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RateGain launches “rumbido”, an innovative social network referral platform for
Hotels, OTAs and Airlines
Aug 23, 2010
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(Derived from Spanish Rapido=Rapid, Zumbido=Buzz) generates rapid buzz for hotels, airlines and online travel agents (OTAs) on social networks |
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| RateGain launches rumbido, a unique referral marketing platform that significantly improves brand visibility and prospects for new customer acquisition by reaching out to friends, families and followers of existing customers on different social networks. Hotels, airlines and OTAs can now seamlessly expand their reach on social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace etc. and convert buzz to sales. |
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“Regular social media initiatives like fan pages and creation of official accounts fail to or simply don’t know how toextend brand visibility beyond the direct network of fans & followers” said Bhanu Chopra, CEO, RateGain. “This limits the exponential potential of social networks and stalls the online sales process. Our innovation, rumbido provides the opportunity to rapidly increase buzz for brands in social networks
that can easily convert to new customers.” “In today’s fast moving world, who better than your customers are trusted per-se but their word is “Trusted” within their sphere of social influence (i.e. their friends, family and followers) to help grow your business. Further, with two thirds of the Internet population visiting social network sites, businesses cannot afford to ignore social media. “rumbido allows businesses to engage and reward their customers as they emerge into brand ambassadors and open up a new and cost efficient channel of distribution” added Vishal Jain, VP, Product Management, RateGain |
The launch of rumbido coincides with its first client partnership with Holidaynights. Formed in 2003 and catering to over 650,000 passengers per year, Holidaynights is one of the  UK’s leading and largest hotel booking sites. This is the first time in the travel industry that any company would move beyond loyalty programs and official presence on social networks to a platform that not only creates a buzz about their brand but also converts it into sales and that too in a cost effective manner. Speaking on this occasion, Steve Endacott, CEO, Holiday Group the parent company of Holidaynights said, “The power of personal recommendation is a proven concept within the internet. Who could be better advocates for your brand than your customers? Rumbido allows Holidaynights to take the money it normally pay Google for clicks and give it to customers who’s recommendation result in sales. Hence it’s a triple win solution with customers, their friends and Holidaynights all gaining something from the process, be it a great value hotel or a exciting new distribution tool”
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On Holiday Group, the parent company of Holidaynights, shared that it has launched a new campaign called “Google Bypass”. The group plans to use this to eliminate the “click costs” it pays to Google, as it estimates that each time it sells a holiday via Google, it receives 75% of commission costs, reported ttglive. So rather than paying Google in click costs, it wants to reward the loyalty of anyone that circulates its holidaynights.co.uk website on social networks and via email.
It has emailed a unique referrer ID to each of its existing customers, prompting them to spread the word on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, and emails. It will then pay individuals £25, via PayPal, each time one of their referrals leads to a booking on holidaynights.co.uk. Rebecca Shipston, head of online development at Holidaynights, said: “We worked out we pay Google an average of £25 per booking and it occurred to us we could bypass Google and give that money to the consumer instead. Emails with deals will soon be sent to Holidaynights’ database of 200,000 people.” |
About Rumbido
Based on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, Rumbido allows businesses to set up and manage their own company branded referral & reward program in almost all popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace etc. Customers join voluntarily and receive incentives for their referrals, creating a self sustainable and mutually rewarding relationship. It leads to gratification for all parties – The Business (New Bookings), The Referer (Rewards) and The Referee (Offers/deals not generally available outside the program) Additionally, Rumbido creates an integrated social media campaign with a focused campaign to the target audience, unlike random, sporadic bursts of promotion on a handful of social networking sites.
About RateGain
RateGain, one of the most awarded hospitality and travel technology companies, offers innovative web-based solutions to its clients in 800 cities across 65 countries. For 3000+ hotels in Europe, Asia and US, RateGain offers an intelligent channel/inventory distribution platform, ChannelGain and VisibilityGain, an online visibility and reputation management solution to facilitate their reach to 400+ global and regional OTAs for an increase in their online bookings. For 400+ travel companies, it offers NetReports & PriceGain, comparative price intelligence solution for OTAs, Hotels & Airlines. Established in 2004, RateGain is headquartered in Noida, India with its offices across US, Thailand, Spain and UK. For more information, visit www.rategain.com. |
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For media enquiries, please contact:
Nishith Srivastava | VP, Product Marketing
Email: pr@rategain.com
Phone: +1 312 238 9366; +91-99530-69210 |
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