Eyeblaster: Rich media doubles purchases in travel sector

When it comes to travel, one of the hottest sectors in advertising, it seems that consumers are underserved. For airline specific ads, that is. According to a recent Eyeblaster report consumers are underexposed to airline ads, in a time when they are perhaps over-exposed to nearly every other advertising segment.

by Kristina Knight

The Eyeblaster report found that consumers on average need four ad exposures to convert (standard banners), but that 61% of consumers are only receiving one ad exposure and 14% are receiving only two exposures. That leaves about 75% of consumers underserved for airline ads at a time when travel is still peaking. Researchers also found that rich media ads doubled conversions compared with standard banners ads.

"The business of selling airline tickets has significantly changed since digital channels have become available to consumers," said Gal Trifon, CEO and Co-founder of Eyeblaster. "Airline marketers have a real opportunity to capitalize on the plethora of travel content found online and results indicate that more ad impressions are needed to drive consumers down the conversion funnel."

Just how much traffic is there in the travel category? According to a February comScore report, American travelers hit travel sites hard during the first quarter. Researchers found that the travel category (ground/cruise) increased by 30% in January, an increase of more than 60% month over month. Also in the travel category, visits to sub-categories such as Transactions, Online Travel Agents and Hotels/Resorts saw substantial growth.

And outside the US travel is also a hot property. comScore researchers found that visits to Online Travel Agent websites and Regional Airline websites increase by about 40% (year over year).

Joe Nguyen, comScore vice president of Southeast Asia said, "In January, three out of five travel category visitors browsed two or more sites in the category, which suggests that consumers are being very diligent in comparing prices prior to purchase. Consumers are clearly being more cost-conscious these days, which is creating a more competitive environment among online travel agents and suppliers as they vie for consumer loyalty and share of wallet."

The Singapore Travel report found that 25-44 year olds were the most interested in travel deals (nearly 60% of travel consumers), but that nearly 30% of consumers over age 45 were also searching for good travel deals.

Tags: comScore, Eyeblaster, rich media, travel ads, travel advertising, travel category, travel websites