The Case
The Sabre Group's online booking service, Travelocity.com, had made a speedy ascent to the top of the e-travel pack a couple years back, and was drawing competition from new ventures such as Preview Travel and International Travel Network. But the online service also faced another threat to its momentum: public fears about transaction security.
Surveys and focus groups with users, media contacts and analysts indicated that while consumers were tempted by Travelocity's promise of low prices and fast booking, many still sweated the idea of launching their credit card numbers into the digital abyss.
The travel service needed to assuage consumer fears about credit card security in order to convert "lookers" to "bookers." The challenge was stating a strong case for e-booking without getting mired in tech-heavy explanations about how Internet transactions work. The last thing Travelocity wanted was to have the lids drooping on its much-coveted online eyeballs.
The Strategy
Working with Austin, Texas-based Vollmer Public Relations, Travelocity set its sights on the following targets: members who had visited the site, but had not yet purchased travel, industry influencers, analysts, and media.
In courting the press, Travelocity could have touted its convenience to travelers, but such an approach would have invited media stories that mentioned competitors' services. So the company's first move was to pitch its leadership role in Internet security as part of a consumer-interest story about electronic commerce.
To this end, Travelocity formed an alliance with BBBOnLine, a Better Business Bureau initiative dedicated to upholding strict security standards and helping consumers identify ethical online retailers. The company also introduced the Shop Safe Guarantee, a policy promising that all credit card transactions made through the site's server would be safe. Both the alliance and the new policy were pitched to the press via kit, and promoted directly to consumers through direct mail.
Implementation 1.0
Vollmer issued a news release announcing the Shop Safe Guarantee in tandem with a complete press kit to consumer, business, trade and online media contacts. The package contained a pitch letter addressing consumers' concerns about online transactions, along with a tip sheet with advice for safe online shopping and statistics from industry analysts about e-commerce.
Next came B-roll footage illustrating the concept that "using your credit card on the Internet is safer than giving it to a waiter in a restaurant." The tape included a reenactment of a restaurant scene, along with graphics illustrating a secure socket layer (SSL) transaction. Soundbites from Travelocity President Terry Jones, Gartner Group research director Mike Zboray, Russell Bodoff, general manager of the Better Business Bureau's BBBOnLine initiative, and an actual online shopper rounded out the mix.
To reach consumer travelers, Vollmer sent a direct mail piece to 2,500 surfers who'd visited Travelocity's site, but never purchased anything. The same piece went to 2,500 members who'd previously used the site to book travel arrangements. The brochure outlined the Shop Safe Guarantee, and offered more techno-phobic recipients a chance to submit their airline preferences and credit card information via snail mail.
Implementation 2.0
In part two of the campaign, Travelocity upgraded its approach by capitalizing on an eruption in airline fare wars. As airlines fought to undercut each other, Vollmer kicked off a broadcast media relations push geared toward enticing travelers to experiment with Travelocity's service to snag last-minute discounted fares. A VNR and subsequent audio news release explained the basics of what happens during a fare war and demonstrated how consumers could use Travelocity.com to find the cheapest fares.
At the same time, Vollmer nailed more than 20 keynote opportunities for Travelocity leaders at interactive and travel industry conferences to shore up the company's position as the leading travel site, and as a proponent of safe e-shopping.
Outcomes
- The number of Travelocity "lookers" converted to "bookers" increased more than 5 percent from July 1998 to Dec. 1998.
- The company posted three record-breaking sales weeks in 1998: $6 million in July, $7 million in November, and $8 million in December.
- Revenue increased from $100 million (1997) to $285 million (1998). (The momentum continues. Gross sales as ofthis month were $40.5 million.)
- Five percent of consumers who received the first wave of direct mail purchased travel on Travelocity.com. Vollmer then mailed 250,000 more brochures, garnering an additional 11 percent return rate in travel bookings.
Merger Action
Recent acquisition of Preview Travel is expected to catapult Travelocity to become the third most popular e-commerce site behind amazon and ebay.
Life at Volmer
Campaign time frame: July-December 1998.
Agency Fee: $175,000 (not including design, production and postage expenses)
Founded: 1981
Employees: 70
Offices: Houston, Dallas & Austin, Texas
Billings: $6.5 million (1999)
Wackiest Projects: Had a 50-foot apple pie constructed for an employee profit-sharing event; installed live ducks on a master-planned community's lake for a grand opening; hired an Elvis impersonator to tout the "British invasion" of an energy trading software company at a trade show.
Contact: Renee Catacalos, director of marketing, Vollmer, 713/546-2230. www.volmerpr.com