several benefits. If you’re keen to learn more about how another brand, Subway, leveraged DCO to grow in-store foot traffic, find out more in the video below: 

Want to future-proof your marketing campaigns? Get in touch and we’ll be happy to help. 


About the author

Joshua Wilson started his career in digital marketing in 2013 when he started his own affiliate marketing business promoting brands on social networks and mobile DSPs. From there, he moved into content and worked with brands to help build their online presence and communities.

Joshua started at Crimtan as a client services manager in 2015 working on the APAC business leveraging his knowledge for the market and Japanese language skills. In 2018, Joshua moved to Tokyo to build and open the Crimtan Japan office. Now in the role of Commercial Director, JAPAC, Joshua oversees the operation in the region promoting Crimtan’s local and international capabilities.

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