Digital platform RangeTravel.com will mark Ensemble's first real foray into consumer lead generation.
The site, featuring content from the consortium's Range magazine, will also include features to link consumers with travel advisors.
Before it was acquired by Navigatr Group in 2022, Ensemble did feature an online directory of advisors on its website, but it wasn't designed for lead generation. The new RangeTravel.com will be different, said senior vice president of marketing Shahla Lalani.
RangeTravel.com marks the next evolution of Range, first launched in 2023. Ensemble also publishes the monthly Range Best, which includes ideas, promotions and supplier offerings.
"It's always been the idea that Range was not just a magazine from the get-go," Lalani said. "It's a media property. It's a lifestyle brand. When we came up with the idea of Range, it was always in the plan to have RangeTravel.com as part of the makeup of everything, but the first thing that had to go live was the flagship magazine."
After about a year and a half creating the website, it was officially launched last week.
It will feature several ways for consumers to connect with Ensemble advisors, but it's not a straight play at connecting travelers with advisors, according to Lalani.
"This is more a third-party, lifestyle-based lead generation," she said. "It's not just go there, find an advisor, book. If you go through the site, you'll see little Easter eggs throughout the whole website. You're looking at amazing content, you're inspired and you're then connected with someone who can help make that happen at that same level of the content."
The site will have a Connect with an Advisor feature, matching consumers with advisors based on interests and destinations, as well as a soon-to-come Find an Advisor section enabling consumers to search advisor profiles. Advisors will also be strategically placed throughout the website's content.
Advisor profiles are tied to Ensemble's certifications, earned via completing coursework on its learning platform, University of Ensemble. Those certifications are automatically attached to an advisor's profile and qualify that advisor to receive leads related to that certification (for instance, Jamaica or luxury cruising).
To get leads, Lalani said, advisors must participate in Ensemble's marketing.
RangeTravel being tested in Canada, U.S.
Right now, the consortium is running a pilot of RangeTravel.com with a small group of agencies in Canada and the U.S., Lalani said. That will conclude in March, then the program will open to other advisors who are participating in Ensemble's learning and marketing programs.
Advisors will set up profiles via Ensemble's member portal, which was rebuilt this year.
The goal for Lalani and her team is to take performance marketing "to the next level," she said.
"We want to marry that with the fact that we're building a trusted, reputable storytelling, value-added resource in RangeTravel, both to the advisor and the consumer," she said. "My goal at the end of the day is that it becomes the place that you go to get your advice for travel before you go anywhere, whether you're the advisor giving that advice or the consumer taking that advice on. I want it to be the go-to spot on the web. And that's a very audacious goal. I think we're going to get there."