During the Connect Travel Marketing Leadership Summit in 2020, we had the opportunity to be interviewed by the Destination Marketing Podcast. It was fun to share our foundational story from 10 years ago in the event space to our evolution today into servicing Destination Marketing Organizations. Grab some popcorn and have a listen:
Wow. Great product.
Adam Stoker, Host of Destination Marketing Podcast
A few excerpts:
You’ve come up with a solution to fill these shoulder season issues that destinations are having. You’ve done that for Vancouver. I just wanted to make sure that we touch on that significantly since it’s such a critical thing for so many destinations. It has huge value.”
So you will work with a resort or an attraction within a destination, but then you’ll also work with the overall destination. And if I’m understanding it correctly, the whole point of it is to make sure that the people that are bringing in traffic…can benefit from sending that traffic [improve the guest experience, collect data, & make commission] and distributing it to lodging suppliers.
Adam Stoker, Host of Destination Marketing Podcast
I think until now DMOs done a fantastic job of bringing that consumer in. They spend a lot of time and effort on marketing their destination, and then they get there and lose the opportunity to control the experience.”
They [DMOs] now have data to support and to show what their marketing efforts are, rather than saying, “we sent through 2,000 clicks to a hotel.” Now, you can show room nights…what they’re searching for, booking patterns, and even to show how much money you’re saving hoteliers.”
We always try to say, “Why book here?” “Why would you actually book on a destination marketing site?” Right? And it’s about providing value. So, in the case of Vancouver and in St. George, you really look at what can we do differently. Especially in the off-season. A lot of these organizations have funding specifically for this purpose. So, with our system that’s very locally focused and customized, they can add value on top of that.”
Vancouver, we go from booking nothing in the [peak] summer months to booking $3-4 million of lodging for in the winter season. Saving their hoteliers hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions.
Jason Linder, President & CEO of Ripe
That’s when the light bulb came on and said, “All right, this is clearly a product for destinations.”
Then, we’ve worked with ski areas with lift ticket integrations, so we have ski areas all up and down the West Coast and now we’re really starting to get into the destinations themselves, specifically. It started in Vancouver, British Columbia, believe it or not, that was our first DMO.
This software is not only for destinations but also for the Ironman World Championships in 2021, so that’s a great event keeping us back into our core. Where the events and the destinations have a clear correlation. Right?”
It used to be a click. That’s not how you measured it, that’s not a real conversion. Conversions. That’s a big gap. It’s the conversion space. A click is not an endpoint. They [DMOs] are really driven to drive for visitation, right? And that’s what we help them promote, to help make that happen.
Mark McGill, Ripe VP of Sales & Business Development
