Case Studies

Liberty Travel

Faced with losing market share to Expedia, Travelocity and other online sellers, traditional retailer, Liberty Travel, needed to develop a front-end website user experience which would connect to its backend technology, which was then under development. With no prior online distribution experience, Liberty turned to Black & Wright to go through all of the steps necessary to develop a world-class website, and tie in the expertise of its 3,000 agents located in Liberty’s 400 stores. First we engaged Forrester Research to give a competitive analysis, and best practice view of current online intermediaries. Next, we developed an RFP to attract the right-fit interactive agency. After selecting Avenue A/Razorfish as our developer, we then worked for 6 months on developing the roadmap, information architecture, mood board, leading-edge functionality, and branding. For example, we were among the first to include customer reviews from TripAdvisor, combined with detailed Liberty agent product knowledge, within the booking path. The front end was finished on time and on budget – and was touted as “best in class” by Forrester Research analysts, who reviewed the end result. Unfortunately, the backend technology was never completed before the company was purchased by Flight Centre in 2008, and this website was never debuted. However, many cutting-edge applications developed for the Liberty site was then transferred to the new Southwest site (www.southwestair.com), which was unveiled earlier in the year, by agency partner, Avenue A/Razorfish.

GOGO Worldwide Vacations

GOGO Worldwide Vacations was faced with losing market share to its competitors, Travel Impressions, Apple Vacations, and Mark Travel. In addition, competitors to Hawaii, including Pleasant Holidays and Classic Custom Vacations were increasing East Coast market shares against GOGO. To regain prominence among travel agents, and secure a higher ranking among suppliers, GOGO worked with Black & Wright to develop more effective marketing programs for its agency customers, consortia partners and other affiliates. First, we studied the most effective “best practices” of our competitive set. Then we looked outside wholesalers, and studied OTA/affiliate partnerships. Next we worked with our hotel suppliers to determine the best ways to work with our b-to-b customers. Finally, we developed overhauled b-to-b marketing opportunities for our partners, and paired them with the most productive sellers in each category. Further, we engaged a top email marketing firm to develop custom agent email campaigns (a first in the industry), coupled with triggered messaging. Result: Within one year, GOGO was once again the leading wholesale partner to most Caribbean luxury properties, had the highest market share of Mexican luxury sales in GOGO’s 54-year history (together with the highest ADRs), and enjoyed a rebound in Hawaii bookings among its East Coast and Midwest agency partners.

Fodor’s Travel Guides (Random House)

Fodor’s Travel Guides had successfully revitalized its brand, gained print market share and built the foundation for a strong online business.  Yet during that time competition had been making major investments to transition from print to online travel.  Add to that the changes in consumers’ online travel behavior, coupled with media buyers demand for greater targeting and “down the funnel” content, and it was evident that Fodors.com needed to revitalize its site. Fodors.com needed to not only be in line with the competition, but anticipate online travel trends in the near future.

First we reviewed the site for potential new revenue opportunities; from this, we developed a new revenue growth model and financial plan.  To confirm the potential, we conducted an advertising marketplace survey of leading interactive ad agencies – with a practice focus on travel advertisers –  to determine which vehicles digital media buyers were looking for, performance standards, online ad vehicles and rates they were willing to pay.

We used this data, and engaged Crispin Porter + Bogusky (formerly TextureMedia)  to develop new page designs that met the travel media standards, based on our primary research.  Finally, we worked with the Fodor’s sales team to refine the story and develop new sales techniques.  The results: a 600% Y-O-Y sales/revenue growth by Q3 2009.

Liberty Travel/GOGO Worldwide Vacations

AOL Travel was looking for long-term private label travel supplier for its retail brand and issued RFP’s from three large travel companies, including our client, Liberty Travel/GOGO Worldwide Vacations.  The Black & Wright Group was engaged to develop a major presentation to include supplier technology analyses, a financial and performance history and financial pro former for the potential partnership.

The proposal included a comprehensive new revenue model with pricing, online vacation market projections, a new vacation product presentation with recommendations along with suggestions for technology modifications.

CheapCaribbean.com

In 2005, CheapCaribbean.com was a 2-year old niche OTA, which focused exclusively on selling online vacation packages to Mexico and the Caribbean. As a new entity, this start-up did not have a track record in sales to the region. Via superior online marketing initiatives, we were able to position CheapCaribbean.com as a “deals partner” to many of the region’s luxury resort properties, and convert distressed inventory to profitable room sales to new online markets. Through our analytics, we were able to determine the media partners, affiliates and keywords that delivered the most effective ROI for our marketing spend, and tap into new markets for our partners. In most cases, we were the only intermediary able to package, load and blast offers for hotel partners within a 24-hour period. Further, we identified then up-and-coming media partners, such as Travelzoo and Sherman’s Travel, as effective distributors, using our analytics. Based on conversion numbers, we were then able to consult with our partners, and direct them to create specific top-selling vacation package product (with high ADRs) to our online customer base. The result: In 2005-2006 – with less than three years in the marketplace – CheapCaribbean.com was named the top seller of Mexico’s Intercontinental Hotels Group (delivering the highest ADRs); as well as one of the top five producers to the Dominican Republic, Cancun, Barbados, Aruba and Puerto Rico (alongside established sellers: Expedia, GOGO, Travel Impressions, Apple Vacations, and Travelocity).

Travelscream

Travelscream is an ad network which utilizes leading technology to distribute travel deals across the internet to reach millions of travelers.  The deal publishing space was heating up and the client needed a review and refinement of the business model, its market positioning and value proposition to determine what was most effective.  The client also needed deep industry insight as well as networking to gain traction faster.

We changed partner distribution from low-volume online magazines to high-traffic portals and travel sites; changed the value proposition to a white-label, scalable deal distributor for all deal providers, including OTAs in order to tap into higher revenue and profits.

We also re-developed the rate structure from fixed-price, low volume, to high-profit PPC rates -significantly increasing the number of advertisers.

The result has been accelerated growth and industry acceptance with potential suppliers as well as affiliates understanding and resonating well with the more targeted value message.

iSeatz

iSeatz is the global provider of customized online travel and entertainment solutions. We met them when they were a start-up, offering online reservations for restaurants and local attractions.  They needed to fast-track their knowledge of the travel industry as well as meet potential distribution, so we helped identify and develop a series of transactions that would rapidly increase revenue and position the company for an opportunity to develop additional business relationships, enhance distribution, marketing, fund raising and possible licensing opportunities.

As iSeatz grew, The Black & Wright Group was there to support them through some of the rough spots as well as continue to support their B2B marketing efforts. This included developing better agreements between distributors and suppliers and negotiations with major OTAs.

Then, in 2006, iSeatz won a non-air product distribution agreement with Delta Airlines and needed to quickly develop new platform architecture that would enable hotel inventory distribution AND meet as yet unknown future requirements.  We teamed with Blue Group Technology to develop the architecture and oversee initial development with iSeatz developers.  That design has become the foundation for iSeatz current activities with major airlines worldwide.

Kulula Airlines, Johannesburg, South Africa

This popular South African airline was coming into its own as a low cost carrier with a growing online following.  Yet it faced a number of growth related challenges, including transforming a traditional business model to an ecommerce model; upgrading its technology to meet new demands and integration of non-air products.

Working in conjunction with our partners at T2Impact, we provided website analysis, a site usability roadmap, developed a new financial model for higher revenues and ROI analysis, and created high level web architecture and re-design.

Non-air supplier relations are also critical, so we met with some of the supplier-partners to support negotiations for new longer term agreements.