If you’re looking for a travel marketing idea that really opens up your web audience to a new angle, then check out the Metrotwin site by British Airways.  It’s a play on their key transatlantic service connecting London and New York.  Since that’s a pretty specific market, they’ve tried to build some more interesting content that might appeal to travellers or others interested in the two cities.

What’s So Great About It?

It expands the audience.  This site has a lot of broad appeal that a flimsy newsletter with cheap airfare might not.  There’s lots of good content which I suspect attracts lots of search engine traffic – folk who might not be thinking about flights might think about British Airways next time they book a New York or London flight.

It has personality.  Vibe. The content is very well edited as it definitely has that counter-culture, off-beat, hidden city secrets vibe.  You can really see that on their blog, which features some great posts that run the gamut of topics yet sticks to a central theme:  London & New York as twins.

Encourages Participation.  It looks like they pay contributors with BA air miles.  While nothing beats cold hard cash, I suspect this audience would throw themselves in front of a bus for some free airmiles.  Plus it’s a low cost way to get quality content.  Great idea – I wish more airlines/hotels/loyalty programmes had sites like this.

Tnooz is reporting that the Metrotwin concept is being extended to Mumbai. Interesting choice!

What could they have done better?

I love the concept, but I think the site itself fails on a number of levels:

The Site is far too busy.  The landing page has a lot going on – top places, twinned locations, multiple advertisements for the same product, and the ‘metrotwin network.’  Get rid of all this crap and tell me what’s most important?  Drop the widgets and get some more content into the menu, so I can see what is going on.

Better target the advertising.  British Airways owns this site, so they should be using this to help promote their products and services.   They’ve completely missed the opportunity here by slapping up two (near) identical advertisements for their branded credit card.  I’ve seen this advert elsewhere, so it is generic.  They could have done a far better job of targeting the adverts:  how about sales copy that says “Our credit card works on both sides of the Atlantic with no fees” or something similar.  And how about highlighting airfare?  If they got rid of all those fluffy widgets they’d have some room to highlight the latest airfare promotions.

Get the Conversation Going on Social Networks. A quick check of the Metrotwin Twitter and Facebook presence shows that they are sharing lots and lots of links, but not much conversation.  I’d turn the heat up on getting folks talking – an easy way to start is to monitor discussions on New York and London.  As they say, they want to highlight the on-the-ground beat in the two cities.

To Learn More…

Need some help coming up with great travel marketing ideas of your own?  Then have a look at our one-on-one marketing & community building strategy.  If you rather take a do-it-yourself approach, our How to Nail Travel Marketing in Unfamiliar Territory includes a DIY Online Travel Marketing Plan that’s free yet readers have said it was worth just as much as the guide itself!

Next week we’ll also be launching a new guide to help you come up with ideas for great travel marketing promotions.  If you want to be the first to know when it is available (and get a discount coupon), subscribe to our newsletter.