Compass Media Launches New Website for Dolphin Cruises, Inc.

Compass Media is pleased to announce the launch of a new website for Dolphin Cruises, Inc. of Orange Beach, Alabama. The site features a bright, beautiful design that perfectly showcases the spectacular experience of dolphin-watching aboard the Cold Mil Fleet of Dolphin Cruises, Inc. 

“We developed this site perfectly to the client’s wishes and it is a huge improvement over their previous design,” said Scott Crider, Compass Media’s V.P. of Interactive Media & Technology. “This was a large collaborative effort by the Compass Media team, and the result is a site that really reflects the quality of the dolphin-watching experience their customers get, which is spectacular.”

Morgan Robinson and Rebecca Chapman, both of Compass Media’s Interactive Team, served as Project Manager and Programmer, respectively.

Visit http://www.dolphincruises.com

Compass Media's J. Gary Ellis Receives Victor Profis Memorial Travel Award

J. Gary Ellis

Compass Media of Gulf Shores Honored by Louisiana Travel Promotion Association

Victor Profis award recognizes media who go the extra mile

Gulf Shores, Ala. -- January 27, 2012 -- The Louisiana Travel Promotion Association (LTPA) has honored J. Gary Ellis and his company, Gulf Shores, Alabama-based Compass Media, with its 2012 ‘Victor Profis Memorial Travel Media Award.’ This award, one of the annual "Louey Tourism Awards," is given to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the travel industry and have created ‘innovative, results-producing strategies/programs for attracting visitors to Louisiana.’ 

Compass Media President and Owner J. Gary Ellis accepted the award at the "Louey" Tourism Awards Luncheon Thursday, January 26 during the 2012 Louisiana Travel and Tourism Summit in Shreveport. "Promoting Southeast tourism is the single most important passion at Compass Media," said Ellis when accepting the award. "It is an honor and it is gratifying to be recognized by a highly respected organization such as LTPA for doing something we so love."

Now in its third year, the "Louey Tourism Awards" recognizes individuals and organizations in 11 categories for their outstanding contributions to the tourism industry. The ‘Victor Profis Memorial Travel Media Award’ was created and named in honor of Southern Living magazine’s Travel and Tourism Director who lost his courageous battle with cancer. 

Compass Media, recipient of numerous rewards over its 26 years in business, connects the unique culture and experience of Southern U.S. destinations directly to targeted leisure travelers. Powered by creativity, engaging content, and technology innovation, Compass Media creates engaging marketing programs that connect places with people. 

In a recent re-branding, a sea turtle was chosen to represent Compass Media. “Sea turtles are master navigators,” says J. Gary Ellis. Their instincts allow hatchlings to navigate across the sand to the water, and adult females to migrate across thousands of miles to return to the exact beach they were born on to lay their eggs. “It’s like a built-in compass,” Ellis says. Likewise, Compass Media's business is helping clients navigate their way through the currents of challenging waters of tourism marketing. But the sea turtle represents a much bigger picture of Compass Media's philosophy and practices and is iconic of the company's passion for sustainable business and tourism. Says Ellis, "Sustainability is and always will be a work in progress, and we are proud to be a part of those efforts here in Coastal Alabama."

See www.compassmedia.com for more information.

Help Save Sea Turtles

At Compass Media, we love sea turtles - so much so that we adopted the sea turtle to represent our brand (find out why). Now you can help save them too, if you live in the state of Alabama. 

We helped "Share the Beach" design this beautiful new specialty license plate so that you can show your support for the protection of sea turtles and help raise vital funding for the program; but we need your help! To make it happen, the Alabama Motor Vehicle Division must receive 1,000 commitments from supporters, like you, who will purchase the plate. 

Please go to your Alabama Motor Vehicle Division office and ask for the "Share the Beach" specialty license plate commitment form today! Please note that you will be required to pay the $50 donation at the time you submit the form. Once there are 1,000 commitments, the tags will be produced and you'll be notified! Before you know it, you'll be driving around with one of the coolest license plates ever made.

