25 Golden Rules of Travel (Part 1 of 2)

Traveling can be expensive, complicated and often a headache when you don’t know where to look or what to do in certain situations.  It’s always great to know some basic rules to follow to make your travel experiences run smoothly.  Here are a few rules of travel that FUSION recommends:

1. Fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday - Traveling on off-peak days and times means lower fares… and greater chances of mileage-award seats!
2. Buy Tickets Tuesday Afternoon – Airlines announce fare sales on Monday night and other airlines match sales on Tuesday mornings.  Best time to score a deal: Tuesdays between Noon and 3pm.
3. Get Mileage-Award Seats – The best chance of getting the seats you want is six months out, if you can’t find them, call the mileage-award redemption desk right after midnight on a weekend – they have updated inventory and time to assist you!
4. Save on International Business-Class Fares - Business travel slows and airlines drop fares in January and August!
5. Stay at a Sold Out Hotel – Find out when cancellation penalties start for the date you want to arrive… Scoop up rooms made available by people who’ve just canceled.
6. Vacation Over Sunday – Many hotels have a void over Sunday night –increasing your chances for an upgrade.  Book Saturday/Sunday or Sunday/Monday for better deals.
7. Hop Between Cities Midday – When traveling abroad, schedule transportation for the middle of the day.  You’ll miss rush hour traffic, won’t miss the sunrise and you’ll arrive in time to check right into your hotel!
8. Think “Shoulder Season” for Island Trips – Peak-season rates are usually driven by the season, but some destinations – such as islands – are driven by neighboring countries vacation schedules.   The shoulder season(between high and low seasons) is the solution –crowds are thinner and the weather is good.
9. Check Your Email – Airlines and hotels target specific subsets of travelers – loyalty program members, holders of certain credit cards, people who’ve registered on their websites – and alert them by email of great deals not available to everyone.
10. Earn Elite Status with Credit Cards – Carry one airline-branded card and one hotel-branded card that help you attain and maintain elite status, and make sure that at least one of those cards charges no foreign-purchase fees.
11. Find Business-Class Bargains – Sites like Etravelbid.com negotiate unpublished, discounted business-class fares with no advance-purchase requirement.
12. Find Mileage-Award Seats with Airline Alliances’ Hubs – Start with the hub-to-hub routes flown by the carriers in your alliance.  Once you find that flight with award seats, tack the short-haul flights on either end.

Reference:  Perrin, Wendy. “The Perrin Report:  Secrets Every Marketer Should Know.”  The Informer, November 2011.

Gamify Your Recognition & Incentive Programs

Games are the second most frequent Internet activity for Americans after social networks; spending an estimated 906 million hours per month on social networks, 407 million on games and only 329 million on email.

By 2015, more than 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will “gamify” those processes.  A gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook by 2014.

So who is the gaming demographic?

-       50% of gamers are now female

-       30% over 45 years old

-       40 million active social gamers in the U.S.

-       200 million gamers on Facebook

This has great implications for loyalty marketing strategies, and provides an opportunity to “attract, cultivate and retain brand enthusiasts” according to Loyalty 360.

The goal of game dynamics ties perfectly into a recognition and incentive programs’ structures – to drive a user-desired behavior predictably.  As performance improvement companies, like FUSION, look for new ways to change behavior, gamification provides the perfect opportunity to tap into those psychological triggers.

For gamification to work, players must be given three things:  (1) a motivation to do something, (2) the ability to complete the action and (3) a trigger (cue) to complete the action.  Timing the trigger appropriately is crucial for the predictable behavior and makes the individual feel good about doing it.

FUSION has created an innovative gaming platform for one client that allows its “players” all over the world to participate in productive learning and showcases the clients products with points-based rewards motivating the channels to continue proactively participating and improving processes.

Reference:  Johnson, Mark.  “Gamification is More Than Just Fun and Games.”  June 2011, http://www.loyalty360.org/state_of_the_industry/gamification_is_more_than_just_fun_and_games/.

How QR Codes Drive Customer Engagement?

