Travel companies are using the Web to reach consumers during the planning phase, as well as to target those who have booked certain trips or are traveling for business.

How many times have you driven to an airport and wound up in a near modern day equivalent of a Buridan’s Ass dilemma? (A quick philosophical review: Buridan’s Ass refers to the notion of a hungry donkey that is placed between two loads of hay that are equidistant and possess the same quantity and quality. With the animal so placed, it could never decide to which load of hay it should turn to, and consequentially would die of hunger.) If you go for the short-term parking, though it’s closer to the terminal, it will cost you far more than seeking long-term parking, but alas, long-term parking may mean missing your flight, along with the added inconvenience of hunting down the terminal bus…and oops! You just drove around the entire airport circle while pondering that decision.

Founded nearly four years ago, The Parking Spot (TPS) operates in 10 near-airport facilities at eight major U.S. airports. The company provides door-to-door parking-to-airport terminal service. Travelers are offered such amenities as a free USA Today newspaper at entry, bottled water at exit, and luggage assistance.

Because the near-airport parking industry is highly fragmented, TPS was looking for “a highly targeted way to reach air travelers with minimal waste,” says Mark Wildman, vice president of marketing for TPS. The relationship between The Parking Spot and Sabre Virtually There (SVT) began somewhat coincidentally in February 2001. “The Area Sales Manager for SVT, Laurie Morse, parked at our facility at Dallas Fort Worth airport and was a big fan of our brand and our service,” says Wildman. “Our brand is hard to miss at the airport. We drive highly visible yellow shuttles with black spots with sayings on the side like ‘Think This Looks Ridiculous? Try Missing Your Flight.’ Laurie recognized the opportunity to drive awareness and trial for our brand with Sabre Virtually There by reaching confirmed air travelers before departure.”

TPS had been advertising with Travelocity, but the ads were not reaching 100% of its target market. TPS and SVT developed a test (CPM) campaign for the Dallas and Atlanta markets using several different creative ad units to measure the effectiveness of the targetability that SVT could offer. As Darlene Rondeau, vice president of sales for SVT, shares, “We really wanted to make sure that we all understood if this was going to work out or not…we do a lot of partnering with our clients, and so our approach with a lot of our partners is ‘let’s work together, let’s understand what you’re trying to achieve, as we have a lot of resources at our disposal.’”

During the test campaign, TPS approached the tracking of online activity offline in a unique way; it added an SVT key on the register in each test market. Whenever a traveler would bring in a coupon or printed itinerary with the ad on it, TPS could push a button that applied a discount for the transaction and tracked the transaction history. SVT also optimized the campaign. It found that by specifically advertising to people who were staying overnight, it doubled the click-through rate.

The results of the online campaign were compelling enough for Wildman to bring the results to his regional managers and convince them that they could fill up their parking lots if they contributed to the online advertising initiative. (In fact, Wildman shared with us that 16% of the regional marketing budgets are now allocated for online, with SVT representing 13% of the regional marketing budgets.) This regional support ultimately “led to the next buy which was 10X as much, and it opened it to all of TPS’s markets,” says Renee Cashion, manager of media services at Sabre Media. A ten-fold increase in the size of the buy would not have been possible without the timely reporting of campaign results that SVT offered. “[It] helps us keep our board and our field personnel informed of the results of the campaign,” notes Wildman.

The relationship between TPS and SVT has evolved into a more extensive program for 2002. As Wildman shares, “It includes all of our markets and some larger creative units such as a 720 x 300 pop-under ad. Although it’s more expensive on a CPM basis, it has exceeded pay-out too due to the higher click-through rate (close to 3% since March 2002) vs. the 400 x 15 ad.”

Some other highlights of the current campaign over the past five months:

• It has beaten break-even metrics in every market and in total
• SVT is consistently one of the top five coupons redeemed at each facility
• More than 2,000 conversions have resulted from SVT leads.

“It’s been a very successful campaign,” says Cashion. “We can filter out people that can’t take advantage of their services. Only the people that can use him will see the ads.”

Targeting customers in the right mind-set is the holy grail of most marketing initiatives, and the travel industry has great tools at its disposal to deliver relevant offers. But tracking online effectiveness offline can pose a significant challenge. TPS seems to have found the right integrated solution. “I think it represents the perfect model,” says Cashion. “For tracking, it is something that we can only hope for the majority of our clients…which is tied to the marketing objectives. TPS has been one of our best clients as far as tracking redemption and conversions towards the campaign.”

The Web will continue to play a significant role in TPS’s business evolution. “We reference our Website, TheParkingSpot.com, on virtually every piece of communication that reaches the consumer (including the backs of the shuttles)” says Wildman. From a CRM perspective, the company has a new electronic frequent parker program called The Spot Club. “Guests receive a mag-striped card at one of our facilities and present the card at checkout to receive points good for free parking now and other travel-related awards down the road. The beauty of this program is that it is all Web-based. The guests register their cards, check their account balances and request/print awards online. We collect the customer data at the time of registration to track usage behavior and send permission-based promotional e-mails.” He also believes that the company’s eCRM initiatives are helping to drive repeat business, especially important in a down travel market. And of course, the company will continue to evolve the relationship with Sabre to find the most effective online media mix.

The Parking Spot has facilities in Los Angeles (LAX), Atlanta, Dallas (DFW – two facilities and Love Field), Houston (Bush Intercontinental and Hobby), St. Louis (two facilities) and Kansas City. It also manages two other parking facilities in Orlando and Boston.