Travel Trends with Dan Christian
#1 B2B Travel Podcast. If you are looking to stay ahead in the travel industry, this new podcast hits all the highlights! The Travel Trends Podcast is where industry leaders converge to share & shape the future. Whether you're an emerging entrepreneur, a seasoned industry executive, or a dedicated travel professional, you’ll be able to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Uncover valuable insights, innovative strategies, and meaningful connections that will elevate your travel business or career to new heights.
Travel Trends with Dan Christian
How Creators are Redefining Travel Booking
Join our final instalment of our Influencer series as Sally Bunnell, Founder and CEO of Navi Savi, shares her inspiring story from her Nebraska roots to building an innovative User Generated Content platform that is reshaping the travel industry. With experience spanning broadcast journalism and the music industry, Sally’s global adventures through 113 countries led her to create Navi Savi—a platform connecting creator videos with personalized travel recommendations.
This episode dives into how Navi Savi's library of over 125,000 geolocated short-form videos across 180+ countries redefines the way businesses and travelers interact. Learn how travel professionals including travel agencies and airlines can use this authentic, real-time content to create more engaging customer experiences. Sally emphasizes the importance of genuine peer-to-peer interaction, highlighting the power of unedited insights to build trust and enhance travel planning.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How Navi Savi works and the inspiration behind its creation
- The role of user-generated content in shaping travel decisions
- Why authenticity is vital in travel marketing strategies
- The impact of short-form video in today’s content-driven world
- Insights into influencer partnerships in the travel industry
- Upcoming trends and what’s next for Navi Savi
For professionals in travel marketing and travelers alike, this conversation offers a unique perspective on using video to inspire and connect. If you're looking to stay ahead of industry trends, this episode is your roadmap.
Plus, we have a special bonus conversation with Paulina Cameron, COO of Flytographer so you can learn more about their innovative business model that connects professional photographers with travelers for amazing in-destination photo shoots.
👉 Listen to How Creators are Redefining Travel Booking Now
🔥 Season 5 Title Sponsors: TravelAI, Stay22, Propellic, Flight Centre, Collette, Flywire, Traveltek and Protect Group.
Season 5 Launched Jan 15th. New Episodes Every Weds! Check out our first 4 Seasons.
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/
Dan, I have been blind, ill or robbed on almost every trip. So I always say well, maybe I shouldn't give travel advice. I mean, I had a stomach amoeba in Peru that lasted for 10 days. Like I came out there looking like Kate Moss.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to Season 5, episode five of Travel Trends. This is your host, Dan Christian, and I hope you're enjoying the new introduction. We stepped it up this season with our production effort. Zach, our producer, has been introducing new intro quotes and improving many aspects of our show, and one of the things that we enhanced for this season was the sound effects with the introduction, and we moved away from using our iconic airplane sound, which is one of the things that I love about arriving in a new destination, and so we brought it back by popular demand. We've now merged the two together, so we always do listen to your feedback and we always appreciate when our listeners reach out. If you ever have any feedback for us on guests and topics, feel free to email me anytime, dan, at traveltranspodcastcom, I love hearing from our listeners, and feel free to comment on LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube.
Speaker 2:We've been seeing a lot more activity recently, and I mentioned on our last episode to let someone who doesn't know about the Travel Trends podcast in on this little secret that we produce this show and now we've got listeners in 125 countries and over the last two years, it's become the most popular B2B podcast, and I couldn't be more thankful to all of our listeners for making our show so popular globally and definitely want to continue connecting this amazing global community. I keep hearing feedback when I'm speaking to various colleagues about episodes they've listened to. Just recently, I was talking to the team at WeRoad and they were adamant they have to go to Focusrite next year because they've listened to all the Focusrite episodes and you absolutely do. And I was speaking to Frank Marini, who is going to be on this series, is the CEO of Railbookers and he was listening to last week's episode with Ash Bardwaj and really enjoying that, and I just I love hearing from each of you, so please continue to reach out and sharing it with friends and colleagues. Now. We wouldn't be where we are without the amazing partners and sponsor support, and that's been a big reason we've been able to expand the number of episodes that we do and continue to improve the production, and so the one last ask for me is to make sure you are subscribed on your streaming platform of choice, and I just wanted to recognize the sponsor for this influencer series, which is our friends over at Flytographer. They have been such an amazing partner for us. We had their founder and CEO on our women's panel. We've kept in great contact and they kindly offered to sponsor this series and we wanted to make sure that it had the most impact for them. So they have been running a contest that they are going to do a giveaway for one of their photo shoots in more than 350 destinations. Make sure that you check out flightographercom, travel-trends and anyone who just wants to book one of their incredible photo shoots with a professional photographer in destination to get amazing shots of your family or your friends, or your next business trip, for that matter. But if you want to get amazing in destination photography, flytographers a place to do it and they are offering 10% off for all of their photo shoots for any of our listeners just by using the code travel trends Now. We will be announcing the winner in our next newsletter, so make sure you register for that.
Speaker 2:At TravelTrendsPodcastcom Plus, we have a special bonus interview with the chief operating officer from Flytographer, paulina, who I met with at the Arrival Conference and wanted to share a few additional highlights with you. So be sure to check that out. At the end of the episode We'll be right back. Are you looking for ways to grow your travel business through paid media and optimized SEO, then you have to check out our friends at Propeleccom. They are the leading digital agency for growth in travel and tourism. Propelec offers bold digital marketing strategies to ensure your travel company's success. They have a remarkable methodology that has actually been implemented by TravelAIcom, and they are a leading SEO agency globally and offer a range of resources a podcast of their own, a blog on their website, propelliccom. That's P-R-O-P-E-L-L-I-Ccom. And don't forget to mention Travel Trends for your free marketing audit. Hey, travel publishers and content creators, if you're searching for a fresh way to boost your revenue, then look no further than our friends at Stay22. Their AI than $500 million in GMV. It's time for you to join successful partner programs like Matador Network and Weatherbug and elevate your earnings. Today, just go to stay22.com slash travel trends and you'll get details on an exclusive offer just for travel trends listeners. That's stay22.com, slash traveltrends. And now back to the show.
Speaker 2:Now, throughout this series, we've explored the impact of TikTok on content creators, we dove into the art of visual storytelling with photography, and then we had the insightful discussion last week with Ash Bhardwaj, the author of why we Travel, where we unpacked the influence of writers and journalists. Today, and then we're rounding off this series with a really compelling conversation featuring Sally Bunnell, the CEO and founder of Navi Savvy, one of the most exciting startups in the creator economy. Sally brings a wealth of experience to the table. Her career began with Late Night with David Letterman, one of my favorite shows and inspirations for creating the Travel Trends podcast, but she has a massive passion for travel. She's traveled to 114 countries. She's more or less a full-time digital nomad. She's American originally. She's from a small town in Nebraska, but she lives in London. She spent many years living in New York, and Navi Savi is a tech stars backed company that has really been revolutionizing the travel industry.
Speaker 2:So while you're listening to this, make sure you check out Navi Savvy. That's N-A-V-S-A-V-I app A-P-P dot com. You can learn more about how they work with content creators and offer UGC for companies. I think you'll be amazed at the level of functionality that they offer. But the fact that you can actually plan and book your next trip and this is one of these important concepts that we've been talking about with this series about how influencers or creators are connecting travelers right to booking it's no longer just a source of inspiration, and that's exactly what we get into in our conversation with Sally today, but I definitely encourage you to check out Navi Savvy, download the app, learn more about their business, because you're going to hear more about it and you'll hear on our conversation about the number of awards that Sally and her team have won over the past year and their plans for really scaling this business in 2025 and beyond.
