Ingredients for our inspirational content recipe
Balancing data and local knowledge. Which is more valuable?
When it comes to writing content that inspires people to travel, a battle is raging. What is more valuable — data or local knowledge?
We may assume that our knowledge of a local market will be enough to write a media pitch or a blog article that will grab a reader or journalist’s attention, but data can challenge us in many different ways that it can take us on completely different and unforeseen paths.
At Booking.com, I work as a Language Specialist, or what you might call a “translator”. But we do not simply translate mechanically. We want customers to have a truly localised experience, as if it had been natively created for that particular audience, in that specific country.
When I saw an opportunity to assist with content for locally relevant media pitches that the PR team would use to catch eye of journalists in my region, I knew I had to jump in. I had no idea I would learn so much about how local culture helps inspire readers, and how data patterns would help me produce better content.
Why do we need data?
Booking.com is a heavily data-driven company. We don’t make any assumptions about what we think is best — we check existing data or run an experiment to test our theories.
It’s only through data like traveller trends and recommendations that we can know, for example, which countries in Latin America are best for Carnival, or that travellers from the Baltics have a high interest in beaches. The data helps us confirm and refine our suspicions, and sheds light on new, intriguing insights we may not have considered.
But local knowledge about specific regions also plays an important role. With this knowledge, and by talking with local partners, we can interpret the data more confidently and be more confident that readers will be interested and inspired by our content.
What does this mean in practice?
Inspirational content may be related to a public holiday, an important celebration, a specific event (like a music festival) or even new destination trends. Localising the copy and content to a specific country will increase the chances of publication in the local media and inspire our audience. Sometimes, local content may even interest the press from other countries.
For example, the pitch “Foodie Destinations for No Diet Day” used local knowledge and review data from travellers to offer destinations for great food experiences. This content was pitched out by our PR team to journalists and resulted in stories being published not only in Spain, but also in France, the Netherlands and Russia. Talk about success!
When it comes to Carnival, most people think Brazil. One would probably assume only Brazilian cities would be among the top places to celebrate Carnival, but the data told us otherwise. For the pitch “Booking.com lists the destinations with a different kind of Carnival in Latin America”, review data from Booking.com travellers showed that cities in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico are also well known for the party. Surprise, surprise! This content was a huge hit in Colombia.
And who would think that people from the Baltics were such beach fanatics? In the summer, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians check traveller reviews and use their local knowledge to visit authentic beaches in the Baltics. With this, our colleagues from the Baltic language teams were able to put together some compelling content entitled “The neighbours are calling: 10 summer gems of the Baltic coast”.
When things don’t go as expected…
All of our content and pitch ideas are not always 100% successful, however. When we try to rely only on local knowledge without supporting data, the results aren’t as good. In some examples, our PR team has provided the feedback that ideas without any supporting data aren’t as interesting for media or for their readers.
For example, in Latin America, “Dia de Los Muertos” is a big celebration in November, just after Halloween. Even though we knew which countries were best known for this celebration, because there was nothing new or surprising here, media was not as interested in covering our content on the holiday.
The same goes for the content we created around “Secret Spain” and “Italy’s Best Secret Gardens”, which highlight hidden gems. While this type of material most likely appeals more to visitors than locals, we should have looked for more supporting data that would have made it more appealing for media from specific countries to publish a story on the topic.
What is the role of language and tone of voice?
Data is very important, of course, but it’s not everything. Without the ability persuade readers and attract their attention, that data is useless. That’s where style and tone of voice play a large role.
Communication in different countries has a specific approach and people address each other in a particular way. With local content, it is easier to inspire our readers by keeping this in mind. Should we be personal and conversational, or if should we keep a more formal tone? Will readers be intrigued by concise and clear language, or by more descriptive copy?
We rely on knowledge of our own cultures to determine the best approach in each situation. Having the right style and tone of our writing increases our chances of inspiring our readers and promoting local destinations. And that’s something data alone can’t do.
What can we conclude?
So who is winning this battle between data and local knowledge?
Even though we may be locals, how can we best find trending or unique destinations that we may have no idea about? Data is extremely powerful, and helps increase the impact we can have on readers. But when data joins forces with our local knowledge and awareness — that’s when our content soars.
