Adido turns 21
Happy birthday to us!
Cast your minds back to the Summer of 2003. Co-founders Alex and Andy (along with the two other founders Gary and Ross) were just fresh-faced graduates with a pocket full of dreams rather than a wallet full of cash. Fast forward to 2024 and while our directors might be a little less fresh-faced, they still have the same desire and drive to deliver great results for our clients.
Adido has had some wonderful triumphs and faced some huge challenges over the years, but we are still here and stronger than ever.
Here's to the next 21 years!
ABTA Travel Conference
June 2024
Andy was back at News UK to deliver two great presentations at the ABTA Travel Conference in London. The first was a deep dive into the current digital marketing landscape, exploring how Google's monopoly on search shows no signs of weakening and why we would still view email marketing as a powerful marketing tool. The second presentation focused on cookies (specifically, preparing for a cookie-less future), GDPR and tracking.
All speakers across both days were excellent - particularly Uwern John, founder of OutThere magazine, who delivered a brilliant presentation on personalisation, unconscious bias and tokenism in the travel industry.
ABTA Social Media Marketing Day
June 2024
The ABTA Advanced Social Media Marketing day focussed on trends in the market and explored the finer points of UGC in travel. As well as a series of great social media case studies from Inghams and Trending Travel, Andy also heard from some of the biggest platforms in the world including Meta, Pinterest, Tiktok and Google who shared details of AI powered (surprise surprise) advertising tools provided tips on how to get more from organic social posting (don't be too polished!)
To finish off the day, Andy was part of a panel discussing opportunities in social (being authentic), the role AI can play (not much at this point) and how we can best measure results (it's hard!).
A great day was had by all!
ATAS Summit
June 2024
This June saw ATAS hold their summer summit which was their biggest yet! Over 80 businesses from the touring and adventure world all gathered at the famous News UK 17th floor to hear from a number of industry figures on a range of topics including graduate recruitment, how world events will shape travel and travel businesses in the future, disability and inclusion and general adventure trends. Andy covered lots of data on the general digital market, what's working now in travel marketing and some of the challenges coming in the 12 months that will likely affect marketing results.
The highlight of his day was hearing from Nick Wilson on his journeys as a disabled adventurer and the resulting (and occasionally testy) panel chat with disability advocate Richard Thompson that really got the audience thinking and challenging both sides of the discussion!
ABTA Adventure Travel Conference
April 2024
Adido's Strategy Director Kherrin Wade had the pleasure of joining other travel marketing professionals for the ABTA Adventure Travel conference, an event featuring speakers from major travel companies such as Intrepid and GAdventures. Key themes included the growing popularity of adventure travel, the rise in solo female travellers, along with health and wellness trends. Sustainability was a major focus, with companies striving for B Corp status and implementing eco-friendly initiatives.
AITO AGM
April 2024
Having recently delivered a digital marketing masterclass to the members of AITO, Andy was invited to speak at their AGM on the latest happenings in AI. He explored how not all things labelled AI are truly AI (we all love a good catch-all term though, right?) and demonstrated some examples of image creation, voice replication and video generation. Also discussed were the perils of this evolving technology and warned that fake calls, and even videos, could be used to scam travellers and business in the future.
There are many ways that travel brands can use AI but Andy advised that for most, it's best to focus on more traditional marketing techniques to generate more bookings for now, before jumping onboard the AI bandwagon.
Figaro Digital Marketing Summit
April 2024
Presenting to fellow digital marketing professionals at the wonderful Soho House in London, Andy offered insights and tips on how to spot if your website is in need of an upgrade. Core examples included existing sites not being mobile-friendly or technically sound, brands evolving and outgrowing their current site, CMS's being out of licence, plus much more besides.
Serenity Travel - GA4 training
March 2024
With six brands under one roof, there is a big need to better understand how GA4 works and how to understand our new world of website data. Andy spent the day with their marketing and product team to explain how GA4 data can be best set up and reported on to gain deeper insights into bookings and customers.
AITO - Digital Marketing Masterclass
March 2024
As new Business Partners of AITO, Andy was asked to host a session to share the overall view of the digital landscape to help various small and medium sized independent tour operators make better decisions with their digital budgets.
Advanced Digital Marketing Strategies Day at ABTA
March 2024
This event was great fun and covered a lot of ground as well as taking stock of the digital industry. We were fortunate to welcome the travel team from TikTok to our agenda and find out more about the platform that has taken all of our attention in recent years as well as looking at some very recent changes in AI and Google too! A big year ahead on both!
ABTA SEO Training Day
February 2024
Get Andy in front of a travel audience and he’s a happy boy. On this occasion, he delivered a full day SEO workshop to travel businesses, covering everything from how to do keyword research to carrying out technical checks and creating great copy. Andy’s now delivering this workshop for other travel businesses too, so if you’re interested, drop him a line and he’ll be happy to chat!
Unlocking the Future of Travel Itineraries: How AI Redefines the Journey
Webinar with Vamoos
December 2023
Andy, along with adventure tour operator, Robin Weber Pollak from Journeys International, shared views on how AI tools like ChatGPT are redefining the travel planning, booking and experience journey.