Short for “quick response,” a QR code links online content to a mobile device with a barcode-like graphic.  Using a QR Reader app, consumers can scan the code and instantly be redirected to content from the creator of the code.

QR code scanning grew 1,200% in the second half of 2010!  Turning a 3-second interaction with an ad, text or marketing message into a proactive, permission-based interaction with a brand is extremely powerful.  Considering that engagement is the first and crucial step of driving long-term customer loyalty, QR codes could play a valuable role in customer engagement.

QR codes are the perfect opportunity to engage with mobile customers.  With endless possibilities for how brands can utilize the technology to reach consumers on an entirely new level:

-       Product ratings

-       Reviews

-       Product-specific videos

-       Exclusive content promotion

-       Tips and trends

-       Promotions

-       Discounts / coupons

Establishing a new form of interaction between the consumer and the brand, this at-your-fingertips technology has customers eager and excited to utilize QR codes to make their lives easier – engaging them with your brand in the process.

FUSION Performance Marketing always looks for new, inventive ways to communicate with your employees, customers and other target audiences.  The use of technology such as QR codes and Snap Tags has opened new doors for our clients in the performance improvement industry.

Reference:  Johnson, Mark.  “QR Codes Drive Customer Engagement.”  Loyalty 360, Aug 15, 2011. http://www.loyalty360.org/state_of_the_industry/qr_codes_drive_customer_engagement/

8 Ways to Engage the Millennial Attendee

Who are the Millenials?

The Millennial generation – a strong willed, technology proficient and constantly connected group of under-30s who leave most meeting planners in a quandary.

Also referred to as Generation Y, the Millenials were born between 1985 – 2004 and “cyber [is] their first language” according to demographics expert Kenneth Gronbach.  While this generation has an extremely strong technological skill set, they are less equipped to handle face-to-face social situations.

So what is the most important key to managing the Millenial attendees of your business meeting?

ENGAGEMENT!

There are many ways you can engage your Millennial attendees from the start of your meeting registration to the completion of the event:

1. Email Marketing Campaigns – an email personalized to the attendee that makes it easy to immediately registered is best.  Direct mail works also, if it is customized to the attendee and provides some type of value for registering.
2. A Clear Registration Website – websites that take too long to download or with too much information will quickly lose the Millennials interest.  Keep content bulleted with a quick action button.
3. Get Connected – Millennials want to be involved before the meeting and can help tune you into what their generation expects out of a meeting or event.  They want to be a part of the meeting.  Open communication is vastly important.
4. Avoid the Lecture – static, lecture-style general sessions are not as well received.  Make it more personal by having the speaker walk through the audience or a talk-show style staging environment.
5. Text-Tolling – having the speaker pose a question during general session and asking attendees to text answers that appear in real-time.  Tweeting is another way to accomplish this same type of instant feedback.
6. Stay Away from Abstract Platitudes – Millennials are not interested in motivational speakers, they want real information – tactics, strategies and something that formulates into a takeaway.  It’s a matter of being real and transparent.
7. Breakout Sessions that Engage – focus on working in teams.  Rather than sitting classroom-style, try pods or crescent rounds where they will feel comfortable engaging in conversation.  Don’t talk at them, talk withthem.  It’s all about interactivity.
8. Structured Activities – Finally, Millennials preferred activities outside of the meeting to be structured – instead of a reception, organize a sit-down meal with assigned seats.  They love corporate service projects and anything that allows for interactive experiences.

FUSION is the expert in group travel.  Learn more about FUSION’s Solutions for Meeting & Incentive Travel Programs.

Reference:  Morell, Katie.  “Managing the Millenial Attendee.”  Meeting Focus, July 2011.  http://www.meetingsfocus.com/Topics/ArticleDetails/tabid/162/ArticleID/16191/Default.aspx?IsPreview=true&utm_source=MagnetMail&utm_medium=eNewsletters&utm_term=mflanagan@fpmglobal.com&utm_content=Meetings%20Hot%20Topic%2007-22-11&utm_campaign=Managing%20the%20Millennial%20Attendee