Lastminute.com group has announced the launch of new media business The Travel People, aimed to help brands and advertisers reach the group’s 10 million annual customers.
The Travel People, which offers third party brands the opportunity to advertise with the group, will be led by chief advertising officer Alessandra Di Lorenzo, formerly eBay Advertising commercial director, who will be headquartered in London.
“This is a bold new chapter for lastminute.com group and I’m really excited to be part of it,” commented Di Lorenzo. “The group’s diverse portfolio of online travel brands attracts 35 million unique visitors every month, so we’re uniquely equipped to help other brands both in, and out, of the travel sector to reach lucrative travel and lifestyle audiences across Europe.”
The Travel People, which will provide media solutions across lastminute.com, Rumbo, Volagratis, Bravofly and Jetcost which operate through 40 countries, will utilise audience information and re-marketing technologies to engage its customer groups on site, and to re-connect with them when they are browsing other websites, before, during and after travel across channels.
“We’ve implemented a set of new tools and new technologies and new capabilities that really bring us up to speed with 2016 marketing technology so it’s a very exciting time now to not only give ourselves a new name but also tell the market about all the new capabilities we have,” added Di Lorenzo.
“Ebay is an eCommerce business, it’s based on getting people to buy things online and so is lastminute.com, it’s just a different thing that people are buying,” she commented. “People are buying travel.
“I learned a lot about how to make a media solution work in an eCommerce business at Ebay and it was just a fantastic opportunity and all the data that Ebay has and the stuff that I learned there around media powered by insights is definitely something we’re re-purposing here with The Travel People.”
Di Lorenzo went on to say how the group is profiling customers in a new way, deriving new insights from the database and offering audience targeting capabilities, as well as partnering with a leading DMP.
“We’re building lots of new high impact and rich media formats which we hope to launch very soon, we’re hoping that our homepages will enable advertisers to deliver much more high impact to the customers,” she commented.
“I think the key is that we are working on customising and really deeply partnering with our advertisers and brand partners to do thing that will really stand out.
Although Di Lorenzo says the business will use standard media formats, she felt the concept, which concerns integrated and native content advertising, is very new. “We’ve got a hub of creative designers, content developers and we’ll be building lots of stories with our clients and then populating these stories on our site.
“Our powerful data means we don’t just know where our customers like to go – we know what they love to do when they get there. With travel sites and apps in 17 languages and 40 countries, we offer access to a truly diverse consumer audience, and help brands to target by passion, rather than by demographic.
“We aim to create lots of opportunities for the brands that go way beyond the booking”
Lastminute.com chief executive officer Fabio Cannavale described The Travel Peopl as a “fantastic addition” demonstrating addition to invest and grow the group’s unique portfolio of brands/
“Ten million customers enjoy travel and lifestyle experiences with us every year, making us the perfect partner for brands wanting to reach purchase-ready travellers across Europe.”
