3 Truths + 1 Update

3 THINGS WE'VE LEARNED FROM INTERVIEWING 30+ MARKETING LEADERS

One of the best parts of running eLearningU for the past several months has been the weekly live lessons, where we host some of the smartest and most interesting leaders in tourism marketing. We tend to expand the scope of those conversations to incorporate a lot of topics, so in addition to hospitality and hotel experts, we've hosted lessons with platforms like Google, Pinterest, and TripAdvisor, and interviews with leaders from MEC, Salomon, and RedBull (among many others).

Rather than keep all of that knowledge to ourselves, I want to summarize a few of the most universal, and most common, themes that keep coming up:

There's untapped value in collaboration

One of the most common observations from non-tourism leaders is how well the industry works together and how much value everyone gets as a result. Specifically, tourism brands are often under-resourced, but they do have access to beautiful locations, interesting personalities, and local knowledge. Some brands have reported saving thousands of dollars in production costs and gaining additional reach by partnering with tourism organizations, rather than always trying to go it alone. This same model could surely apply to a variety of other industries.

There's no love for Meta

I don't think I've heard any leader express optimism or excitement about a single Meta property. To be clear, they're also not dumping on them (publicly), but all of the curiosity seems to be about TikTok, podcasting, and offline activations. Does that meant we should all be shutting down our Instagram accounts? Of course not, but in times like these, smart marketers test new formats and tactics so when a macro shift does happen, they're ready to make the leap.

Keep it simple, because that's what works

Every time I sit down with a leader from a world-famous brand, I expect to hear about some magical formula or a complicated set of techniques that have led to their success. Instead, what I hear is how the basics build the results – making sure our website is optimized for search, we're paying attention to our Google Analytics, and we're regularly creating content that our audiences genuinely appreciate. By focusing on the next shiny marketing tactic, it seems that smaller organizations can ignore the foundational practices that deliver real, sustainable business outcomes.

I hope these insights are as interesting to you as they are to us – our plan is to regularly share the gems that we're uncovering over at eLearningU here in The Brief.

HERE'S WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• In another feature update that nobody asked for, Instagram is allowing users to upload 60-second videos to Stories and will no longer break them into 15-second chunks
• Facebook ad performance is tanking across the board, but yours might be due to these common and fixable issues, as explained by AdEspresso
• As if we needed additional proof that TikTok is the new search engine, Search Engine Journal just put out its breakdown of the latest trends and how brands can use them to get found

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting