Explore Seattle Southside // Perplexity.AI // Local Listings // Apple ReALM

This episode of 'Tradigital Tourism Insights' delves into the latest trends, research, and technologies shaping travel and tourism marketing. Featuring a detailed analysis of the 'microadventures' marketing campaign by Explore Seattle Southside, the episode explores how they successfully rebranded and engaged travelers using vibrant visuals, creating 52 microadventures content to drive engagement and recognition for the area. Additionally, the episode introduces perplexity.ai as a game-changing AI chatbot and search engine for enhancing digital marketing strategies in the travel sector, with recommendations on leveraging local listings and reviews for increased visibility and engagement. The tech spotlight segment discusses Apple's AI technology, REA LM, anticipated to revolutionize traveler interactions with devices through intuitive, screen-based understanding. The episode concludes with insights on maintaining and optimizing local business listings for better digital marketing performance.

00:00 Welcome to Tradigital Tourism Insights
00:49 Spotlight on Explorer Seattle Southside's Campaign
https://www.seattlesouthside.com/blog/52-microadventures-in-52-weeks-part-2/
https://www.campaigncanada.ca/article/1855639/123ws-quirky-vision-seattle-southside
https://www.appliedartsmag.com/blog/explore-seattle-southside-thinks-micro-a18233/
02:33 The Power of Microadventures
05:17 Impressive Results and Takeaways from the Campaign
https://www.ourawardentry.ca/
08:15 Exploring Perplexity.ai in Digital Marketing
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/perplexity-ai-seo/513039/
https://searchengineland.com/perplexity-citations-top-10-google-organic-results-439029
14:24 Leveraging Local Listings for SEO Success
21:59 Tech Spotlight: Apple's Revolutionary AI Development
https://www.cdomagazine.tech/aiml/all-about-apples-new-ai-model-realm
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.20329
26:48 Wrapping Up and How to Connect

Transcript

Pat 0:13

Hello and welcome to Digital Tourism Insights, a podcast by Digital Relativity. I'm your host, Pat Strader, founder and CEO of Digital Relativity, with 25 years of experience in travel and tourism marketing. I invite you to join me each episode for a quick look at industry trends, research, emerging technologies, and more. And real talk on what works, what doesn't, and why. Grab a coffee, a beer, or a cocktail. There is no judgment here. Let's have some fun with an honest and irreverent look into the nitty gritty of travel and tourism marketing. In today's campaign spotlight, we are going to be taking a look at a campaign developed by Explorer Seattle Southside. With their agency, one 23 West. And this campaign was developed to reframe the concept of travel and adventure by championing the concept of micro adventures. And so Explore Seattle's South Side is to promote the areas that are about 15 minutes south of Seattle, who's the cities of SeaTac, Tukwila, and Des Moines. And they have been challenged with the issue that many of us face, and that they have the audiences traveling through their area, but they're not stopping. They're not stopping. They're not spending time. In addition to that, they are in the shadow, if you will, of Seattle and some of their iconic places. And the struggle that they were reaching was the fact that their campaign that had been running called Seattle's Backyard, they just determined that it simply wasn't working. They determined it to be just a little too functional as they describe it and included, you know, how it was conveniently located near Seattle, how it was family friendly and things like this. And they knew that it was time to change. So they started with research. This is a great place to start. As always, as we always talk about this. But they conducted research where they spoke to locals and they did interviews. And what the market research told them was that they had this untapped market, people who wanted to explore, but were either short on time or money or both. And interestingly enough, through the process of working within the community, they uncovered this just amazing amount of small, weird and quirky things to do. And so they embraced this concept of the microadventure and before they kicked off this campaign, they took on the work of rebranding the area and they've done a really amazing job with this. And again, flipping the script from kind of the traditional approaches to marketing that we see so often, they took some real risks here. And the branding mark is a simple S made of three bars, uh, to replicate an S, but it also Then is representative of the three communities that they represent. The great thing about this is that the base S, if you will, Becomes persistent throughout, however, the, the logo and the mark morphs to depict different types of things, whether it be attractions or activities or whatever the case may be. And they've also employed really bright colors and it's just very vibrant and exciting, and it's really interesting to the eye. And so they shifted to this. Micro adventures after developing the brand and started creating lots of content, both video and written form, as well