Taguchi of Australia and Data Appeal of Italy were the two of six finalists who most impressed judges
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Data specialists named winner of Travelport accelerator pitch competition
Travelport has chosen the two data specialists as the winners of its accelerator programme pitch competition run in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Australian technology company Taguchi Marketing and Italian scale-up The Data Appeal Company were chosen from six finalists by a panel of expert judges.
They were among 120 start-ups and established firms working on innovative tech solutions that entered the competition. The finalists battled it out during an Industry Pitch Day in New York.
The finlists were: Taguchi, Adobe, Stackla, Everymundo, Dynamo Video and The Data Appeal Company.
The judging panel included representatives from American Express Global Business Travel, Priceline, Southwest Airlines, Internova Travel Group, Direct Travel and Christopherson Business Travel.
Tom Kershaw, chief product and technology officer at Travelport, said: “Travelport Accelerator was created to foster collaboration with innovative thinkers who bring revolutionary ideas to the table.
“Together with a panel of leading industry experts, we heard some truly unique concepts and viable product ideas.
“In the end, the solutions presented by Taguchi and Data Appeal were the most compelling as they have the potential to quickly deliver a significant improvement to the personalization of travel marketing by utilizing Travelport+.”
Travelport picked out Adobe, which pitched its Real-Time Customer Data Platform, as noteworthy although not one of the winners. The firm and AWS plan to continue discussions about its solution.
David Peller, managing director at AWS Travel and Hospitality, said: “The Travelport Accelerator was designed to tackle real industry challenges, and I am very impressed with the innovative ideas that Taguchi and Data Appeal, and so many others, presented to solve the industry’s challenges in digital marketing.
“I’m confident that, together, AWS and Travelport will impact the future of the industry and transform the way businesses in travel connect with their travel customers.”
About The Winners
Taguchi supports marketing automation programmes with its platform designed to optimise dynamic marketing content to deliver the right message, to the right people, at the right time.
The company received the highest collective score from the judging panel of all Travelport Accelerator finalists for its concept that combines the Taguchi automation platform with Travelport data and AWS Cloud scalability.
Travelport said: “Together, it has the ability to bring marketing automation to the masses within the travel sector.”
As a winner Taguchi will gain simplified access to the Travelport+ platform and AWS Cloud tools to bring its concept to life with a viable proof of concept.
Data Appeal analyses the sentiment across all points of interest in a destination, in real-time, from over 100 sources and 500 million social posts and reviews each day.
With Data Appeal Studio, their territory analysis platform, users can visualise all of the data and compare and contrast time periods, source markets, competitors and more.
Travelport said: “The company’s winning concept for this first Accelerator challenge will help travel brands, tourism boards, and destinations effectively enhance their marketing operations with the ability to transform data into real-time actionable insights.”
Data Appeal will utilise next-gen marketplace Travelport+ and technology from AWS to progress the development of its digital marketing solution for travel.