Speaker 2:So I hope you really enjoyed this conversation with Sally. I did immensely. She's a wonderful person and she's a big fan of travel trends and just before I got on the call to record it, catherine, who does all of our guesting, she was like I can't believe like with my career and all the places, the people that I've met, that I'm actually like fangirling over being on Dan's show, which obviously means the world to me. Sally, it was like such a sweet thing to say but seeing you in person and holding court at conferences, you just draw a crowd and you light people up and it's very clear at the travel of massive events and the people in the travel industry that you are just one of those people that people look forward to seeing and engaging with. So full credit to you to be in your glory, running a startup like this and set for significant success. So, on that note, let me introduce you to the founder and CEO of Navi Savvy, sally Bunnell. Welcome, sally. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much for inviting me. I was fangirling out because I watch your show all the time, and when I got asked to be on it, I was like, oh my gosh, this is like making my moment so life is full circle.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. That really does mean a lot and it's interesting, I think, for our listeners too, to hear that we connected this year. Actually, ian Cumming, who's a good friend of yours that travels massive many of our listeners know Him and I have become great friends. I know you guys are great friends and it's just how this industry works right Great people know great people. We got introduced and then I've looked forward to seeing you at each of the conferences and I keep cheering you on every time I see you winning another award. But you've got such a fascinating backstory and I want to start there, because the more I get to know you, the more I am intrigued to learn about how you got to where you are and what you're doing, because it all ties together and makes so much sense. So yeah, sally, why don't you give a bit of your background before you got into travel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll start at the beginning. I was a young lady. I'm from a town of 700 people in Nebraska, so getting to where I'm at has been quite a feat in general. But I literally started a local radio station. I walked in and said I'll be an intern and clean toilets, and before you knew it, within the week I had my own drive time show. So that's kind of the motivation that I have taken. I then went off to college and got two degrees in broadcast journalism and one in marketing and started working with ABC Sports College Football. I then got picked up and got my internship with the Late Show with David Letterman, where I worked with a fellow Canuck. I was with Paul Schaefer in the CBS Orchestra, and so that was definitely a shining moment. From going to the middle of Nebraska to meeting and greeting everyone, from Russell Crowe to Tom Cruise to Foo Fighters, to you name it so on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. So I'm a huge David Letterman fan. I know one of my other favorite podcasters, Dax Shepard, is as well. He loves Letterman because he's of that era and we're.
Speaker 2:I guess contemporaries Letterman, because he's of that era and we're, I guess, contemporaries. And when I was in high school so a good friend of mine that we actually had a radio show in university we drove all the way to New York to see Letterman and we brought him a box of the Romeo and Juliet cigars that he used to smoke and left those for him. But, yeah, I was a huge fan of the show and obviously Paul Schaefer's from Thunder Bay, and so it's amazing, and I know you, so you had this incredible career in broadcasting and TV, so you're. So, yeah, but anyway, continue on and tell us how you ultimately got into travel, but I'm so intrigued to hear more about your journey before travel as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So after the late show I actually moved over and worked at a radio or at a record label. So I worked as a video coordinator in their video department and I was there for almost 11 years at that same record label, in which I basically moved up the ladder and became their youngest senior vice president in the company history. Several of my bosses left and I took on their jobs and then start and built my own video team. Underneath of that, I then started with the international expansion. So I was directing music videos from you know, working with Selena Gomez and Zendaya and Jason Mraz and Vanessa Carlton you name it Twisted Sister, foreigner. The list goes on and on. So it was quite you know. And metal bands. So one day it was Kidz Bop band, so one day it was kids bop, the next day it was yeah. So I definitely have a breadth of uh understanding for the, the music video scene and from that, you know, I really started with their international expansion as well and started taking their artists uh and launching them over in the uk, um, in canada and surrounding areas, australia, and then, yeah, just from there, kind of really started to get the bug for travel. I'd never been on a plane until I was in my 20s. So that's kind of hard to believe. And I've now been to 113 countries. So a little bit of I'm kind of an all or nothing, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So basically really the travel journey started in you know kind of in 2013, when I was traveling all over the world recording and shooting music videos and producing them and really started to see a disconnect.
Speaker 1:As I went to travel myself, as I was producing one Kidz Bop commercial down in the Atlanta Bahamas, I gave the kids the new iPhones that shot video.
Speaker 1:I gave the kids the new iPhones that shot video. And here I'm shooting a big quarter million dollar commercial campaign and I told the kids to go hog wild as we're starting up one of the first kids' YouTube channels and we put that content together and we got almost more clicks than my quarter million dollar campaign and I thought, holy shit, I'm going to be out of a job here soon. These kids can do it themselves and all they need is an editor. So I really kind of took that as I was traveling and started to ask you know, on my multi-day tours, can you just send me a few videos of what it's going to look like or what this you know, the experience is and nobody could do that. You know I still stuck with. You know, multiple photos and 10 paragraphs day by day. So I thought of the idea in 2013 to create the first interactive video travel show and yeah, that was kind of the start of it in 2013,. Believe it or not.
Speaker 2:Clearly you're ahead of your time, and even what you've built now with Navi Savvy that we'll get into in a moment is, I would say, like you're definitely ahead of the curve and now kind of right on time in 2025 to have this type of technology and with user-generated content. So yeah, so tell us a bit more. Obviously you got into production. Obviously that was your background with TV, and then you started applying that to travel and you certainly made up for lost time not having been on a plane since your 20s.
Speaker 2:And yeah. So tell us a little bit more about what you did in travel leading up to Navi Savvy, and then we'll get into the app that you've built.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So basically I was just a traveler. You know, that was really all it was, and I was loved. I mean, I knew nothing about anything, about visas, nothing. I flew.
Speaker 1:Usually most of my trips were spurred by a breakup. So anytime I had a breakup and so I like to joke, I've got more ex-boyfriends than airline miles. But you know, because I've traveled to all these countries, I'm like going to a new destination now. So you know, that was kind of the. I didn't know what visas were. So I remember going to Egypt and they're like do you have a visa or do you need one?
Speaker 1:On arrival I thought what the hell is this? So I really had nobody to teach me about the travel industry or anything more than just becoming a Contiki and G Adventures and jumping on all these kind of tours to really get me shaped in the world and then taking that out to journey out on my own and starting then to solo travel quite a bit, because nobody had the time or the money at the time to go. And yeah, so I just decided hell, I'm not going to wait for anyone, I'll just do this shit on my own. So that's pretty much how it happened.
Speaker 1:And with Navi Sav, or, with the start of the show, it was originally called Check the Box Travel, and so my buddy and I I said, well, let's go shoot a pilot of this. So that was my bread and butter. So we went to Costa Rica and shot the first pilot, in which we show you how to go do a city and a country and our favorite things. And then we recorded short snippets, unedited videos, of additional things that you could do and you could check the box of these videos and create a custom itinerary. And that was really the premise and the start of me starting to combine travel into the video content that I knew.
Speaker 2:Well, it's fascinating and I was going to just highlight, too, for our listeners, that, as you were working on all of these short form videos and this is where I say you're ahead of the curve, because everyone's talking about short form video in 2025. Obviously, we've had TikTok now for a number of years and we've got YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels and all of a sudden, everyone's completely woken up to the fact that everything's all about short-form video. And here you're doing this since 2013. And I know some of those videos. I guess, in aggregate, you've had over a billion views on YouTube of all of these travel videos you've created. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:Travel videos, other directing videos. Yeah, things have just kind of exploded, you know. So it's turned out to be a really amazing experience and, like I said, I was really actually on the cusp of YouTube when it was coming out for those. You know, I didn't really know what I was doing, let's put it that way and what the power of what YouTube had and now it's, I think, the most watched channel is there. You know that's out there, so it's definitely was ahead of the curve. So, as you know what we call that and you know in the music business we call that an overnight success and really it took, since you know, the last 20 years to get there.
