Scotland-based travel technology firm Traveltek has launched its own digital media agency to plan and buy travel-related sponsored links on four of the Internet’s search engines for travel. The new agency is called Traveltek Media Services and has already signed partnership deals Google, Yahoo!, Cheapflights and Teletext, Travolution can exclusively reveal. The service will be…
Traveltek launches digital media agency
Scotland-based travel technology firm Traveltek has launched its own digital media agency to plan and buy travel-related sponsored links on four of the Internet’s search engines for travel.
The new agency is called Traveltek Media Services and has already signed partnership deals Google, Yahoo!, Cheapflights and Teletext, Travolution can exclusively reveal.
The service will be largely automated but will act in the same way as a mainstream media agency in that clients will send details of holidays, flights and accommodation and the budget available to Traveltek, which will then buy the links on the search engines.
TMS, which will be headed by media manager Alan Anderson, will also create the keywords appropriate to each placing, such as destination or departure airport, accommodation, or length of stay.
Crucially, as TMS has effectively been created as a media-buying agency, it has been able to strike deals with the search engines for block bookings of links and therefore reduce the cost-per-click rates to travel clients.
Traveltek managing director Kenny Picken said in the future TMS could also widen its remit to plan and buy skyscrapers and buttons on behalf of its roster of clients, which include Thomas Cook, Cosmos Holidays, Air Miles and Advantage Travel Centres.
TMS could also pitch against existing digital agencies for new business, Picken warned.
“If I was looking ahead, this spells the end of the traditional digital planning and buying agency,” Picken said. “They have positioned themselves to do these transactions manually but they don’t have the technology to compete.”
Once fully up and running TMS could be placing up to 100,000 sponsored links a day.
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