Travel Marketing Meets Video Email

The cover story of the April 2010 issue of Target Marketing profiles the video marketing efforts of Flimp client Homebase Abroad.
E-mail’s Video Renaissance” is an in-depth report in how Homebase Abroad (HBA) uses video landing pages and video emails to market luxury Italian rental villas.  A Flimp client since 2007, Homebase Abroad said that marketing via video emails has “revolutionized their ability to instantly satisfy the needs of both prospective and return customers” and the Flimp technology has “greatly improved HBA’s data collection and decreased its marketing costs.” What an endorsement.
But let’s get serious.  Using online video to market travel and hospitality organizations is a no brainer.  There may not be a better way to showcase a destination than via audiovisual content.  Online video draws the viewer into the experience.  Now, if the video is part of a video landing page, the experience moves the viewer to engagement – maybe they explore, contact an agent or book a trip.  A nice, succinct experience.
I digress.  In the pre-video email days, Homebase Abroad used to send out FedEx information packages to interested guests, which was both cumbersome and costly.  It is one thing to send one information kit – but oftentimes they had to send multiple kits.
Flimp provided a solution to two separate problems:  disseminating information quickly and cost effectively.  Plus Flimp offered a solution not available in traditional direct marketing:  the ability for the recipient to forward along information electronically.  In this case – vibrant interactive brochures.  In the luxury villa travel market, timeliness is a critical trait. 
Homebase Abroad was able to maintain a booking rate of 20 percent of contacts during 2009, keeping the same ratio of closed bookings compared to previous years.  This is amazing considering the economic climate.  Additionally, the client was able to gain important insight into how their prospective customers interact with the materials. 
When a flimp video email is distributed, it automatically generates viewer engagement metrics.  This information, for example, helped Homebase Abroad decipher if a customer was more interested in Property A versus Property B, expediting the sales cycle.  Mara Solomon, Homebase Abroad’s Director and co-founder, said “We know much, much more about the process of the way that people arrive at a decision.  And particularly how many times they are looking at this material before they make a decision. It’s extensive. … People are looking at these many tens of times.”
Thanks to Homebase Abroad for their glowing endorsement of the FLIMP Platform.

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