Speaker 2:So, no-transcript been two of the things obviously I'm really intrigued about your background. One is certainly the fact that you are an expert in short form UGC video, but the other thing is solo female traveler. I mean, you truly have been a solo female traveler and that is another one of the biggest trends for 2025. In fact, it's actually what Get your Guide had highlighted is like the three biggest trend, and you see that, like companies like Intrepid and the growth that they're having, and companies like GreetHer, and like, all of a sudden, like again, what you've been doing now for 10 or 15 years is like, you know, it's the talk of 2025. So you've got two big things going for you Solo female traveler, short form video and now this kick-ass app that everyone's raving about and winning all these awards. So, so, yeah, so. So tell us what Navi Savvy is and how you came to to launch and create this platform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Navi Savvy. We're basically a short form video platform in which users upload videos of places they recommend. Everything is 30 seconds or less and only shows a positive experience, as if you were FaceTiming with a friend to show them hey, look at this great hotel. It's not about the creators, it's about the experience, but we have tons of creators that are uploading this content, so it kind of feeds itself into that. What we do then is we make all that content that comes into our platform tagged, scanned AI and made bookable, and then we have that content as a B2B, so brands can license this UGC content and then users can use this to start building video itineraries and book it all through our platform.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, and I've seen the number of partners that you've created or established relationships with, which is Contiki, of course, where I would work closely with that brand for many years, as you know, but Bookingcom, meta Beth from Wonderful, who's lovely as well, yep, but yeah. So tell us how you've actually grown the platform? Has it been through a lot through partnerships? How much is B2B?
Speaker 1:How much is B2C? Yeah well, this app, by the way, didn't grow itself overnight. It was basically a thread of an idea and put down some money in 2017, 18, moonlit it. 2019 was supposed to launch April 1st 2020, and the April Fool's joke was on me.
Speaker 1:So I've had a long time to start garnering relationships and partnerships and you know, we've been very, very fortunate about, you know, just getting in with good people. They're actually, if you know, john Mattson, we used to have a thing called Voyager in New York City and Voyager, yes, and Voyager was the OG travel kind of startup hub in New York and through that I really met a lot of great people who I was able to build those connections with from a young age, before Navi Savi even launched, so I was still working on it and behind the scenes. So I think that was a good foundation for really introducing me to the right people. And then the pandemic was actually a huge foundation for really introducing me to the right people. And then, you know, the pandemic was actually a huge benefit for Navi Savvy, and I'll say why is because I basically had the opportunity to meet a bunch of travel creators and people through these Zoom meetings, you know. And so I would book back to back to back Zoom meetings and ask these creators I'm starting a new platform, you're not traveling anywhere and you're sitting on content you can't monetize anymore, that you've already posted, I'll take it and they had nothing else to do but post on Navi Savvy. So that was really kind of the foundational groundwork that got us to really to where we're at today and Meta, that partnership.
Speaker 1:They called me out of the blue and said we're looking at launching this thing called Facebook Reels and we see that you have a bunch of videos. They're standing alone on a platform. Would you be willing to start sharing them to us? And I said not until I have a link that comes back to me. So I like to poke the bear sometimes the big guys. So that's really kind of how it came together.
Speaker 1:And, in all honesty, being out there and being visible in the scene I am absolutely a people person. But that means going to TravelCon, that means going to World Travel Market, that's going to every single event the World Aviation Festival in Singapore, you name it. I have flown all over the world and a lot of the relationships that people. The first question they say how do you get all this content that is built on a handshake, start by start, with my creators, and I think that's one of the most important things, versus spamming them on Instagram and saying, well, you create content, it's people to people, and when they know and generally are there to help you build a platform from ground up, they support it. So that's been a huge piece, that's fascinating.
Speaker 2:I love John. I saw him recently actually we were at the Focusrite conference together and we actually so we caught up there. We actually ran into each other at the airport and we were talking about Voyager and I guess you just highlighted something really interesting which is like so Voyager being like a coworking space for travel startups in New York City. It was a lot of fanfare around it but obviously during the pandemic no one could go out, go anywhere, so like it was what challenged them obviously partly led to your success and kind of moving on to your next venture. So it's funny how life goes and I share that, because the theme of our podcast originally was like what travel looks likeandemic, how companies navigated the pandemic, what business looks like on the other side. And there's one of those stories where you guys met on a previous venture and your life has evolved since then and now you're in London, you've got this very successful travel startup. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 2:And now back to the show. Tell everyone if you wouldn't mind, sally, because I know I keep alluding to this, but for those of you who are just getting to know you and haven't heard of Navi Savvy, navi Savvy N-A-V-I-S-A-V-I-A-P-Pcom is the website. For those of you who want to follow along, tell us about some of the awards that you have won in the last year, because you've just been on an incredible role, so I'd rather people hear it from you. So, and I'm sure it feels so validating, given the journey you've been on, that you're getting the recognition you deserve. But, yeah, tell everyone if you wouldn't mind share some of those accolades that have come your way.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I mean, uh, most, uh, one of the big ones was winning Travel Massive's Innovation Pitch in London. So that was kind of my first kickoff to a big win. And then I know it's a podcast, but I also brought all my trophies for you to see, dan. I also won Startup of the Year at the World Aviation Festival. I also won at the Travel Innovation Summit a Startup the year and emerging business model finalist, which also came with this giant check that I can't wait to try and fit onto an airport. And then most recently, with Traverse Creator Awards, I won industry person of the year, and then we got a runner up in several others with the WTM and which one in the Travel Tech Titans as well. So we've been on the cusp here just within the last like four months of a winning streak for 2024. So it's been an amazing ride. So it's really been awesome.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic Congratulations and I'm thrilled to see those for myself now that I've seen pictures of you on all these stages with all of these awards. So I'm glad you have you've got your trophy shelf there, obviously in your, in your house.
Speaker 1:They're real. You know. That's when I invite people over. I'm like would you like to see my awards? You know.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So let's talk a bit more about what you offer companies with, because one of the big things I was always focused on with travel business is trying to leverage user generated content, because it dramatically increases conversion. People will not book trips unless they see reviews. They see other people and more and more obviously we're even seeing now the integrations between TikTok and klook, for example, about trying to get right to the. What used to just be considered a source of inspiration is now actually a truly a path to booking and people see something and are like I want to do that. So tell us a little bit about how you work with companies, because I think some of them that I've spoken to recently like Transfer Travel that knows you and is keen to come on or was just coming on board, like the cost is quite reasonable for companies to start up. But yeah, tell us a little bit about what you offer companies.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:Tell us how it works. Break it all down for us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually, we just uh had recently launched our B2B content licensing platform. So every all the work that we've done in the partners that we have, uh and the customers and clients that we've got on board, was all done with us doing that process manually. But what we offer is we have 125,000 geolocated videos, all vertical videos covering over 180 countries, and that's uploaded by almost 5,000 creators all over the world. And what we do is right now we're seeing a lot of our clients taking and needing that content because it's pre-cleared, pre-negotiated and they can come in and type in Madeira and download 15 clips immediately and they then can take that and make a very quick package. If they're offering a flash sale or you know, we really kind of just give the opportunity for them to acquire a lot of great content from a lot of different creators. Lot of great content from a lot of different creators. So you're not just left with one creator, but we're also giving a good network for a lot of young creators that want to get their start that might not have a big following, as a lot of them, you know, the consumption of short form video is so fast that they're constantly needing to be updating that and the lead time that they were seeing, or the cost of production of that, is two to three weeks to either send a creator, to send somebody of themselves to turn that content around. And now I literally they send us a note one of our big clients I need content from here and I had it within 24 hours. So imagine that kind of you know, being able to get content on demand.
Speaker 1:So the biggest thing we're seeing it is for social media use in order to cut those down into reels. We're seeing that embedded into websites. We're also seeing that embedded into apps. We're also talking with guidebooks so you could scan the QR code in the back of a guidebook and now have a video visual itinerary that travels along with you, that keeps you up to date. I mean, I can go on multi-day tours. Love it because we can create video itineraries. We also have that with travel agents now can visually create where somebody's going to go. And then one of the biggest ones we've had is airlines, and airlines are really starting to love the fact of short form video as we look at that on the interactive seat back map, which comes with free internet. So now what we're looking at is embedding basically in overlying videos before you fly to a destination or anywhere in the world, and all those videos are embedded with a QR code. So we are looking to be the first buy on board experience and, of course, concierge. They love us because they no longer have to have a map and circle all this stuff. They now have a QR code that already has their pre-existing playlist of their favorite restaurants within walking distance or their favorite activities to do with a family nearby. So that's really kind of the initial pieces.