Please help by spreading the word through your networks, too! To learn more about the process, visit this Facebook page  or contact the Alabama Motor Vehicle Division. 

Thank you,

Team Turtle
Compass Media, Inc.

How Travel Companies Use Social Media Well

We read a great article this week about how some travel industry companies are using social media the right way to support their brands. Carnival Cruise Lines is a great example. They have been working for some time to grow their Facebook presence. In fact, Carnival's television ads stopped mentioning the company's website long ago - instead, they push consumers to Facebook.

But it is not merely Carnival's focus on growing it's Facebook page that earns it a gold star for social media smarts. It is what Carnival does with it's fans on Facebook.

By engaging with consumers directly, and framing the conversation, Carnival is helping consumers generate positive comments and reviews. 

This is vitally important in a world where companies have no control over customer reviews placed all over the Internet. No company is perfect, and all make mistakes. Unfortunately, consumers are not nearly as likely to post reviews when they are happy as they are when they are mad. What better way for a company to combat this quirk of human nature than to engage with happy and excited customers and invite their feedback?

In the example shown above, Carnival asks customers following the company on Facebook to share what port they'd recommend to their friends, and why. It generated 479 "Likes," 752 comments, and 20 shares - ensuring that literally thousands (perhaps tens-of-thousands) of new people connected to Carnival's  fans were exposed to Carnival's brand in a positive way.

iPhone Camera Upgrades You May Not Know You Have

If you recently downloaded the new iOS5 software for your iPhone you got several upgrades to your iPhone camera that you may not even be aware you have. Check out this presentation on Mashable to see for yourself!

Facebook's "New Class of Apps"

Facebook announced major changes to its platform last week, changes that will have a very big impact on how businesses engage with customers online. 

Increasingly in this new paradigm, your brand will be discovered – and new customers acquired – not by your advertising efforts, but by consumers who merely observe what brands their friends choose to engage with.

With the new structure of Open Graph, Facebook has created a platform for what it calls “frictionless sharing” – no longer will consumers have to actively share your brand – all they need to do is use your brand and their friends will know it.

If you have the right app.

To be successful in this new paradigm, your app has to do more. It has to provide a valuable or entertaining service that is consistent with your brand – and that your customers want to use and make a part of their life.

Facebook is calling for a "new class of apps" that consumers will make a part of their personal Facebook page - and their lifestyle-- and use frequently. But the space consumers will be willing to give apps on their pages will be limited, so competition among brands will be fierce. 

"The more engaging your app is," Facebook says, "the more people will discover it."

At Compass Media, we are already well into the development of several such apps, based on our proven track record of identifying high-impact opportunities and building engaging apps that leverage viral sharing and capture opt-in customer data.

Let us know what we can do to help you.

DMAI e-News: Holy Cr@p! Co-op Marketing and the Social Media Revolution

Here is the text of an article written by Compass Media's Scott Crider. Scott, our Vice President of Interactive Media, wrote this article for yesterday's Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) e-Newsletter (published 9/26/11).

Scott will also be speaking on this topic at DMAI's DestinationManagement & Marketing Institute in Tunica, MS on Nov. 7-9. 

We hope to see you there!

Holy Cr@p! Co-op Marketing and the Social Media Revolution

Social Media is the hot topic, but has it really opened up quantifiable new opportunities for destination marketers? The short answer to this question is “yes.” The longer answer is, well, longer.

First, some perspective.

Facebook is nothing less than a stunning force in marketing. Founded just 7 years ago in a college dorm room, the site now boasts over 750 million active users worldwide (Source: Wikipedia). In the U.S., the site is projected to boast over 150 million users next year (that’s almost half of all Americans!).

And it’s not all kids.

Are you ready for this jaw-dropper? That means 93% of adult U.S. Internet users are on Facebook (Source: Hubspot).

