Q2 is a critical time for revenue generation in the travel and hospitality sector. As the weather warms up and students are off for Spring Break and summer holidays, the industry’s business strategies, promotional activities, and resource allocation begin to heat up as well. Combine that annual boom with decision-makers on the move and travel and hospitality is ripe for agency opportunities.
As you know, when fresh talent takes the reigns, they tend to evaluate current efforts and start making changes within a three to 12-month window. If you keep track of these shifts and start engaging new decision-makers right away, you’ll have a major advantage in securing new work and revenue ahead of your competition. Keep reading to discover six travel and hospitality brands making major changes in their C-suites and what doors this opens up:
Sales lead: This DM shift will affect the company’s marketing strategy & agency roster. Expedia Group promoted Jochen Koedijk to CMO, effective March 2024 after joining the company in 2021 as marketing SVP. Jon Gieselman, who previously handled marketing, is stepping down on June 1st.
Target demographic: Millennials & Gen-Xers with a Hispanic skew
Expedia will likely:
Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Agency analysis: Reach out to the recently promoted CMO now to secure top priority. Current roster:
Sales lead: Contact the new CMO now to be top-of-mind. Seabourn Cruises hired former CMO of Canyon Ranch, Mike Fulkerson, as its newest CMO in March 2024. In his new role, Fulkerson is responsible for marketing strategy, brand management, performance, PR, and communications.
Target demographic: Affluent Gen-Xers & Boomers
Seabourn will likely:
Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Agency analysis: CMO hires are the number one sign of upcoming agency reviews. Current roster:
Sales lead: This leadership restructure will affect the company’s marketing strategy and agency roster. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts recently created a new position by naming Scott Strickland chief commercial officer. Strickland joined the company in 2017 as chief information officer and is responsible for global sales, revenue generation, marketing, communications, loyalty, and technology. Wyndham’s CMO, Lisa Checchio, will leave the company.
Target demographic: Gen-Xers with a male skew
Wyndham will likely:
Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Agency analysis: DM shifts commonly lead to agency reviews, so get in touch to be top-of-mind. Current roster:
Sales lead: Contact the new top marketer to offer ad space and agency assistance. OMNI Hotels created a new position by naming Jeff Doane as chief commercial officer. Doane previously served as CCO of Accor and is now responsible for brand marketing, PR, partnerships, social media, and digital platforms.
Target demographic: Male Gen-Xers & Boomers
OMNI Hotels will likely:
Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Agency analysis: The new CCO will likely review OMNI’s roster, so get in touch to be top-of-mind. Current roster:
Sales lead: Reach out to see if you can provide ad space or agency services. Vail Resorts announced that Courtney Goldstein would join the company as EVP & CMO on April 29th, 2024. Goldstein joins from Comcast where she served as consumer marketing SVP. As Vail Resorts’s CMO, she is responsible for marketing, digital, experience, and data/analytics and fills the CMO vacancy that opened last October.
Target demographic: Millennial and Gen-X tourists
Vail Resorts will likely:
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance):
Agency analysis: This hire will likely lead to agency appointments, so get in touch now to be top-of-mind.
Sales lead: Watch this company closely because a CMO hire will affect its marketing strategy & agency roster. Spirit Airlines is losing its CMO, Bobby Schroeter as he heads to Frontier Airlines to be the chief commercial officer. He joined Spirit in 2005 and worked his way up the marketing ranks.
Target demographic: Gen-Zers & millennials
Once it hires a new CMO, Spirit will likely:
Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
Agency analysis: Start working on your pitches so that you are ready once Spirit hires a new CMO. The current roster is just composed of Cramer-Krasselt for creative, digital, and media AOR.
Looking for a way to keep track of decision-makers on the move at top advertisers, agencies and even entire industries? If you’re a Winmo customer, you can set up alerts to get push notifications about these changes in real-time.