Speaker 1:The bread and butter is the content and we offer that as a B2B, as a download. We also offer that as a B2B2C in which Navi Savvy is its own OTA. We have our own booking system which we white label with one of our partners, so we can then feed that booking link with any of that content if you so wish. So we really are able to do that full journey and users on their own can come to Navi Savvy and have that same experience for anything they want and immediately book that. So we've been on the journey for, as people say, inspiration used to be a line. Navi Savvy has always been. Inspiration is a full circle on our platform because we've even had the feedback loop, Because if you went there and you liked it, you upload more videos to give back to that business. So we see this as a constant. You know it feeds itself, kind of beast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's fascinating. And then you mentioned a number of use cases. The one I just want to call out specifically is multi-day tours, because that's partly my background, of course, and when you think about someone spending, you know, $5,000, $10,000 on a multi-day tour, I mean there's lower price points out there, but as far as an average price point, and one of the things that happens with multi-day tours not just the cost, it's the fact that and you know this very well, but like that when someone's having a holiday, there's a lot riding on that, because, especially with Americans, if you only have two weeks off or three weeks and we're no different in Canada and you get one great trip a year, it's not only a significant investment of money but it's the most important investment you're going to have in your time and you need to know it's going to go well. And so you can't rely just on brochure images and websites that just have literally static images that are designed for brochures.
Speaker 1:The nice piece about it is everything is unedited. So what you see, that content is peer-to-peer. I spend a lot of time in the editing suites taking a lot of random stuff and making it all flashy and shiny and putting music behind it, and that gives you a great glimpse of something. But what we're seeing is people want to know what they're getting into. As you said, the two things they have the least when they travel is time and money. And if we can give a real perspective on that and you know a lot of businesses they said two things don't create another trip advisor.
Speaker 1:I don't want to fight reviews, or you know they did. And the second thing that they said is you know, coming onto a platform like this, we can. Basically, is it going to hurt my business by showing the real thing? And I said no, it actually increases people's. There's more surprise that oh, it looks better than it even did. So we're here to manage expectations. I guess to an extent, but people would rather see what they're getting into and know that a $40 hotel versus a $100 hotel is going to have a different look to it. But this is what you're walking into. So I think people would rather that than travel dupe. I say they say travel dupe, but you know, I take it another direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I get. I totally get it. The other thing I want to ask you about, though, is the creators themselves, cause I, because I believe you've got something more than 5,000 creators you've worked with, but how does that come about? How do you actually recruit creators, like? How does the business model work with, like?
Speaker 3:revenue sharing.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Tell me a bit about that, because that's the part I always found challenging the most was, like you know, you want user-generated content, you want to work with influencers, but how and who do you engage? Do they have the right audience? All of those things that travel companies struggle with. But yeah, tell us how you find the creators and how that fits into the mix.
Speaker 1:Well, the beauty of what Navi Savvy is, it's not the content isn't led by a creator. The content is about the experience, and I think that's the most important piece is so with our content creators. I believe everybody is a creator, first and foremost. I think you know, you see, some of these influencers that are nano. My family uploads videos. We have people that upload videos from all over the world, digital nomads. We have tour companies that even upload videos, you know. So our wealth of what we're getting is crowdsourced.
Speaker 1:Now what we do is we put a layer of crowd control in there, obviously to approve videos and we look as a human eye, but also with AI, to tag and view every video that gets to that human eye approach to make sure that content does suit our business needs and does follow, kind of, our parameters. It's only positive recommendations. So you know, those are the kind of elements that we start with and then from there, we haven't even opened the door on our creator network yet because this has really been just hush, hush and watch. We've gotten this much footage On average, we're getting about 2000 videos a day. So what we do is we pay per video for every video that gets uploaded, which is very common knowledge, and then we give a kickback as well for every time that video gets licensed. So that's where the kind of the our revenue model comes into play. But then I'm able to, you know, give a. We look at expanding that, obviously, with our portal already into drone footage to 360 video. We already have partners lined up for providing AR content. So this is just kind of the initial start. But we also, you know, creators are very important to me and the influencers, because we're not trying to put influencers out of business. We're trying to give a centralized network of video content focused on travel, which right now it is kind of all over the place, but we're looking at it in multi-format. So if you see these companies that they offer AR or VR experiences, well, let's collectively create the spot to go for travel video content, and that's been my passion and I see it as an ecosystem. It is a B2B, but it's also a B2C. It's a creator, it is a marketplace in which businesses can directly come in and upload their own videos for free promotion. It's not an algorithm that you constantly have to fight and publish and promote.
Speaker 1:Navi Savi is that community of trust in which you can show your experience and people can discover it. You don't have to fight the paid ads. That's what I want to create. I didn't want to create whoever had the most money got the most eyeballs. So I'm serious. You know, I come from a small town and small businesses are very important to me and I want, you know, not to pay to be at the top of the list of a Navi Savvy video. I want, because you're the best you know and that's what we want to really shine through in our platform. So and we think that everyone's a creator your friends and family are still your number one recommendations and with our platform, anyone on Navi Savvy can also become a travel agent, which is insane. So now you don't have to just be a creator. You could be the daughter, and all your mom and dad's family friends ask where'd you go? Well, here you put it together.
Speaker 2:You send them the links. You already made money from it, so we see it in many ways. Well, that's where I see so much potential for your platform the fact that you've already mentioned that you are essentially an OTA and obviously you work one of the major players in that space. But if you look at companies like Fora Travel, for example, f-o-r-a a, which was one of the most popular episodes we had in season four of this podcast, because jake gave a great overview and when I saw him at focus right, he's like people keep coming up and telling me that they heard my interview on your podcast and and I was like I was like that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I was thrilled to hear that for him and for like, for awareness for four of it, because so many people who were discovering for it that you can basically become a travel agent really easily and be able to start booking trips for your family and cruises and like, and I already had two other colleagues of mine that were had become travel agents using fora and we're loving it. This is the type of tools and technology that can empower people. So tell us a bit more about that. So, like, how does Navi Savvy tap into the booking process? And then specifically, you know, giving people the option to book travel on other people's behalf. Is that something you're kind of still building out, or how much is there today and how much is planned in the roadmap for the platform?
Speaker 1:We are a fully functioning OTA and that is not using one of the current OTAs that is white labeled with one of our partnerships, and so we actually can set our own commissions. So we get everything in and we set our own commission rates. So, instead of becoming an affiliate, when you become an actual travel agent, you can set your own commission rates. It's not just a chunk of what you get out of whatever they give you. So that's kind of the beauty and what we're seeing is you can start creating itineraries with other people's videos, whether you shot that or not. So it's such a cool kind of way of you know people. It's a community and what we're really building and that is the business is there. The creators are there.
Speaker 1:The creators, the influencers, can create their own you know tours that they just were on with, whether it's G Adventures or promoting you know, or taking their own tours. You can build all that and be savvy and create your own booking links, direct, like. We have those capabilities to bring all of that in-house and that's really why we're going to be a standalone platform that isn't just oh, book from our videos, shoppable videos. We're not just a license our content oh, book from our videos, shoppable videos. We're not just a license, our content. We are basically creating something new for the travel industry that is really going to, I hope, have people take notice and where would you say you are on your journey now?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously we've talked about the awards and where you've, but clearly in the startup world it always feels like day one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you've got a number of major partnerships. Where are you focusing now on growing the platform? Clearly there's, I imagine, a huge amount of potential across all these travel sectors we've just mentioned for many more partnerships. Is that where you're focused in 2025 is growing the number of partners you have using the platform.
Speaker 1:So right now, we're actually about ready to close around. So if there's any investors out there strategic, we've got a few that we're in line with. But, yes, we're actually closing in. With this raise, we are set down to double down on our B2B. We're really going to get our B2B content licensing as our major push and, with that, really upping our content strategy. So that content that's the two things that are really feeding us right now and, with that, really upping our content strategy, so that content that's the two things that are really feeding us right now. And on the underside of that, we're talking right now and redesigning to make not just our B2B site or our app or anything separate. We're really looking at making that a cohesive ecosystem and that's what we'll be launching and working on underneath with this raise.