as slew of social posts and things of that nature, but they developed content around 52 micro adventures in 52 weeks. And again, promoted through lots of great content on their website. Very digestible. That's super short. The videos that they created were quote unquote micro videos to go with the micro ventures. They had some real fun with it too. They developed little micro travel kits and things like that. Just a really awesome, fun and quirky way to present things that are not these marquee types of attractions, but has proven successful in pulling people into the community. So. For example, there's blog posts, feed the need for speed with RC races, get a fresh start at the Des Moines farmer's market, chill out at Angle Lakes Ray Park. So things like this that again, are not the big marquee types of things, and they're taking these risks by really just diving in and embracing the asset that they have and presenting it really fun. And again, engaging way. So, you know, if they had not bought into this concept, they'd likely still be lost in the shuffle. As many of us find ourselves in that are kind of drive through types of destinations to where it's like, we know that the audience is there. How do we pull them in and how do we engage them? And so again, shifting from this historic family friendly and all these different types of things that we all frankly often overuse at times. It just really flipped the script and the results were really quite impressive. Not only did they win some major awards just for the designs, which again, are just very well done, very engaging, super bright, but you know, recognition, not only for the designs and the campaigns, but of course. The impact of this, and they developed the type of global recognition for this area. That really turned a lot of heads within their communities in the, and it became not only a really engaging marketing campaign, but it became a rallying point for the community as well. And it really bumped up their brand perception and folks shifted from this. Well, that would be something maybe later to let's go check that out. And again, the 52 micro adventures in 52 weeks, it drove just massive amounts of social media sharing and engagement. And the numbers are very impressive as they saw a huge spike of 12 percent in the ADR, the average daily rate. The social media engagement increased by 518%. That's the followers and their audience that they had in their engagement rate increased by a massive 1, 854%. So it was a very engaging, again, if you haven't seen this, go just Google it and check it out because it's just really, uh, quite impressive what they have been able to do with this. And so what are the takeaways here? Well, first of all, get to know your audience. The research gave them a real focused perspective on developing this campaign, knowing that folks were looking for things that were quick, accessible, quirky, and don't be afraid of embracing the niche. The microadventures is niche, but they unlocked this audience that was underserved by traditional destination marketing tactics. And, you know, again, the, the awards and the brand perception and just the community involvement with this really goes a long way in getting the buy in from stakeholders in the community. So just overall, just really fantastic campaign. The visuals to this are really great. And I love the fact that they took risks. Shifting from some of the traditional tactics and approaches that we see, they really walked away from like the photography and just really embraced the illustration. Super impressive. And congratulations to Explore Seattle Southwest and their agency. 123 West for really putting together something quite awesome. So that's it for today's campaign spotlight. Do you see some campaigns in the wild that you think would really impress that you are interested in? Please bring them to my attention and let me know, be happy to discuss them in an upcoming segment. It is time to dive into the research roundup. Today, we are going to be taking a look at how incorporating perplexity. ai into your digital marketing strategy will enhance the visibility and engagement for your travel and tourism business. So first of all, what is perplexity. ai? Imagine a search engine that talks back, a super powered travel concierge. It's perplexity. ai in a nutshell. It uses AI to answer your questions in a conversational way, then summarizes the key points and it cites its sources. This is really important. I know what you may be thinking. Research? This sounds like the tech spotlight. Actually, this is based around some recently published research from BrightEdge. BrightEdge is a A leading platform in the search engine marketing space. And they just have vast amounts of data and I've really done a great job of helping to shine a light on perplexity. am, right? And making some comparisons to Google's SGE, the search generative experience. And if you're unfamiliar with that, we did cover this in a segment a couple of weeks ago. I'll be sure and include a link to that episode in the show notes. But again, I'm going to come back to what is Perplexity. ai. So I asked Perplexity, what is Perplexity. ai? Perplexity. ai is an AI chatbot powered research and