Expedia today (May 14) at its annual Explore partner event revealed a travel media network that builds on 20 years of promoting experience. The Expedia Group Media Solutions offering combines first-party traveler intent and buy data with on- and offsite ad tools, planning and measurement capabilities and access to an in-house creative team.
The launch of Expedia Group’s Travel Media Network comes as more players enter the booming media network space, with firms like Chase, Marriott and ride-hailing leaders Uber and Lyft joining a growing list that already includes most major retailers and grocers. U.S. retail media ad spend nearly hit $50 billion in 2023 — similar to what advertisers spent on national and native linear TV — and is anticipated to grow one other 30% this yr, per Advertiser Perceptions U.S. Advertising Market Outlook.
For Expedia, the time for a built-out media network is now: not only has the company sold promoting for many years, nevertheless it has “unparalleled” global reach and scale, encompassing 200 booking sites in greater than 70 countries, together with a B2B network that features greater than 60,000 partners, according to Rob Torres, senior vice chairman of media and affiliate solutions.
“We’ve seen this happening with some retailers and other form of commerce platforms, but you have not seen a variety of that in travel,” said Torres, who joined Expedia in 2022 after 16 years in Google’s travel promoting business. “Not all of the smaller firms have that data and travel insights to bring together in an enormous media network like we are able to. We think that we’re onto something here due to that chance.”
Journeys before journeys
Before they will make trips of their very own, customers must first navigate a travel purchase journey that’s increasingly complex. Travelers, on average, view 141 pages of travel content in the 45 days before booking a visit, and nearly 3 in 5 travelers do not have a particular destination in mind or have considered multiple destinations, per data shared by Expedia.
“We’re trying to solve an issue for our advertisers,” said Jennifer Andre, vice chairman of business development for Expedia Group Media Solutions. “It’s overwhelming for them to work out how to find that traveler and the way to tie all of it together and make their media buying easier.”
Expedia’s travel network leverages first-party intent data to goal high-value travelers with onsite promoting in addition to offsite ads on YouTube and connected TV, counting on a media, insight and planning team that spent over 12,000 hours in 2023 helping promoting partners to optimize their campaigns. The network can be partnered with publishers and platforms including Netflix and Disney+ that allow for extensions into newly created inventories.
“We can put together these robust campaigns for our partners which might be multifaceted and really reach that customer wherever they’re throughout their travel journey,” Torres said.
For an example of what Expedia can do, the company shared the results of a co-created campaign with nonprofit travel board Visit California that ran in London’s Heathrow Airport. Expedia had each the inventory, having bought out all of the billboards in Terminal 5, and the insight that Visit California should goal UK travelers, leading to an effort that gave the brand 100% share of voice in the terminal and generated 275 million total impressions.
“It wasn’t [Visit California] just buying out-of-home in isolation — they were buying it as a part of our travel media network with owned-and-operated channels and other components of their strategy with us,” Andre explained.
Opportunities for growth
Media networks proceed to offer more and refined capabilities, around the whole lot from content creation to measurement. With its ad offerings, data and insights and in-house creative team, Expedia wants to be a “one-stop shop” for travel advertisers.
“For our endemic partners that we’re already working with, it could we may have already got large strategic deals, but this just gives them a possibility to go even deeper and potentially see us otherwise,” said Andre. “Not just ‘Hey, I need to spend money on Expedia, what number of bookings are you able to drive?’ — we even have the opportunity to create awareness and get them in front of travelers throughout the wider ecosystem.”
Expedia executives also highlighted a lesser known offering a couple of B2B network that extends its capabilities to greater than 60,000 partners. The B2B network is anticipated to be a “growth vehicle” for each the network and Expedia overall, Torres noted.
“Many of those partners where we’re serving up hotel supply, we’re also serving up our sponsored listings for hotels, so there is a way for our partners to extend their presence,” Andre added. “We don’t think those people realize how big we’re in that space and the way Expedia is showing up and powering other players in the space.”
The company’s refreshed presence in the media network space also comes as industry leaders pave the way for determining what such offerings can mean for all advertisers. Walmart Connect and Home Depot’s recently rebranded Orange Apron Media network are each making overtures to non-endemic brands outside of their respective retail and residential improvement categories, a path that might be a “huge opportunity” for Expedia, Andre said.
“We do work with some non-endemics now, but we predict that that is going to open up the opportunity as we have a look at offering this audience off-site and dealing with a few of our brand partnerships,” Torres added. “It could be an enormous, big deal.”
Read the full article here