Speaker 2:That's fascinating to hear about the latest raise and they're definitely investors that listen to our show. I get a lot of questions afterwards from both private equity and VCs that are interested in getting involved in travel, and actually one of the episodes that we have on the season is investing in travel with American Express, thayer Ventures and Matt Zito from Travel Startups. So I'm sure there'll be interest and it just depends if the round's already closed. But we've seen companies like Mindtrip is a great example. They were featured in the top 25.
Speaker 2:They just did their second round and Amex Ventures Kevin Chang, who's on this series he actually got in to the round, he actually asked them to open it up and keep it open. So they make Amex. So you never know what's going to happen next, not only for this round but future rounds, because I'm, I'm certainly bullish and I may, I may, I may look to join this round or the next, and we've been talking to a lot of those great partners already and you know we're.
Speaker 1:You have to remember we're. We're still a very, very everything that's out there has just been an MVP. I mean to date, through all of this, even the first dollars that I put in, we've raised less than half a million dollars and came to the success that we've been at. So if you want to talk to a woman that knows how to get things done on a dime, you're as I say, I got champagne dreams on a Bud Light budget and I make it happen, so not a bad thing to have.
Speaker 2:Well, no, and one of the things you just shared is actually there was a session at the Focusrite conference to raise or not to raise, and ultimately the outcome of that session was like don't raise if you don't have to. And so you've obviously done the smart and I'll say savvy not pun intended, but like you're you clearly this is. This is where getting a point where you have a product market fit I know a lot of people hear about that, but I don't. I see a lot of younger entrepreneurs still struggling to figure that out and to know when they truly have that, because that's when investors get excited and that's when your valuation really increases, because you're really now ready to scale, like you've got a proven concept, and that's the, that's the fortunate position you're in now. So, yeah, so B2B obviously is going to be a big focus, and we were B2C to start.
Speaker 1:We were B2C and nobody would touch us, especially a female founder tech company. B2c travel sliver, I mean your fundraising is about. So you're saying there's a chance. So you know, techstars was the person that took a chance on me and so I owe a lot to Techstars and they really kind of helped us pivot our business at that pivotal time and really say B2B was always a big piece for us but it was time to really push that forward. And that's really what has, you know, attracted a lot of the awards and really started to shift our business. So it was always in the pipeline but we shot it to the top so well it's fast.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you mentioned that too, because so many businesses try to launch as B2C, thinking that they're going to achieve, and then one of the things that obviously investors know very well is that cost per acquisition and your or your CAC as it gets referred to your customer acquisition costs or what your CPA is cost per acquisition. And the reality is, building a B2C business is expensive, and so, whereas building B2B if you can get a product market fit with B2B, there's always the potential for you to be able to go B2C, as long as you don't tie yourself in knots with B2B. And I guess that's where companies like Mindtrip I'll need to use as an example, because they launched B2C and then they didn't actually pivot to B2B, they actually expanded to B2B, and that's where I would see that there's no question that, as you have B2B success, you're still going to be able to continue to generate B2C business as well. So I'm assuming that B2C is still going to remain part of your focus and strategy.
Speaker 1:And it's still active on our platform. But what we've seen is really our B2B partners are opening the door to their B2C and we're not having to go after that customer acquisition cost Because, you know, in a case with the airlines, we do the fulfillment and we take a cut. You know that's the situations that we're looking at, so we don't have to go after that same airlines audience. They're doing it for us and we're providing the content and the links. So that's really where we see a huge success and where we see the business going is knowing that it's powered by Navi Savvy and then giving them that opportunity. We're also talking to a lot of loyalty programs and keeping this as an entire ecosystem, which you know. If we can keep that all in one house and you can pay with miles and earn with miles by creating content, we're going to be unstoppable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure I'm actually. I'm really glad you mentioned loyalty as well, because that is another one of the hot topics in 25 and it's loyalty has always been very important and valuable. I think most companies just haven't always fully understood just how much potential there is in working with loyalty programs and partners. If you look at companies like plus grade is a great example. They bought they bought a company called pointscom. They started their whole business model with uh, allowing people to buy uh first class seats and upgrade themselves, and they created this bidding functionality that many of the airlines now use and did 5 billion in revenue. They just got a billion dollars in investment. It's an incredible success story. Um, all built on the idea of of loyalty programs and incentivizing people, so, um, so that's. That's incredibly exciting.
Speaker 2:So tell us, yeah, when you get this latest raise and just closed, um, how you're going to apply those funds to grow the business. So tell us a little bit more about how you're going to grow the team. If you wouldn't mind, tell us a bit more how you're going to apply those funds to grow the business. So tell us a little bit more about how you're going to grow the team. If you wouldn't mind. Tell us a bit more how you're going to grow the platform. What are the areas that people depending on whether they're listening to this in 2025, what are going to be some of the developments that they can expect?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we've already been talking to a lot of those key team members, and so I'm excited to be able to announce them when they've officially signed on board. It's some really great people that have deep networks within the industry and very much in the social side as well, so I think we're going to come out with a swinging hopefully with some pretty impressive roster. But that doesn't happen overnight. Those have been long conversations have been happening with people for nine months and 12 months, so that's really going to be the big pieces. We're doubling down number one on our B2B content licensing. That is, we have somebody coming in that's going to just be knocking that out and really working with a lot of our lead gen side.
Speaker 1:We're really pushing our content and really the content is going to be the key for 2025 for us, and that's really analyzing the data and really seeing what kind of content is resonating where we're getting that content.
Speaker 1:We've also really started to push our circular digital economy, and what that is is basically we're working with locals within the communities to really keep and put those tourism dollars back within those communities and focus on smaller businesses so that we have huge success with that, working with the Latvia Tourism Board and already have tourism boards lining up to see how they can start utilizing and keep down the sustainability of flying people in just to shoot content when they have great gems there.
Speaker 1:So that's probably going to be a huge push for us from a sustainability point. And then, I think you know, the final tier for us is really expanding the booking element within our content and that is really collecting some really great APIs and some really great partnerships and underlying with that, as we talked about, the app is a standalone and the website is as well, but that really, at the end of 2025, you'll be looking at a I won't call it a super product, but it will be a marketplace with a lot of this included. So that's really the. That's my dream by the end of 2025, you know, and tell us with you obviously, being a global nomad is that, and I know you're American.
Speaker 2:You lived in New York, us with you. Obviously, being a a global nomad is that, and I know you're. You know you're American. You lived in New York for a while. Obviously, you're um from a small town in the uh, nebraska, um, but you live in.
Speaker 1:I'm still the rodeo queen of that County, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming you're going to be whizzing all over the world um to be able to promote Navi Savvy, so are you going to still be based in London and just travel extensively? Is that sort of the plan for 25 and beyond?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so basically I was a New Yorker for almost 20 years and lived between New York and LA with the production, and New York and Toronto for a minute. New York and London, new York and Denmark for a bit almost married a Danish guy. Luckily that didn't happen. London is actually kind of a semi-home base for me, but we're kicking off in London the team for our kickoff meeting and week. Then I fly to Namibia. I'm part of a digital nomad group and so I'll be in Namibia for a month.
Speaker 1:I've only been to 113 countries and I haven't been to a new one all last year, so my goal is to get up to 120 or 125 in 2025. And then really just be. You know, I am constantly at everything and I think that's really where you know you really meet a lot of people and I'm not a shy gal by any means. They don't call me R rally Sally for nothing. Dan. You know like and you know that's how you really I bring in most of the new business and the partnerships and it is really just having those great relationships and whether that's having drinks at the Fox or, you know, itv after parties, that's where I'm in the music industry old school days. You know, I I don't like to sit in an office and shake a hand.
Speaker 1:It's like beer for beer.
Speaker 2:You're out there with the people, you're amongst the travelers.
Speaker 1:Yes, I live and breathe.
