Tasked with the challenge of how to get their members out in front of more consumers, agency consortia are looking to consumer media partnerships.
"The model for consortia doesn't allow for multimillion-dollar ad campaigns," said Keith Waldon, vice president of business development at Virtuoso. "Faced with that, we're going to have to always be clever and look for these partnerships. It's just smart business."
In December, Virtuoso rolled out a series of alliances with Bonnier Corp. lifestyle magazines Saveur, Islands, Spa, Snow, Ski and Skiing. And in the last three months, Signature Travel Network has partnered with four consumer media brands: Bon Appetit magazine, the Food Network, Conde Nast Traveler magazine and Architectural Digest magazine. That deal was finalized just last week.
"Our goal was really to provide our members with exclusive travel products to sell," said Michael von Wittenau, vice president of strategic business development at Signature.
He added that "consumers feel more comfortable with brands they can trust," which explains the value of "partnering with these trusted consumer brands such as Bon Appetit and Food Network."
The Bon Appetit and Food Network alliances were announced in early December, and the Bon Appetit alliance is the most evolved. The pact replaced a similar arrangement with Gourmet magazine in May 2009, before that publication said it would shutter at the end of '09. Signature partnered with Architectural Digest earlier this week.
Already a website, Bon
AppetitTravelSpecialists.com, powered by Signature, has been devoted to the Bon Appetit Travel Series program, which launched with two Regent Seven Seas departures: a 10-night Mediterranean cruise on Aug. 22 and a 12-night Mediterranean cruise on Oct. 9.
For the Regent sailings, an undisclosed number of Signature members who are top Regent producers have been deemed Bon Appetit Travel Specialists. Von Wittenau explained that to generate leads for those agents, Signature has created an interactive voice-response system on a toll-free number. The first calls are assigned randomly to member agents deemed specialists for that program; as calls continue to come in, they get directed to member agents with the highest closure rates.
Depending on the partner, the condition for being a travel specialist would vary. For instance, if the next Bon Appetit travel series were to focus on a given destination, then to qualify agents "we would look to destination specialists," said Von Wittenau.
Plans are also under way to offer a range of Food Network travel programs in 2010 that will be exclusive to Signature members, including cruises with Food Network hosts or based on specific Food Network shows.
Von Wittenau said Signature is in discussions about how the Food Network will market the travel program digitally, in the Food Network magazine and on TV.
The conditions of each media alliance, what the travel programs for each will look like and how Signature members will be supported vary, he said. Signature would not discuss the financial arrangements with its media partners.
The first phase of the Conde Nast Traveler program, unveiled at the end of February, will be called the Connoisseur Series, a cruise series slated to launch in the fourth quarter of 2010 with three cruise departures.
Among other things, Conde Nast Traveler is known for its annual list of top travel specialists, many of which are not Signature members and would thus not be able to sell the magazine's travel product.
"It doesn't really concern us at this point," said Virtuoso's Waldon. But, he added, "if there were a lot of promotion going on in the magazine, that would be a different story."
He added that Virtuoso has "a ton of respect for the Conde Nast [top travel specialists] list, and we definitely understand [that the Signature partnership] is not part of editorial."
In 2008, Virtuoso partnered with Bon Appetit, creating an Epicurean Travel Consultant Board tasked with developing exclusive travel packages for the magazine.
But after 12 months, said Waldon, "we ended [the partnership]. We had believed that more exposure would be coming to our members -- that includes in every single issue of the magazine, major real estate on the magazine's website -- and we also require that the alliance partner do significant marketing for the Virtuoso board."
For the Saveur, Islands, Spa, Snow, Ski and Skiing magazine partnerships, Virtuoso members had to apply to be on the magazine's Virtuoso Travel Advisory Board, based on various criteria, such as being a culinary travel or ski specialist, for example. Each magazine's travel advisory board consists of between 40 and 60 Virtuoso members.
Those members were then tasked with creating special offers sourced from Virtuoso preferred suppliers. In exchange, in each issue of each magazine, between six to eight board members will be featured in an ad with a photo. Virtuoso does not pay for those ads.
"We bring [the magazines] exposure to the travel industry, and they bring us exposure," Waldon said.
