Will Phillipson, chairman of travel demand management platform ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ (YST), hails a new generation of personalised travel planning.
For those wanting to attract visitors to destinations, venues, or events, the title of this post may at first appear counter intuitive, but there is a new paradigm evolving in travel planning that can significantly improve visitor experience, for individuals, and for destinations as a whole.
An Audience of One
The way I see things is the world works in patterns. If you can identify the pattern, you can predict how things will generally progress. If you can apply a pattern to a new industry or sector, you can innovate.
Years ago, the publishing industry began to digitise, moving from analog printing presses and physical typesetting to digital imaging and laser printers or digital presses. In parallel with this transformation, there was a realisation that the industry economics were changing in a way that enabled shorter runs and targeted publications. In other words, digitisation eliminated the huge upfront cost of typesetting – setting up physical type in a press for imprinting on paper.
Desktop publishing, scanning technology, high speed printers, and high-speed networks all came together to introduce ‘Print on Demand’ as a concept – the idea that a book could be printed and delivered to a customer at the point they chose to purchase it, rather than in advance, thus saving on inventory, warehousing, and even transportation costs.
This concept further evolved to ‘Audience of One’ – the idea that a customised publication could be assembled, printed, and delivered for an individual customer. This was revolutionary – the idea that some of or all of the content and even the advertising, could be made bespoke and unique for each customer was never possible at scale before.
Of course, today, we take this for granted. Content is delivered mostly online instead of printed, and dynamic web pages are common; targeted advertising is everywhere; and ‘personalisation’ is what every marketer is pursuing.
A New Generation of Personalised Travel Planning
The travel planning industry seems to have followed much of the same pattern as publishing: we started with offline, paper maps. Some may remember mapping out a trip – taking a highlighter to the map to trace the route and circling points of interest or places to stay enroute. Then came MapQuest, which provided automation of the routing, and allowing one to print out pages and pages of turn-by-turn directions. Yahoo and then Google followed with improved mapping. Waze introduced another paradigm shift – not only mobile – but also dynamic, in that it would update its routing recommendation with real-time traffic and congestion data. This was a huge change that brought a new level of relevance to on-the-go navigation.
Typically, major paradigm changes require complete rethinking and rebuilding of the technology stack – a time consuming and expensive proposition. This is why so many companies fail to jump paradigms – the cost and effort associated with making the rebuild, often at the expense of the existing business, is too high for them to embrace. Google acquired Waze to accelerate their adoption of this paradigm, and Apple has taken many years to achieve parity in its travel planning and navigation services.
What excited me about ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ when I was introduced to the company, was that it appears to me to be yet another paradigm shift – another leap forward in concept and technology. Let me explain:
YST does three things differently from existing travel planning products. First, it’s contextual – or even hyper contextual. Second, routes can be prioritised by the destination’s environmental and commercial objectives. Third, it is by-directionally dynamic, as opposed to Waze’s one-way dynamicism, sharing rich data and actionable insights between visitor experience stakeholders.
What this Means for Destinations, Venues, and Events
Every trip you take has a context. You’re going somewhere for a reason. For example, to a concert, or a football match, or a trade show. On Google or Apple maps, your last or first mile instructions to or from the specified location would be the same regardless of your purpose. Moreover, you’d be routed to or from the same point near or at the periphery of the green or grey destination blob on the map, regardless of modal choice, time of day, direction of approach, carbon footprint, ticket or registration type, and any special mobilty requirements.
YST, by contrast, works with the venue managers and event organisers to personalise directions based on all these criteria. YST also works with the transit providers, parking services, and local authorities to understand the broader services in place to support customers getting to a specified destination, venue, or event. Therefore, YST can route you to the appropriate park-and-ride location followed by event specific transit, getting you to the event with the least fuss and stress. YST understands the context of the event – are there optimal transport interchanges, directions, and access points for different ticket types, or separate entrances for supporters of different football teams, and if so, which one should you be routed to? Does that routing entail different public transit considerations, helping to keep opposing teams from using the same metro, tube, or rail lines or stations? All this information is contextual and affects the individuals’ specific travel experience. YST uses it to generate personalised travel plans that are unique to each individual ticket holder or visitor.
But once you have your travel plan, YST is not done! Bi-directional dynamicism, means that YST continues to work with destination, venue, and event stakeholders to help them optimise their services in line with demand. Organisers can access insights into customer journey behaviour, enabling them to more efficiently deploy resources – add or remove transit services; increase or decrease entrance gate operations and staff; manage dwell time to maximise food and beverage sales; even design the efficient positioning of security staff. Its synchronous system of dynamic supply and demand can be implemented for specific events and at scale, to load balance transit networks by socio-economic and environmental objectives. And of course, as these services and schedules change, customers are updated, and directions are adjusted to support a smooth experience.
The pattern I see replaying itself here is simple. Google and Apple and Waze have digitized the navigation experience, even making it dynamic and mobile. However, YST is drilling down on the context, personalising travel planning, not only for the visitor and the venue, but for the purpose of each specific trip. ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ provides directions for an ‘Audience of One’, and in so doing, is optimising destination, venue, and event access for everyone.