Speaker 2:And you radiate such wonderful positive energy and I think I certainly feed off positive energy and it's probably one of the reasons we get along so well. And when I see you in person, I'm just like I gravitate towards you because I'm just you want to be in, just want to be in your orbit, because it's just like it's. And I saw that cause. It was like it was at um, what was it? It was travel technology fest early this year when, uh and um, I think there was drinks at the booth and you were telling and I just was like I want to be a part of this. Whatever's happening here, I just, I, just I just want to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:That's the community that we carry, and can I tell you that is my team is all remote. We are everywhere, from Buenos Aires to Stockholm, to India, to Latvia, to wherever I'm at, and we literally get on calls and we just have this camaraderie of like, yeah, do it. You know, like, get it done. And, and that's I think, you know, the joy of being able to run your own company and see you know what didn't work at previous companies and create a, you know, community of people that truly care and passionate about what we're doing.
Speaker 2:So Well, and given that you had this foresight to to be on this journey and create this business and the successful trajectory you're on, I would love to also get some insights from you about some of the other things you're paying attention to because, as you just highlighted, you're at all these conferences and you see things and see opportunities and obviously work with a lot of other entrepreneurs and know a lot of other startups. We've talked about short-term video, short-form video, user-generated content, solo female travelers, big trends that obviously apply to Navi Savvy. What are some of the other things that you're paying attention to that I think our listeners might be worth highlighting, so that some of, I guess, your predictions are things that will sort of happen in 25 and 26? What are some of the other major travel trends that you're paying attention to, Sally?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think. I mean, obviously, social search has to be the big one and I think it's really something that we've taken on at our company in tagging our videos and tagging them in new ways in which we can serve that up better to. You know suit our users in discovery and that's not just on social media but that is now going across, you know, web and multi-platform, so I think that's definitely going to be a hot piece. I think I still see a huge disconnect between tourism boards and marketing to digital nomads and I think they're missing a huge opportunity based on the number of them and how much they're spending and how much time they're spending in communities. So I think there's something to really have them double down on there.
Speaker 1:And I know we touched a lot of short form video, but I know UGC kind of gets talked about but I don't think it has enough attention. Just from our clientele that we took in 2024, we saw that we had basically a nine times increase on our travel UGC content for click-throughs compared to normally the rate that the study's done. It's 4x and that was with generic UGC. So we know that travel because people want to see where they're going and so that was a huge stat for us and I think people really need to double down in understanding what is UGC and how does that operate.
Speaker 1:So those are definitely some pieces and you know, I always like looking at new destinations and seeing where people are going. Albania is like one of my new hotspots that I can't wait to be jumping around to. You know, it's kind of seeing new places you know come along as well, as you know Mongolia, these are the places that have been trending and obviously the five stands Everybody's going on the five stands tour. So I think these are a few things and regions that I think can have some hot promotion and definitely on my upcoming bucket list. I've been to a lot of places.
Speaker 2:Well, clearly you have One of the places I have not been. You just highlighted Albania. We had a dinner with friends just last night and they had just gotten back from Albania and were showing us pictures. So it's interesting you mentioned that now. Yeah, and I was blown away by the mountain ranges and they were actually there in late summer but the leaves were already changing and the colors were spectacular and they were telling us just how incredibly affordable it is and they were saying because they had been to Croatia, they did about 10 countries on this trip and they'd actually started in.
Speaker 2:Croatia and they were saying how expensive Croatia was, how beautiful Dubrovnik is and getting your Game of Thrones fix. But they were saying it was all Americans in Croatia spending a lot of money and whereas it was all Europeans in Albania staying in hotels for like $40 a night. And it was like so I'm glad that you mentioned that because I'm like that's a great call out for for our listeners to consider exploring Albania, which I'm sure many, because our audience is primarily us.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's the new hotspot. You know, croatia was that hotspot, and then they're also now part of Schengen, so Albania is not, and so I've seen a lot of digital nomads flock that direction. I recently was the emcee of their Toronto Digital Nomads Festival because I truly believe in what they're doing, and I was in Albania previous in 2019. So you know, I've kind of seen the evolution of the country, really work hard for tourism. So they're not paying me right now, but I'll send them a clip of this and maybe they'll, but no, they're I. I do have a lot of uh, they've got a lot of good things going on there, so that's exciting.
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Speaker 1:Dan, I have been blind, ill or robbed on almost every trip. So I always say, well, maybe I shouldn't give travel advice. I mean, I had a stomach amoeba in Peru that lasted for 10 days. I came out there looking like Kate Moss. I think probably one of the best ones was I mean, it just doesn't end. I literally am writing a book Rally Sally Travels. Follow the Journey in the Drunkenness, in the State, I remember. But I think one of the fun ones is I was in Laos and they don't call it Laos Vegas for nothing, you know and I was in Vang Vien and I was on doing the river tubing, which is now pretty much illegal.
Speaker 1:But you know, I'm a bit of a wild woman of travel and so I was doing the. I saw these people the night before and we were going river tubing and they were all beat up and I was like what happened? And they're like we went river tubing and I was like what the hell am I in for? So anyway, the Mekong was angry that day, my friend, and it was moving fast, and so I didn't realize. But it's moving so fast. These Laotian kids have water bottles that have ropes tied onto them and they throw them out to you so they can bring you into their bars. So they're like dragging me in with an inner tube into these bars, and every bar kind of has its own I won't say death-defying stunt, but you're not. You know, it's probably not the safest route to go. And you basically look up at the bar and you point to an alcohol and a thing and it's like a full bottle pretty much and it's $1.25, and you drink on buckets. And then you decide to swing off into the river on one of the places, or the next one was a puppy bar and it had all these baby puppies that you could take, and the other one was mud and the other one was, uh, basically a slide of fire that shot you out, and so I was.
Speaker 1:I went on all this, I survived, and that night I um ended up waking up the middle of the night and I thought, man, I don't feel good. No, no, no, no. Anyway, I wake up and I basically have such severe conjunctivitis in both eyes that they take me to the emergency room. It looked like a doctor scene in an alien movie. They basically put me on this thing. The only thing they asked for insurance was my first name and age and I was like, should I turn this into my health insurance? And my guy was like it's like age. And I was like, can I, should I turn this into, like you know, like my health insurance? And my guy was like it's like $4. I was like, okay.
Speaker 1:So they basically lay me down and they put the solution in both of my eyes and they patched me up and I become blind basically for the next three days. They have to. This is a Contiki tour. I love Contiki. And they basically took me and guided me along and basically I had severe conjunctivitis and they packed my bags and I got on the bus and they had me quarantined. This is before everyone knew the word quarantine. And I remember getting on the steps of the bus and hearing everybody gasp and I said I might be blind, but I'm not deaf. You assholes, you know I can hear you talking. But that went on, crossed into Cambodiaodia, ended up getting 103 degree fever. Uh, finally it broke and I was able to go see um anchor watt and I survived and yeah, I still travel like an alzheimer's patient I'm back at it, anchor what must have been the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life after that the sun rising up and anchor what to take off.
Speaker 1:You know it was like it's definitely got to be a scene in a movie, so but yeah, that's just one. That's the tip of the iceberg of when you travel with me, so you might want to keep it to conferences, dan that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I almost think that you could. Obviously, you could highlight all the things to avoid on your travels. You could give people the how do you? How to not go blind, how to not?
Speaker 1:it's, it's a section, it's a section in my book what's in my medicine cabinet, you know, or what's in my medicine bag that I take, and it's like a laundry list of things like I'll have to share that with you. You'll get a kick out of it.
Speaker 2:Well, my, my good friend, uh Christian Wolters, a game changer for him on travel, was uh, um. Is it through my son? Is it like um and the one that's for diarrhea?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, traveler's diarrhea Stiproflaxin, stiproflaxin, yeah, thank you. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:I'm Canadian so I got benefits.
Speaker 1:I'm going to see if my drug coverage covers that I'll hook you up next time I see you. It's a fun podcast, dan. I want you to just know I have been watching your podcast. You, dan, I want you to just know like I have been watching your, your, you know, listening and watching, and like it is an absolute honor to be on here, like not to get all mushy with you, but like truly, like you know, it's it's been like a pinnacle of of my you know kickoff to year.
