Travel Leaders recently announced the start of the company's first social media photo contest for consumers, #iTravelBetter, on June 15.
The #iTravelBetter photo contest encourages users of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to vie for a chance to win $1,000 toward a vacation package through Travel Leaders with either Delta Vacations or AeroMexico Vacations. The contest is part of an ongoing initiative by Travel Leaders to increase its social media presence and to encourage Travel Leaders travel agents to remain active on social media. Selected photos from the contest will be available, royalty-free, for Travel Leaders agents’ promotional use.
“We see this contest as both a branding and an engagement tool with our agencies’ clients, as well as a way to recognize the contributions of our Travel Leaders travel agents by introducing conversations around agencies and agents,” said Roger E. Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group. “We know that travelers share pictures on social media when they go on vacation, but rarely do they call out or credit their travel agent for planning the perfect trip. Through this photo contest, we hope to engage a wider audience and entice other dreamers to get out there and experience the world around them.”
The Travel Leaders #iTravelBetter photo contest allows customers to enter with easy steps: follow Travel Leaders on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, share their favorite vacation photos with @TravelLeaders, and tag them with #iTravelBetter. Customers are encouraged to share how they “Travel Better” with their Travel Leaders travel agent. The contest website provides a feed of all entries from the different social media platforms. The Travel Leaders #iTravelBetter website populates the national website at http://travelleaders.com/itravelbetter and also appears on hundreds of local Associate websites for each of the agencies in the network.
“Studies show that active participation in social media improves trust and credibility in the agency brand and for individual agents. Social media marketing is conversational and allows travel agents to share authentic experiences, which we find to be worth the effort for the potential gains,” said Brian Hegarty, vice president of marketing at Travel Leaders.
As a part of the #iTravelBetter photo contest marketing tool kit, Travel Leaders provided its members with contest-branded digital promotions to display, such as rotator images for their own agency websites, email signatures, headers, footers and cover photos to help capture consumers’ attention in email and social media. A five-day countdown social media package was also available to help Travel Leaders travel agents kick off the contest with their current client base.
Although this is the first consumer photo contest for Travel Leaders, it is a follow-up to its “Capture the Moment” photo contest for Travel Leaders travel agents. Launched in September 2014, more than 4,000 travel and destination photos were submitted and have been incorporated into a photo gallery – all copyright and royalty free – that can be used exclusively by Travel Leaders Associates for social media and marketing initiatives. Select images from this new #iTravelBetter photo contest also will be added to that gallery.