As a timeshare novice, I found it interesting to attend a session at the RDO conference this September, entitled ?How much PR does the industry need?? The session was facilitated by our managing director, Jackie Murphy, and discussions varied from the (murky) history of the industry to the increasing use of social media to engage with clients. The speakers at the event explored the dilemmas they have faced trying to promote their respective organisations in an environment where journalists don?t understand what timeshare is, or have negative associations with the industry.
I?ll admit that I knew very little about timeshare before the session, which meant that I approached it without such negative associations. This certainly fits in with much of the discussion at the session, which suggested that timeshare operators should be targeting younger audiences. Paul Bougaard highlighted the 35-45 year old bracket which does not have the same negative associations as older audiences have with timeshare.
Also discussed was the fact that because most timeshare users are of older generations, the PR methods used to engage with them are therefore more traditional. Travel journalist, Steve Keenan, made the point that bloggers are the journalists of the future, especially for travel journalism. He suggested inviting bloggers to spend a week in a timeshare, or to use competitions to encourage clients to take positive videos of timeshare resorts and then post these online. As timeshare?s new target audience is younger, they are the ones doing their holiday research online so engaging with online forums such as travel blogs, Pinterest and Twitter is important.
This certainly resonated with me ? all holiday research I undertake is indeed online. The first port of call when thinking about going on holiday is Google, although the session highlighted the fact that this is where traditional journalism and media play their role. Using online news sources ? whether it?s the Daily Mail online or independent travel blogs ? seems to be an effective way of reaching out to audiences that consider well-designed and constantly updated websites to be a sign of legitimacy and influence.
Overwhelmingly, my impression of the session was that the timeshare industry has been keeping its head down; trying to distance itself from the negative press it has received in the past ? the time has now come for it to raise its head and engage with new audiences ready to hear about all that timeshare has to offer.
Written by Zoe Blah, Graduate Training at Flagship Consulting
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