conversational search engine that answers queries using natural language predictive text. It was founded in August of 2022, and the platform is designed to generate answers using sources from the web and states links within the text response. There's a lot more to this, but you get the idea. And so what this research study looked at was just the way that people are beginning to use perplexity in lieu of traditional search. And it's quite interesting, we're seeing a 40 percent uptick of use and referral traffic that is coming from perplexity. ai and that's growth 40 percent month over month. And again, this research is making a comparison between Google's search generative experience and perplexity. ai. So there's some great information in here about healthcare and the overlap and the results between those two entities was about 82%. They also have some really interesting information here related to restaurants and travel, which actually has the lowest overlap of these segments that they looked at at 27%. So why is that important? Well, we need to think about how we can take advantage of this new opportunity that exists by leveraging and incorporating perplexity. AI into our, I'm going to say into our SEO word, but I mean, in general, it's just part of your digital marketing tactics. So the research again, looks at the sources cited and again, looking at the restaurants in particular and the travel related queries, we see a lot of things. Yelp, for example, TripAdvisor. Eater, open table, grub hub. This of course is in the restaurant segment, but then in the travel space, we're looking at TripAdvisor, Yelp, Kayak, those types of things. But some of the pieces that do not overlap between SGE and Perplexity. AI that I think are really important to present some great opportunities is Reddit in particular. But we also see Yelp and some other sources of information that frankly, While they're really important, they're often overlooked by a lot of folks in the traveling tourism space. As I said, we're seeing a really big increase in use of perplexity. ai for just general search, and it's a rising star. And while it mirrors a lot of the SGE results, the coverage suggests that businesses already optimized for Google will have a bit of a head start in optimizing for perplexity, but it doesn't stop there. And so. I would encourage you to go to perplexity. ai and, and just run some example searches related to where to eat in Decatur, Georgia, for example, or what are some must see stops while I am in Athens, Georgia, whatever the case may be. I don't know why I'm fixated on Georgia here, uh, got Georgia on my mind, I guess, but really paying attention to this. And, and we're going to talk about this in the next segment in this podcast, but you know, the fact that Yelp, TripAdvisor, and a lot of these other, you know, I'm going to use review sites are cited so often in the search results within Perplexity. It just really shines a light on the importance of those listings. I really encourage you to take a moment, experiment with perplexity. ai. And, and, you know, here's, here's the reason why. Engaging with perplexity. ai has, is going to lead to higher website traffic, better engagement from potential tourists and. You know, obviously our goal is to book and sell travel, but the platform's unique citation system, which is really important, also means that the more that your content is cited across the web, places like Yelp, places like TripAdvisor, the more authoritative it becomes. And thus your overall search engine marketing performance is going to increase. This isn't just about keeping up with trends. So this is really about being proactive. And again, as we start to see. The SEO space really start to change significantly in how results are provided and how those results are sourced. So this is something again that needs to be on your radar. In today's trend segment, we are going to be looking at managing local listings. And this is directly related to the segment about perplexity. ai and this, and also search generative experience from Google and the way that things are starting to change in the way that search results are provided. So first of all, let's just think about your local listings. What are they? Where do they live? And this can be any number of things. Some of the big major players that you're likely familiar with is Google places for business. Google business profile, it kind of changes its name, uh, whenever it feels like, but that's a big one. You know, you go into Google, you search for things, you see the packs of the map listings and so forth, but it goes beyond that. And, you know, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and those types of review sites and players where you can claim your listings. You can ensure that they're built out properly. You can have your hours listed, add photos, descriptions. Those things are all incredibly important. They have been for a long time, but listen, I don't know how else to say this to you. It's about to become even more important. I know that in my dealings, speaking with our friends and colleagues in the travel and tourism industry, a lot of folks don't pay attention to their listings. And it's, it's really, really