Speaker 2:So that's wonderful. I'm so glad. I mean, my heart just grew two sizes, as you said that and it certainly means a lot. Obviously, you know the genesis of this podcast. When I decided to step out of the corporate world, take care of my dad and I when I had the opportunity to speak at WTM, it was one of those moments when the crowd was like there was only standing room only and there was 100 people lined up.
Speaker 1:I was listening through the thing and then I got in trouble and they shut it and I have a video of me listening to the five things from Dan from the outside of the curtain with about another 40 people. Seriously Well.
Speaker 2:I, just as quite a few of my friends that rushed to try and get there and couldn't get in. They were like I'm so sorry. That's why I got these all these videos and photos of people in line, because it was friends basically apologizing that they got there too late and didn't realize there would be a crowd. So, um, but it was just wonderful to see so many people that have been on the show or listen to the show and, um, and even having this conversation with you, it means just as much to me to have you here and you're such an amazing guest. You're such, a, um, just a wonderful person. You've just got such a great spirit and energy about you and I, so I almost think we could co-host some episodes together.
Speaker 1:That might be an option for the future oh, dan, you know I I back in my, my younger years. I used to do red carpet and had my own uh, rally, sally stuff.
Speaker 2:So be careful what you wish for now I think we need to rally sally series and uh oh, I would love it.
Speaker 1:I'll.
Speaker 2:I'll definitely uh, kick off with that whenever you're ready, I'm definitely up for it and I think it would be a great dynamic. So let's, let's, let's definitely find more ways to work together. That'll be uh uh, mike our commitment to each other for 2025 and beyond. But yeah, I know it's been the only commitment I make.
Speaker 1:Wild single woman. What can I say?
Speaker 2:well, I'd love to make sure that everyone listening to this I'm sure they've already checked out the website, that maybe some already, um, uh, downloaded the app, but, um, let's make sure that everyone knows where they can find you and connect with you after this, and also where you direct them to to potentially become partners or engage with Navi Savvy.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely so. I will give out my email because I don't give a. You know you can. Anybody can call me and flood my email box. But that is sally s-a-l-l-y at navi n-a-v-i dash savvy s-a-vcom. And everyone asks what does Navi Savvy mean? It's navigationally savviness. And our website for marketing is NaviSavvyAppcom and our newly launched B2B site is NaviSavvyTravelcom. Eventually they'll all get into one, but you got to start somewhere.
Speaker 2:I'm so keen to see your journey continue and evolve, because the reality is is that you're going to continue to expand and make adjustments and refine, so like it's. It's so exciting to see where you are at this stage and I certainly wish you every success in the year ahead and, obviously, getting the funding over the line and just scaling and growing this business.
Speaker 1:We're turning this into a TV show, dan, we're Navi Savi Travels. We're turning into an interactive TV show. So you're the first guest then.
Speaker 2:Count me in. Let's go to.
Speaker 1:Albania together.
Speaker 2:I'll take it Awesome Well thank you so much again for making the time for this and, yes, I look forward to keeping in touch and seeing at some point points throughout the year Continue. Great luck with Navi Savi and let's definitely keep in touch.
Speaker 1:Sounds great.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. Dan, thanks so much for joining our latest episode of Travel Trends. I hope you enjoyed this entire series about influencers and, in particular, this conversation with Sally Bunnell from Navi Savvy. Definitely download that app and find ways to work with influencers. Whether you are an influencer and a creator and you want to earn revenue, that's obviously a great opportunity. If you're a brand that wants to work with content creators, essentially Navi Savvy has both sides of that equation covered. So thanks again, sally, for joining us and wish you every success in 2025 and beyond. And thanks as well to our series sponsor, flightographer, for sponsoring this series. We really enjoyed working with you. And thanks for giving a photo shoot away. We're going to announce it in our newsletter shortly. And just remember that they will keep open their discount for Travel Trends listeners so you can get 10% off a photo shoot. Just check out flytographercom slash travel dash trends. That's flytographercom slash travel dash trends. Now we also have a bonus conversation for you today. Now we also have a bonus conversation for you today. Nicole Smith, who is the CEO and founder of Flytographer, has hired an amazing team and we actually had the pleasure of speaking to her COO, paulina while I was at the Arrival Conference, and we thought it would be a perfect opportunity, as we bring this series and conversation to a close, to learn a little bit more about Flytographer directly from one of their executives. So at the end of this wrap up, we're going to pass you on to our conversation with Paulina as a special bonus part of this influencer series.
Speaker 2:Now, don't forget, we are back next week and we are going to be launching our Safari series very shortly. But as we transition between our deep dives, we always introducing one or two new one-off episodes so that we are appealing to all the broad interests across travel and the biggest trends. And so we're actually going to feature a special episode in a lead up to ITB, where I will be doing a session in early March. So, depending on when you're listening to this, please join us at ITB. On March the 5th. I'll be doing a session in early March. So, depending on when you're listening to this, please join us at ITB. On March the 5th I'll be doing a session on hidden gems. I'd love to see you there. So we're going to be doing a special feature with ITB next week and then we're also going to be highlighting our friends over at Tourpreneur.
Speaker 2:As many of our listeners know, I was on their podcast recently, which was a lot of fun. Love those guys and I really enjoyed our conversation and I've heard from so many people who've listened to that, which is just amazing. So thank you for the feedback and that opportunity and I'm really keen to showcase their incredible story. So we have that coming out for you shortly and then we're going to kick off our Safari series. So make sure you're subscribed and all the streaming channels of your choice, and then check out the clips and highlights of each of these episodes on our social channels Instagram, linkedin and YouTube.
Speaker 2:Now let me pass you on to Paulina and the conversation we had at Arrival. Thanks again for joining us for Travel Trends and I hope you enjoyed our Influencer Series. Hello everyone and welcome back to another exciting live edition here at Arrival, san Diego, and I have the pleasure now to sit down and speak to Paulina Cameron, who's the Chief Operations Officer at Flytographer, an incredibly exciting business I've known about for a number of years, and this is the first chance I get a chance to sit down with Paulina. So welcome, paulina, great to have you here.
Speaker 3:Thanks, dan, so good to be here.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, and this is your first time at Arrival, I understand.
Speaker 3:It is. It is the energy's been wonderful.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Now you're based in Canada as well, but we're here in San Diego together, so tell us what brought you to Arrival this year for your very first time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been so great to be here to immerse myself into the travel experience and industry space. For us at Flightographer, we talk to travelers day in, day out because we're setting them up to capture their memories in such a beautiful way, and that's what everyone here is doing. They're in the experience space and wanting to bring that to life. So being here to meet folks who are in that space, meeting all of our potential distribution partners, has been amazing. And, you know, I will say, for me too, immersing myself in being in America, where you know over 80% of our customers are American, is also really great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm thrilled that you're here and I'm particularly excited that you're getting an opportunity to understand the spirit of community here at Arrival. I've been coming for many years and it's one of my favorite events, and it makes total sense for Flytographer to be here, and so for our listeners. And this is where I'm amazed that so many people are not familiar with business, despite how long it's been around, how successful it's been. But tell everyone what is Flytographer.
Speaker 3:Okay, we're going to not be the best kept secret anymore. That is my mission. So we have existed for 11 years and we connect travelers with incredible, vetted local photographers across the world. So we have nearly 700 photographers who we pre-vet. So there's real humans that are, you know, looking at them, looking at their portfolios, making sure they're incredible people and incredible craftspeople at what they do.
Speaker 3:And if you are traveling to one of our destinations, you go through our platform to be able to find the perfect photographer to capture the memories of your trip and travel.
Speaker 3:And you know, when I think of a photo shoot, I think of it as a portal to bring you back to the feelings of that moment.
Speaker 3:You're going on this trip for something really meaningful, for travel with family, or perhaps a proposal, or an anniversary, or a friend's trip. Or we just had an incredible booking come in that is celebrating a friend's 50th birthday, who's going through cancer, and they want to commemorate this important moment. Or you have a hometown shoot and you have Christmas cards coming up and you want to capture those moments. So we are in the business of helping you be really present for your life, to take you into that feeling, take you into that moment and then you can spend the rest of your vacation just enjoying your time, not trying to capture the perfect moment. We have over 35,000 five-star reviews and that is something we feel very proud of, because the quality of the experience, the quality of the photos and how our photographers interact with you they're humans, you know they love telling you about their local town and tips that is all so important to us.
