Throughout the last year, we have witnessed an extreme increase in online traffic and consumer trends, which has been entirely controlled by the pandemic and lockdown measures that have been implemented. Shifts in people's day to day and landscapes have been unprecedented, with one main change being 86% of people working from home. One prominent trend the team at The Branding Spa has observed is how impactful YouTube and TikTok videos have influenced future travellers' booking decisions. A Walker study found that by the end of 2020, customer experience had overtaken price as the most crucial part of the decision process.

YouTube and TikTok Metrics

YouTube is now the second most popular social media platform on the internet. With over 3.7 million active TikTok users in the UK and set to reach 10 million worldwide in 2021, it's no surprise consumers are using these two platforms to reaffirm their booking decisions. Although the last year has been a strain on all business, The Branding Spa has seen an increase in demand for video content creation. The second most popular search engine after Google, YouTube, now receives more searches per month, then the likes of Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined. By hotels and travel businesses alike using these platforms, they're able to increase their online presence dramatically and reach a brand-new target market.

TikTok says that 70% of its users are of the new Gen-Zen era and can achieve unprecedented viewing figures on the app, unlike any other, with some video's even going viral. It's not just lip-syncing and dancing anymore - the platform has now really started to niche down with the hashtag #hotel alone gaining 2.7 billion views and #travel having 32.6 billion views. The platform is also increasing with downloads amongst the other age categories, which is reminiscent of Facebook and Instagram's early days before they became the significant social players, showing the prime time to grow and leverage the platform is now.

Amy Berry, Founder - The Branding Spa

'As video proves itself to be the more trustworthy medium online, customers are looking to visualise their experience before booking. YouTube has now introduced YouTube Shorts and Instagram has introduced Reels in reaction to the popularity of TikTok. This confirms that how we consume video is changing. The organic reach possible for even new users is way above the potential on other social media platforms. As a hotel marketer, it would be foolish not to take inspiration from the content being shared and educate our clients on this new media marketing era. Alongside increasing the reach of their beautiful properties with strategic visual marketing, which in return will fuel the economic bounce back.'

The Power of a Viral TikTok Video

An outstanding example of the incredible reach and generation of awareness achieved on TikTok is shown through a video The Branding Spa created for a popular hotel in Italy. The Branding Spa worked closely with a Micro-Influencer to create a short but concise aspirational video to showcase the hotel's restaurant on the platform (video here). Through the power of creative marketing and insight, the video has now gained over 2.5 million views worldwide and nearly 20,200 shares, with users heavily commenting that this video has driven them to consider this hotel as a holiday destination. Overall showing how powerful TikTok marketing can be in this ever-changing social world and how it can translate content into bookings and, in turn, re-gaining revenue unfortunately lost by many in the travel leisure industry over the past year.