important. And it's time that we do prioritize these things. In addition to that, I would lump into this your listings, whether it be you being a local business and you have something on your state tourism department's website or your regional or local convention and visitors bureau or anywhere that you may have information about your business, you need to find it, you need to claim it, you need to make sure that it's up to date. I know that it's, it can be a lot of work. There are some great tools out there that I would like to highlight. SEMrush is one that's S E M R U S H. com. They do have listing management tools, which are really helpful and they allow you to make changes in one place and allow it to percolate to others. You know, there's a lot of minor players that are involved with what I would consider to be local listings too, that you may kind of. Brush off is thinking, well, nobody uses that or who uses the yellow pages anymore, that type of thing. But all of that data is utilized by other sources. And so it's just really, really important. And I'm going to illustrate this by doing a quick search. Again, the impetus for this segment and for bringing. Your local listings and these types of things back to your attention is because of the rise of perplexity. ai. And again, uh, Google search generative experience is taking some similar steps here. The use as I outlined in the research segment is that there is currently a 40 percent month over month growth of perplexity. ai referral traffic. So there is no doubt people are beginning to use this. As a search engine tired of the 10 links, which I know it's not 10 links anymore, but they're tired of the blue links. How's that? And just really, it's a important source of potentially growth for you. And I ran a couple of tests myself, just very simple, anecdotal. Now ask perplexity. ai, where should I eat during my trip along the blue rich parkway when I drive from Virginia to Georgia? And the great thing about perplexity is it will answer your question, right? So it tells me here's some great dining options, blah, blah, blah. Piz got in the Bluffs restaurant and peaks of Otter Lodge, nearby towns and cities. It talks about Cherokee, Paul's family restaurant, Roanoke, the hotel, Roanoke, Charlottesville, the farm to table cafe, all these different things that it answers. I love perplexity because it shows us the sources. And in this particular query that I asked it. It, it only utilized five sources for this one, National Park Service, Blue Ridge Parkways website, twice, Atlas Obscura, and Blue Ridge Country publication. So those are the five sources with this. Very top level, top of the funnel, if you will, query that I put into perplexity. So then I refined it just slightly. Where should I eat during my trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway when I stop in Asheville? Well, same thing. It answers my question, of course. Restaurants near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Visitor Center, Copper Crown, Karen Donatelli Bakery, East Village Grill. And then it gives me another section, the restaurants in downtown Asheville. And nearby attractions, even, but the interesting thing again, coming back to the sources, once again, it gives me five sources that have pulled this information from in this particular case, another publication, Blue Ridge online, once again, Blue Ridge Parkway website should be there, right? They're, they're an authoritative website. Now we're starting to see TripAdvisor come in here. There's two TripAdvisor citations, and then one with Atlas Obscura. All right, now I'm, I'm actually going to just drill down this question on the last one and this one is really interesting how this changes again. My last question was where should I eat during my trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway when I stop in Asheville? I asked it again, just very simple and straightforward. Where should I eat in Hillsville, Virginia? This is where it changes and this really illustrates the importance of these local listings. Gives me eight sources. The first four are from Yelp. Then we have UberEAT, another citation from Yelp, and then two from TripAdvisor. All right. So again, this is just anecdotal. I'm doing this on the fly, but I'm really just trying to illustrate this point to where, You could go in and then maybe if you do some top level tests, you're going to be like, well, I'm already present. This is my website. It is already being cited. But again, with these really detailed things, this last question, where should I eat in Hillsville, Virginia, which a lot of folks are just going direct. They're asking this question in out. Here's my list of stuff. Last time I'm going to say it, and then we'll end this segment. The importance of those local listings has and always will be important, and it's going to become even more important. As perplexity. ai and whatever comes after perplexity. ai. Okay, that's just a simple one simple example. It's not going to change. It's going to keep morphing and pulling in data points from all these other sources of information, not just your website. So in conclusion. I'm geeking out on perplexity. ai, of course, because it is one of my favorite