Speaker 2:That's terrific and I'm really glad you got to clarify that for all of our listeners, because I think most of my understanding when I first got a chance to meet Nicole was the problem that you solved, which is an important one, which is that many moms on holiday don't get to be in their family photos, so it looks like it's a single dad and the kids and women are primary drivers and travel bookings, of course. So they've made all this effort to plan this trip and then they don't get to be in the family photos, and so I clearly see that that was a great initiation for the business and that's there's a business model there. But, as you just pointed out, there's so many different reasons that people travel and would want to have a photographer. Major milestones and celebratory events, as you pointed out anniversaries, honeymoons, of course is is a big one and a common friend of ours that we have from focus right. Uh, eugene went to greece recently in the flightographer team.
Speaker 2:I was telling him, like we're going to greece for your honeymoon. Have you heard of flightographers? Never heard of it before. And I was like, come on. He looked at the website. He's like, oh my god, I have to do this. And then him and his wife had the most spectacular experience with one of your photographers and he was telling me afterwards it was the highlight of his honeymoon.
Speaker 3:You know, dan, we get that so much and I think sometimes if someone hasn't experienced a photo shoot, it can feel like it's either really superficial or you know, I'm not going to post that on Instagram. Why do I need it? And I keep trying to say it's not just about like one final product. You get a beautiful product that you're going to want to have on your wall, but it's actually the hour, the 30 minutes, the 90 minutes. However long you spend on your photo shoot, that experience, it brings you into that present moment. You know, I mean, we, our lives are so busy these days. We're on our phones, we're running around, we're doing a lot to actually take time to go. Hey, I'm here with someone that I love for an experience that I really invested into and to really be in that moment and have someone else capture it for you. That I think. To me, not only is it the best souvenir you can walk away from, but it just increases the ROI on the investment into your trip by like 20 fold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, totally, I completely agree, and I think that's where, when most people maybe look at Flytographer and this is an assumption on my part, but given a lot of the business is direct that people would look at it and say, oh, that's what travelers get on a book themselves. But you know, and I know and our listeners are primarily B2B, of course that there is a massive opportunity to partner with existing travel companies, especially travel agencies that are catering to exactly the type of clientele that would love to offer this experience to their guests. So I'm assuming that's also one of the reasons that you're here at Arrival.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I would say we've just started to really begin to explore the best way to partner with everyone. We do have an affiliate and a travel advisor program and one of the things that we hear from our travel advisors two things. One they love recommending a photo shoot to their customers. Interestingly, they don't often have customers that come to them asking for that, because it's not something, again, that a lot of travelers intuitively think of for their own until they've really experienced it or heard it from someone else. Like, word of mouth is huge in our business, but when a travel advisor recommends it or adds it to the itinerary, the feedback again that they get is amazing, and I always think about it this way In our travel advisor program, the customer also will get a free print at the end of it. Whenever that customer then looks at that print, who are they thinking of? They're thinking not only of the photographer but also the incredible travel advisor who recommended it, and it will drive repeat and loyalty for the travel advisors going through that program as well.
Speaker 2:For sure and just to give everyone an idea of what the costs are. So everyone has a bit of a frame of reference of what it costs to involve a photographer on their holiday, because maybe some people have the perception it's just luxury, but really you can hit all price points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you really can. So our shoots start at 30 minutes. You can do 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and then increments of hours. If you have something, that's a longer gathering, and so for a 60-minute, let's just take a 60-minute shoot, which is our most. 90 minutes to 60 minutes are our most popular timings and we have global pricing, so I'll say this applies for any location that you do.
Speaker 3:So for a 60-minute shoot, it's $425 US. You get your digital gallery afterwards. 425 US, you get your digital gallery afterwards. You can download them all. So there's no like oh, if you want that one photo down that you don't have your eyes closed in, that's an extra 100 bucks. No, you get. So there's a minimum number of photos you get with each of the packages. The photographers will often be giving you more because you know you spend the hour, you spend the time and you dive into that. The other thing I'll say about travel advisors which has been really interesting is that a lot of them are actually using us for their own shoes or shoots for their own business and using that to promote their business and themselves to their customers as well. So that's another way they've utilized Flytographer.
Speaker 2:No, that's terrific and that's where I'm convinced there's a massive opportunity for Flytographer on the B2B side. So, for those of you listening to this, I want to make sure that you do reach out to the Flytographer team and realize the opportunity to offer this to your guests, simply because it's going to increase repeats and they're going to come back raving about their holiday like Gene did from his honeymoon. So I've experienced it firsthand. I'd love to know some of the destinations that you know.
Speaker 2:When I see some of the images on your website see some of the images on your website I mean they're truly outstanding and a lot of people influencers in particular, of course have latched onto this. So there's such a driver to work with influencers who can create these amazing in-destination shots that inspire people to go to those destinations. Greece, obviously, is one of those just iconic destinations that just look incredible like in a gown, with the white buildings in the backdrop and the blue roofs, and it's just so. It's perfect for that. But I'd love if you wouldn't mind sharing what are some of the top destinations that people are booking flightographer experiences for.
Speaker 3:Okay, I love this question and I always want to turn it back around to say if you could guess our top three cities, what would you guess? So, over and over, definitely Paris is number one. That's actually originally where Nicole went and had the idea for starting the business. Yes, greece, lots of places in Italy, london, new York, maui so you know really iconic places and folks that want to do specific routes around those to get those few iconic places.
Speaker 3:And one of the things that I love is, yes, you want your picture in front of the Eiffel Tower, london Bridge, you know whatever that is, but, and because you're working with a local photographer who knows the city, not only do they know exactly, like, where to position you, the timing and how, but then they also go okay, dan, and come around this corner, because around this corner there's this tree that leans over this bench and if you sit here at this angle, it'll look stunning, you know, and that's that's kind of the additional piece that you you get when you work with someone who just loves their craft for sure, and I'm gonna have the opportunity to speak to one of your photographers for upcoming series on influencers, which I'm thrilled that you guys have partnered with us on, because I'm convinced that there is a story to be told there with the importance that influencers play in the role of not only travel inspiration but booking and getting people right to that point of actually clicking the book now button to choose that next destination or book with that partner, or book a flightographer package for their next trip.
Speaker 2:So we will definitely be coming back to that conversation soon, but I'd love to hear your plans in 2025 for a flightographer. I mean, you've joined this successful business. You've known Nicole for many years and there's so much growth potential, b2b just being one of them. But I'm sure you're adding new destinations, you're building out technology. What are some of the things you're working on that you're looking forward to rolling out in 2025?
Speaker 3:Yes, all of that you know, that's really how I see it is there's so much opportunity to grow. Yes, continue growing. On the D2C side, yes, absolutely. On the distribution partners, I think, tas, affiliates there's a lot of opportunities, specifically on the city playbook side, like how do we actually grow, pick a city, grow it really, accelerate it with all of our efforts. And our efforts, you know, are everything from influencers, affiliates, tas in that region to really starting to explore things like working with DMOs or DCMs, like there's a lot that can be really explored there, and Arrival has been phenomenal at building some of those opportunities and partnerships.
Speaker 2:That's really exciting and I'm sure you're going to enjoy your last day here, but I want to make sure that those people listening to this that are having that aha moment to say wait a second, there's a company that does this and they exist and it's called Flytographer. Tell everyone how they can find out more information about Flytographer and to partner with you and also maybe connect with you as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, so flytographercom or at flytographer are our handles. You can also email hello at flytographer. For those who are on the distribution channel side, we do have our TA and affiliate program. That, of course, is, you know, structured as they all are, with the right commissions and easy flow and process. So we'd love to connect with you on that.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. Thank you, paulina, thanks for our partnership, thanks for making the time for this, and I'm certainly keen to see your success, for yourself and the team, going forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Dan. I'm looking forward to capturing even more memories Awesome.
