SiteMinder has its presence in Indonesia and sees the leverage in the country to their interest, knowing that Indonesia is trying to recover its tourism economy.

SiteMinder - The Client

SiteMinder is a technology company offering an e-commerce platform that allows hotels to sell their rooms on their own websites and through third parties like online travel agencies. It is an Australian Public Company operating worldwide.

The Objective

SiteMinder is trying to re-enter the market through Bali, Indonesia by providing a platform for hoteliers and hospitality industry enthusiasts to gather and discuss what is important in the pre-recovery, approaching G20 — to position themselves as a more premium platform and cultivate relationships with General Managers on the Island. Ultimately being top of mind when it comes to an e-commerce platform that allows hotels to sell their rooms on their own website and through third parties like Agoda, Booking.com, Airbnb, Tiket.com and others.

So, how do you enter a market in a post-pandemic economy in tourism industry?

When we accepted the opportunity, we knew that this would be a challenging project, understanding the current economic situation in Bali, Indonesia. It was one of the worst-hit places from the tourism sector, knowing the island 80% depends on it.

So we set the expectation clear; we did a 2-month market research for SiteMinder, and the result was that the industry is coming back slowly. Bali, now more than ever, is one of the most desirable places to travel to, especially from its closest neighbor, Australia.

With that in hand, Jesse, one of my business partners in Itchi Digital, put together a strategic positioning for SiteMinder Indonesia.

Industry Event Marketing

Roundtable Discussion - Early Post Pandemic

An in-person event in Bali for the industry was long awaited. The event was a success, with over 90% attendance of a 114-participant list (hoteliers, General Managers, etc). We also received amazing feedback from the attendees.

Public Relations

Challenges:

Post-pandemic economy, business is reluctant to move with any major investment.
The industry had been hit so badly, it created a lot of doubt and tip-toeing in crafting communication strategy and driving narratives.

Solutions:

By providing platforms like events above, SiteMinder positioned themselves at the top of their potential customer's mind.
Our Public Relations firm disseminated narrative and intensified its communication for SiteMinder and managed to gain over $380,000USD++ in PRV and $40,000USD++ in AVE.

Impact:

Aside from re-igniting their brand awareness countrywide, Itchi Digital helped SiteMinder enter the market post-pandemic and establish a relationship with Bali Hotel Association & The Tourism Board.
SiteMinder is starting to gain more quality leads in their funnel to bring in sales from Indonesia.

🗞️ Some articles we helped disseminate for the client:

Digital Marketing

With a demographic of high-level decision makers, SiteMinder needs to be very practical in approaching their potential leads. We crafted a few different messaging streams ranging from discounts right after the Roundtable Event Discussion, followed with Unique Value Proposition messaging, and concluded the campaign with user-generated content like Testimonials. We did the campaign in both English and Indonesian.

Results;

We reached over 1.8 million impressions with 13k clicks. The key learning of this campaign is that understanding the local context of the demographic's behavior will set your campaign budget in a more effective direction.

What does it take for a B2B company to enter the Indonesian market in summary?

Have a strong understanding of the current economy and come up with a strong narrative.
Work on the seamless experience of your brand.
Work with a local expert that has deep knowledge of the context, and be flexible in how you approach the new territory.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/bzzz7vj8iwU

Have more questions? Talk to the expert → Itchi Digital