New Research From Rocket Fuel Gives Travel Advertisers a New Path to Increase Bookings Revenue and Decrease Advertising Waste

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Rocket Fuel FUEL, a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) advertising and marketing solutions for global agencies and brands, today announced the release of its Digital Tourism & Travel Study for destination-marketing organizations (DMOs) and travel advertisers, including online travel agencies (OTAs), airline, and hotel advertisers. The results demonstrate Rocket Fuel's ability to measure and optimize travel campaign success by establishing real bookings data as a campaign KPI, and they show a win-win benefit from consumer exposure to the ads of destination marketers and travel advertisers.

“Rocket Fuel is redefining success metrics for DMOs and travel advertisers; for destination advertisers this means a view into real bookings metrics, as well as detailed conversion and exposure data, as opposed to less direct measures including site traffic, requests for information, or ad interaction,” said Chris Lorenzoni, Director of Category Strategy at Rocket Fuel. “We're excited to share the findings of our travel study, which demonstrates our superior ability to measure and optimize for meaningful campaign success for DMO and travel advertisers.”

Key findings of the study include:

• DMO Ad Exposure Leads to 55% Bookings Increase
  • Consumers exposed to tourism advertising are 55% more likely to book travel to the advertised destination than consumers who don't see the ads. Rocket Fuel also offers detailed insights, including booking amounts and, in the right circumstances, length of trip.
• DMO Ad Exposure Correlates with 41% Higher Consumer Spend, 81% Longer Travel Stays
  • Consumers exposed to tourism advertising book trips that are 81% longer on average (4.5 days vs. 2.5 days) to the target destination, and spend an average of 41% more money on their bookings. Longer stays mean more money spent at the target destination.

• 147% More Likely to Convert with Multiple Exposure Points
  • Higher conversion rates evidence the symbiotic relationship between tourism/destination advertising and hotel/OTA/airline ads, enabling a win-win across the travel ecosystem. Rocket Fuel can examine data from its OTA and travel advertiser partners and identify whether consumers who converted were exposed to DMO advertising prior to booking.

• New KPI for DMOs Based on Conversion, Full View of Consumer Path to Purchase
  • The ability to follow consumers' exposure to DMO advertising through to conversion is a powerful new KPI for DMOs. Rocket Fuel can examine data from its OTA and travel advertiser partners and identify whether consumers who converted were exposed to DMO advertising prior to booking. Rocket Fuel can also provide insight related to how much was spent on the booking and, in the right circumstances, length of trip.
  • On average, consumers convert on travel campaigns 3.1 days after their first exposure (impression) to the campaign. This is shorter for airline initiatives (2.1 days) and longer for hotel and lodging campaigns (4.2 days).

Findings were based on a review of sample data from travel advertisers partnering with Rocket Fuel from April – July 2014, focusing on a mix of large destination advertisers.

For more information and to review the full report, please visit http://rocketfuel.com/blog/q4-2014-digital-tourism-travel-the-link-between-destination-travel-ads-and-otas.

Join Rocket Fuel on October 30, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. PDT for the new travel focused webinar, http://info.rocketfuel.com/20141030-Travel-Webinar_Register-for-Webinar.html The webinar will also be available on demand as of October 31, 2014.

About Rocket Fuel

Rocket Fuel delivers a leading programmatic media-buying platform at Big Data scale that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve marketing ROI in digital media across web, mobile, video, and social channels. Rocket Fuel powers digital advertising and marketing programs globally for customers in North America, Europe, and APAC. Customers trust Rocket Fuel's Advertising That Learns® platform to achieve brand and direct-response objectives in diverse industries from luxury cars to financial services to retail. Rocket Fuel currently operates in more than 20 offices worldwide and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “FUEL.” For more information, please visit http://www.rocketfuel.com or call 1-888-717-8873.