Not only that, but U.S. consumers aren’t just dabbling around Facebook occasionally. They’re devouring it daily. A study last year showed that half of all Facebook users admitted they check it every day, often multiple times. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the average user spends more than 11 hours per month on the site.

That makes Facebook the biggest “time sink” on the Internet. 

According to eMarketer, Facebook continues to entrench itself into consumer’s daily lives through diversification. No longer is the site primarily for keeping up with who is in a relationship with whom. What started as a “play” social network, eMarketer says, “has evolved into an all-purpose destination that is beginning to replace e-mail, instant messaging, video-sharing, gaming, and other activities that were otherwise scattered across unconnected venues.”

Considering these stats, it’s no wonder that around 80% of all businesses have by now created a Facebook page. In fact, a brand new Duke University survey of 249 U.S. Chief Marketing Officers indicated that, on average, they plan to dramatically increase use of social media over the next five years.

At the same time, though, marketing executives remain confused by social media. Many now have performance indicators built around social media metrics (such as growing Facebook “Likes”) but have little idea how to do so in a way that is strategically sound and deliver a discernable return on the investment.

The Duke University survey seems to agree, saying marketers “admitted they have a ways to go toward integrating social media in their strategy.” On a scale of 1-7, with one being “not integrated at all” almost one-quarter of marketing executives selected “one” to describe how well their company's social media is integrated with the firm's overall strategy.

Back to the original question: Has social media really opened up quantifiable new opportunities for destination marketers? You bet it has. And if you get creative, the opportunities can be enormous.

Let’s talk about an emerging trend in co-op marketing.

Virtually all media companies - television stations, radio stations, newspaper and magazine publishers - now have Facebook pages. They are challenged to continually grow “Likes” and provide innovative, fresh content that engages their audiences. Furthermore, they struggle to integrate their Facebook pages with their main programming and content. 

DMOs can help media companies solve their “Facebook problem,” as one TV executive I know refers to it, and receive tens-of-thousands of dollars worth of free advertising and hundreds – even thousands – of new, targeted, drive market leads in exchange.

How?

Media companies have hundreds of thousands of viewers, listeners, and readers (even millions, depending on the market). DMO’s have destinations that offer consumers attractive travel opportunities. By using Facebook to tie the two together, amazing results can be achieved.

I know of one case study about a DMO/TV Station/Facebook co-op marketing partnership in which the TV station experienced:

-40% increase in Facebook fans

-325% increase in consumer engagement (comments and shares)

-50% increase in monthly active users

While the DMO received:

-506 TV spots

-30 live on-air promotions (news and morning shows)

-25,000 Web impressions

-Over 800 highly targeted leads

-1,200% ROI (total advertising & lead value)

It’s a true win-win situation. And this occurred in a small market in which the TV station’s Facebook page had less than 3,000 “Likes” to begin with. In a large market, where TV stations frequently have 50,000 or more “Likers” to begin with, and much more expensive advertising rates, a DMO could receive many, many thousands of high quality leads and many, many thousands of dollars worth of advertising for a very low investment. 

In a word: ROI. I’m talking ridiculous, over-the-top, downright gaudy ROI.

The key element in this co-op marketing opportunity is a Facebook app designed to process sweepstakes entries. There are several companies around the U.S. that create and license Facebook apps, and some [like Compass Media *] even provide campaign management and technical support.

Using an app, and some creativity and ingenuity, your DMO can be an early beneficiary of this emerging trend. Put together a win-win co-op promotion with a media partner in a key market, and you’ll gain your destination a huge amount of exposure, tons of high-quality leads, and – best of all - a remarkable return on investment.

*Note: This link did not appear in the DMAI e-News edition of this article.

Scott Crider is Vice President, Interactive Media – Compass Media, Inc. in Gulf Shores, AL, and can be reached at scrider@compassmedia.com or +1.251.967.7548