eMarketer: How can marketers take advantage of travelers’ in-flight online behavior?

Mobile channels offer marketers new touchpoints to reach travelers

Travelers are high-income digital device users and are more likely to own tablets and smartphones than Internet users. A recent report by eMarketer, a digital marketing market research firm, titled "Marketing to Mobile Travelers: Consumers' Use of Devices During Travel Drives Increased User Touchpoints in the Travel Marketing Process," points out that marketers now have the opportunity to continue to reach potential customers throughout their journey.

Yet the time spent on board remains a difficult touchpoint for travel marketers to capitalize on, even though travelers do find a variety of ways to connect to the internet while in transit.

Not only is the number of travelers using mobile devices surging, but these devices are becoming a permanent companion on the road: According to the Prosper Mobile Insights report, which surveyed smartphone and tablet users in the U.S., as of March 2012, approximately 98% of users brought their mobile devices with them on vacation, and nearly 80% used them “regularly.”

Travelers mainly use mobile devices during their flights. The 2012 Airline Passenger Survey Report by FlightView, a flight information tracking tool, pointed out that among the US travelers surveyed, more than 80% of them use smartphones while on flights. About 40% of the respondents use laptops while on the plane, and about 40% use tablets while on the flight.

Although smartphones are the primary device used by passengers on airplanes, more and more passengers are turning to tablets. TripAdvisor's annual air travel report found that 37% of respondents consider a tablet a must-have device when flying, a 5% increase from the 2012 survey.

Data released by Gogo, the most popular in-flight Internet provider, for December 2012 showed that slightly more passengers used tablets to access the Internet during flights than laptops and smartphones.

According to IATA, global airlines are expected to carry approximately 3.13 billion passengers in 2013. As in-flight Internet services continue to evolve, travelers are providing airlines and other marketers with an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on the large audience on board during flights.

The number of in-flight services for mobile devices is still small, but several airlines are in the "evaluation" stage of mobile services. For example, United Airlines hopes to add more than 300 aircraft with Wi-Fi in 2013, and its CEO Jeff Smisek told travel information website Skift.com that Wi-Fi service "will replace the TV in the seat back." Marketers will be able to place pre-roll video ads at Wi-Fi access points.

The 2012 Passenger Survey Report from digEcor, a digital entertainment solutions provider, found that consumers around the world seek to engage in travel-related activities and purchase products during their flights, reflecting the trend of travelers planning more trips in real time. Travel marketers who take advantage of these passenger behaviors have the opportunity to further collaborate with airlines and other travel companies.

Many marketing strategies that leverage passengers’ Bring Your Own Devices behavior depend on Wi-Fi, but travelers will use their mobile devices regardless of whether they have access to the Internet, because they can prepare enough offline content before boarding. Since marketers’ ability to market to travelers on board depends on whether they have a reliable communication platform, airlines’ provision of Wi-Fi will create a tipping point in the Bring Your Own Devices trend.

The report, Marketing to Mobile Travelers: Consumers’ Use of Devices During Travel Drives Increased User Touchpoints in the Travel Marketing Process, also answers three key questions:

• How many travelers are using smartphones and tablets?

• What types of mobile content do consumers access during their journey?

• What percentage of passenger aircraft offer in-flight wireless Internet access?

via: traveldaily