ORLANDO -- American Marketing Group released a number of network updates related to its programs and services at its annual Travel Market here.
Chief marketing officer Nicole Mazza said she is most excited about AI, and AMG's partnership with Toby, AI Connect Powered by Toby.
"We are very focused on building tools for [advisors] to help with their workflow process to give them more time back," Mazza said.
Utilization of AI Connect still needs to grow, she said, but the number of users are going up monthly.
All exclusive supplier offers are sent directly to AI Connect. Advisors can then use that information to prompt the AI to build content like blog posts, social media captions and landing pages, all within AI Connect. It also recently debuted Destination Arrival Guide, which has more than 600 destination briefs that are regularly updated. Advisors can use that content to create guides tailored to their clients.
It's "a phenomenal product that is a really great marketing assistant," Mazza said.
While a number of agencies are still "a little skittish" about integrating AI into their workflows, she said AMG is working to help them understand how useful it could be.
"Marketing that has taken them hours to produce, they can do in less than 20 minutes," she said. "If you're really quick, you can do it in less than five. It's that easy to use in these tools."
Technology updates
Second to AI in terms of importance, Mazza said, is lead generation and having an advisor profile on AMG's consumer-facing websites.
Last fall, AMG debuted the advisor profiles, which consumers can search using filters like location, specialties, destination expertise, languages spoken and accolades and certifications. Since they debuted, 78% of the profiles have been updated.
The profiles appear on Travelsavers' U.S. and Canadian consumer websites, the Affluent Traveler Collection's consumer website and Your Vacation Specialists, which features NEST advisors.
The profiles were "our No. 1 requested program," Mazza said. She noted AMG has been investing heavily in technology, including lead generation and digital campaigns. Investments also include putting more and more content into TripXpress, the booking platform for Travelsavers and NEST advisors, as well as creating a new marketing hub where advisors can manage email and direct mail marketing in one place.
A new deep link program enables advisors to link to tripXpress directly from their webpages, blog posts or social media, bringing consumers directly into the booking process.
"We have quite a few advisors who work with influencers and they like to market this way," Mazza said.
Education updates
AMG is in the process of relaunching its Kore educational platform, with the updated version of the platform coming in December, Travelsavers chief sales officer and NEST president Kathryn Mazza-Burney said.
Kore was originally designed for new-to-the-industry advisors. It was AMG's way of training them then matching them with agencies. However, as time has gone on, more and more advisors with some years selling travel under their belts have begun taking the course as a refresher.
To date, around 250 have graduated from Kore. Its relaunch will bring three main facets: accreditation for graduates, the ability to customize the platform by agency and it will be mobile friendly. It will also update topics, add more interaction via exercises and gamification and feature shorter modules
"It's taken it to the next level," Mazza-Burney said.