Natalie Bowman

At Advertising Week in New York, Kristi Argyilan of Uber and Don Vassel of Delta Air Lines shared a compelling vision for the future of customer relationships — one built through data collaboration that transforms isolated transactions into meaningful, connected experiences. Imagine this journey: while booking a Delta flight, you receive an offer for Uber Reserve, seamlessly connect with your driver upon landing, and order from Uber Eats en route so your meal is waiting when you arrive. Each touchpoint is contextually relevant — and collectively, they deepen loyalty. As Vihan Sharma highlighted, this is what happens when brands collaborate responsibly with data — enabled by LiveRamp ’s interoperable platform, designed to protect privacy — to deliver value for customers while building long-term trust and engagement. A fascinating discussion about what it takes to move beyond transactions to consumer experiences that build loyalty

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Most travel brands I talk to think their paid media is broken. Then we dig into the numbers and find a $750 customer acquisition cost driving $30,000 trips with 25% margins. That's not broken. That's a machine. So what's actually the problem? Had a strategy call recently with a luxury safari and expedition brand. Multi-destination, multi-channel, complex inventory across Africa, South America, and the Galápagos. Their paid performance looked solid on paper. But here's what they were wrestling with: They couldn't connect keyword-level data to actual revenue. Manual stitching, duct tape analytics, CRM in mid-construction. So they had no real baseline to optimize against. Their budget had to serve everything — brand, performance, new product launches, distressed inventory — all from the same constrained pool. And they were stuck in reactive mode. Money went wherever the fire was, not where the opportunity lived. Sound familiar? The thing is, you can have efficient paid media and still be leaving money on the table. If you can't trace a click to a closed booking, you're flying blind. If your offline conversion data isn't feeding back into the ad platform, Google can't learn what a qualified lead looks like versus the 85% that never convert. Here's what I told them: before we talk about scaling spend, we need to know if there's room between your current CAC and what's actually possible. If we can shave 10% off that acquisition cost, that's not just savings — it's headroom for more qualified leads, more bookings, more margin. Small budgets demand precision. You can't afford to spray and pray. Every dollar has to pull weight. So if your paid performance looks "fine" but you're not sure if it's actually working, start here: Can you connect a keyword to a booking? If not, that's the gap worth closing first. ------- For more travel marketing insights, subscribe to our bi-weekly deep dive, the NavLog. You can find it at propellic[dot]com/navlog #travelmarketing #luxurytravel #paidmedia #digitalmarketingstrategy #safaritravel

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Five questions to quickly evaluate your kosher program A lot of airlines and hotels tell me, “We offer kosher, so we’re covered.” But if you want to know whether your kosher offering actually matches your brand, here are five simple questions to ask internally: 1️⃣ Would you be comfortable serving this meal to a non-kosher VIP? If the answer is no, that says a lot. 2️⃣ Does the meal visually resemble what other passengers or guests are eating? Or does it look like it was sourced from a completely different place? 3️⃣ Do you know who is actually producing your kosher meals and how they handle safety, supervision, and logistics? Or is it just “a supplier our caterer uses”? 4️⃣ Could you cover a last minute change or disruption for kosher passengers? Or is your system built only for long lead times and ideal conditions? 5️⃣ When was the last time someone from your team actually tasted the kosher meal? Many teams haven’t tried what they’re serving. If these questions are uncomfortable, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means there’s room to bring your kosher program up to the same standard as the rest of your operation. This is exactly the work we do every day at Dimensions Kosher’s airline division helping partners move from “we technically offer kosher” to “we’re proud of what we serve.” #DimensionsKosher #KosherTravel #AirlineCatering #PassengerExperience #InflightServices #PremiumLounges #HotelFandB #AviationIndustry #HospitalityProcurement #SpecialMeals

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One of the clearest shifts in our 2026 State of Social Media in Travel report is how travel search has moved away from search engines and onto social platforms. In 2022 social search accounted for less than 1% of total views, and in 2025 that grew to over 22%. And they're even using more conversational prompts to search instead of just keywords. Travel brands that understand these shifts can start capitalising on them, and tailoring content that's set up to be discovered. It's the first and most important step today to getting your destinations or experiences seen – which leads to them being remembered and considered. We break this down in more detail, including what metrics actually matter on social media platforms now, and how destinations are adapting, in the full report. Check it out in the comments.

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