I am still a bit stunned by the idea that the lessons from Southwest's "Ding," and the Virgin Atlantic Branded Desktop Applications (BDAs) largely haven't been learned by the rest of the hospitality industry.
Southwest is enjoying 45 percent of its Ding users coming back to book again in stark contrast to the industry-usual 27 percent. Virgin saw 100 percent ROI on development costs in three months.
Only Best Western has thrown its hat into the ring with "Knock Knock," a BDA that enables consumers to reserve hotel rooms and receive discounted offers on rates. Though there's not much available about the results, the application itself does more to imitate Ding than it does to realize the potential available through this technology.
All the more perplexing is why not one of myriad early technology adopters in Las Vegas has considered this channel. After all, it's a town built on using technology to not only conquer nature, but to shape it into the hyper-real entertainment experience our country has come to know and love.
Las Vegas is a perfect test case to talk about the possibilities of BDAs in their most flamboyant form on the user experience side, while delivering real ROI, metrics and revenue back to the office.
If you're asking yourself what a BDA is, it's worth taking a minute to view this brief introductory video to cover the basics. Or simply click over to any of my previous iMedia articles on the subject in different verticals.
And please leave a comment below, or contact me using the link above with any questions or comments. The more these articles can be a two-way conversation, the more they will help everyone deliver truly meaningful experiences.
Closed social networks
Las Vegas has spent a lot of time on its TV and internet creative work about the secrets people keep as a valuable souvenir of their trip to The Strip. On the web, there is a great section of visitlasvegas.com where you can develop complete secret personas, or prepare your own alibi for explaining yourself upon your return.
In the backstory of these efforts are the clandestine conversations between those who shared the vacation experience together, and here's where the value can be realized for Vegas resorts.
On the desktop, you can create a secure channel for chat, picture and video sharing, and other social activities among a closed network of linked friends. This is a perfect channel for Las Vegas because while people who vacationed there together will want to share their memories of the trip, they don't want to post them to Flickr, YouTube, or any other place where you'd be advertising to the world your private escapades in exchange for functionality.
The end result is an incredibly personal micro-targeted campaign without any database heavy-lifting. Utterly viral, hospitality widgets that use closed social networking tools give friends a protected way to socialize, and they wrap all this reminiscing into a tool for resort branding.
In many ways, it's more than just branding because brands can have the instantaneous metrics to push personalized offers right back to that group. Now, this group of friends can relive the vacation, organize the next trip and be one convenient click away from making the reservation for everyone, without ever opening a web browser.
Next: Play is the thing?