tools to use and it's been very interesting to watch it grow so quickly and just really look at the information they cite. But lastly, it just really, truly illustrates the importance of your local listings. So go claim them, get them off the day, optimize them, and reap the rewards. In today's tech spotlight, we're going to be taking a look at a recently published research paper from Apple. And this involves harnessing AI to see and understand screen content. Yes, you heard me right, to see and understand screen content. So, we're going to be diving into this revolutionary development from Apple that's set to transform how technology interacts with us and our environment. So by unpacking the idea behind this, very simply unpacking, I may add, looking at this AI technology that is, is referred to as re A L M. And it's potential impact on travel and tourism in particular. VALM stands for Reference Resolution As Language Modeling. Yeah. Reference Resolution As Language Modeling. I think I'm saying this right by saying VALM. If I'm not, somebody let me know, but here we go. This is a game changer in how artificial intelligence interacts with on screen content. Traditionally. You know, language models like ChatGPT 4, for example, have been adept at understanding text. But RE ALM takes this a step further. It, it, I'm using air quotes here, sees by understanding on screen entities, not as images, but as contextual elements in a conversation or an interaction. This ability is pivotal, especially when you consider how often we interact with the devices that rely on screen inputs. We look at it from smartphones to kiosks in the airport, right? So by investing in this VALM technology, this is going to be embracing a hands free and a more intuitive interaction with our devices. And it translates to more natural conversations with AI. Or you can refer to what's visible on the screen as if you were talking to a human. And imagine asking your device to quote, book tickets on a visible flight offer. Or quote, call the top hotel on the list. And it understands exactly what you mean without needing you to specify further. It's going to know what is listed at the top of that list. Really interesting stuff. These are things that aren't necessarily actionable right now. They are things that we need to be thinking about. You know, for travelers, let's think about how Realand could redefine convenience. Again, at airports, interactive kiosks equipped with this AI could process queries by simply recognizing flight information or gate numbers directly from the screen. And streamlining the check in process amongst other things. Tour operators could use this technology in their apps. Now tourists inquire about live sightseeing details simply by referring to what's on their smartphone screens. So implementation of RealM, it, it does make some promises to reduce the frustration often associated with digital interactions in new environments. And the clarity to the ease it brings to digital communication means fewer errors potentially. And travel bookings, smoother transitions between connecting flights, personalized tourist experiences, things of that nature. This also, you know, is going to have the benefit. And once this is in place and refined, I think this is going to provide a higher customer satisfaction level, increased loyalty as travelers benefit from these. stress free types of interactions. And even when they're in unfamiliar territories, they're going to know what to expect. Again, I just wanted to introduce this topic to you. When this paper was published, I think it was April 1st, and I see a headline and I think it was on VentureBeat, how Apple has a new technology. You can see at first, I thought it may have been, you know, an April fool's day joke. But this is something that is of interest for us all to keep an eye on just in general. But, you know, once these types of tools, this technology is available for folks to begin incorporating in the travel and tourism space, I think it can be a real game changer. And so as we wrap this up, it's clear that RealM is not just another AI tool. Okay. It's potentially a cornerstone and how future tech is going to interact with us in the travel and tourism sector and the ability to understand contextual nuance. It's going to open a new realm of possibilities for enhancing that customer experience, operational efficiencies as well. That's it for today's tech spotlight. Hope you enjoyed that. Go, uh, find the show notes and go down a rabbit hole. And as always, let me know what you think. That's all for today's episode. I hope that you found one small piece of information to help you along your marketing journey. If you have any questions, a topic that you'd like to hear covered or a great example of travel and tourism marketing in the wild, I'd love to hear from you. Just drop me an email. TTI at digital relativity dot com. That's TTI at digital relativity dot com. Or you can text 209 300 5017, that's 209 300 5017, or message me on X at Pat Strader. I'm your host, Pat Strader, signing off, and I invite you to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and join us next time as we continue to explore the future of travel and tourism marketing.