The webinar is available on demand now.
A Complete Guide to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Travel
In partnership with ABTA
December 2023
Adido hosted another GA4 training session this month to a room full of travel professionals. After the hugely successful training session earlier in the year, this latest session focused more on reporting capabilities of GA4.
AITO 2023
November, 2023
Andy joined other AITO members in Thessaloniki in Greece, for its annual overseas get-together.
ABTOI Summit
November 2023
At the Association of British Travel Organisers to Italy (ABTOI) 10th Annual Summit, Andy dubbed down the AI hype within the travel industry, and explained what it really means for agents and operators.
If you missed out, he shared his views earlier this year with Travel Bulletin. AI in travel: fleeting fad or final frontier?
CLIA Christmas Showcase
November 2023
ABTA Travel Trends
November 2023
Adapting marketing strategies to capitalise
on travel trends
Andy took to the stage to present ideas on the new trends around marketing channels (which ones are best for targeting specific markets); how to embed resilience and flexibility into marketing plans and how to building consumer trust and confidence.
He also participated in a panel discussion concerning his current favourite topic, digital trends and AI. Joined by an esteemed panel from Travelopia, Go City and Connective3, the participants discussed:
- AI, digital trends, online behaviours and technology developments
- Using AI to improve customer engagement
- Finding the right balance between digital and traditional marketing
- Using AI to improve effi ciency and ways of working
TTG Luxury Conference
November 2023
Under the theme of The future is now: Designing a business for purpose and prosperity, the conference explored the current and future landscape for travel, examining how the move towards purpose-driven company philosophy; innovation and technology; sustainability; and changes in customer expectations are all affecting luxury travel businesses.
Andy took to the stage to share examples of how luxury brands have found and captured bookings from high-net-worth individuals online.
Read our supporting article on Top SEO strategies for niche luxury travel brands
Figaro Digital SEO, PPC & Paid Social Seminar
November 2023
How to use GA4 to power better SEO & PPC
Surrounded by digital marketing professionals keen to learn about marketing efficiency, Andy presented the fundamentals of Google Analytics 4.
Sadly most GA4 set ups don't enable marketers to make the best decisions, and by it's very nature GA4 is very confusing, so he shared how best to set it up and analyse SEO & PPC performance.
For more information on GA4 visit our Help Library.
ABTA Data Protection and Management for Marketing
October 2023
"Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half" (John Wanamaker)
Most travel businesses data is not linked up. During ABTA's data protection and management for marketing training day, Andy highlighted that there is an opportunity for travel businesses to get ahead of their competition who are probably wasting money or missing opportunities themselves.
In series of sessions he spoke about data management, navigating 'cookieless' and first-party data and best practices for electronic marketing communication. He shares his highlights with Travolution.
Cruise Trade News & CLIA in Europe Cruise Summit
October 2023
Maximising for Wave
We were honoured to moderate this year's Cruise Summit, attended by many cruise travel specialists. It was a fantastic turnout where guests were rewarded with some serious industry expertise on stage.
The event, called ‘Maximising for Wave,’ focused on helping the trade prepare for a key selling period. With sessions on technology in cruising, cruise trends and insights and deep dives into the worlds of Google and TikTok, delegates were treated to an abundance of insightful information.
CLIA reveals 2024 conference dates and schedule (23-25 May 2024).
ABTA Travel Marketing Conference
May 2023
Once again Adido were headline sponsor of this fantastic annual event for ABTA members. Combining inspirational case studies from the likes of Barrhead Travel, Black Tomato and easyJet Holidays; with thought-provoking keynote speakers, including our very own Andy Headington on GA4; through to interactive panel discussions, this 2 day conference didn't disappoint.
Full review and a link to download Andy's slides can be found on our blog.
ABTA Travel Marketing Conference
May 2022
We are delighted to be out and about again in 2022, and our first stop is ABTA’s Travel Marketing Conference, which combines inspirational case studies, valuable insights and interactive panel discussions.
Designed for advanced level travel marketing professionals, the event will bring together key names in the travel industry and senior marketing experts.
Based around the key themes of flexibility and trust this two-day conference will explore how you can take advantage of the pent-up demand as international travel continues to open up.
CEO Andy will be sharing his advice on transitioning into a new world of digital analytics, absolutely essential as we head towards the dawn of a new era with GA4, as well as the ongoing concerns of managing a cookie-less world. He'll also be moderating an invaluable discussion about how to make PPC and SEO work together for you.
You can book a ticket here, and we hope to see you there!
Tik-Tok, time flies! Digital Marketing for Attractions
October 2021
The Adido team were delighted to attend the 18th Visitors Attraction Conference (VAC) 2021, live in London at the QEII conference centre, and it was great to see so many familiar faces attending in person.
Our CEO Andy took to the stage to share his expertise with a whistle stop presentation covering ‘Digital Marketing for Attractions’. He covered numerous areas including social media, and whether the increasing popularity of Tik-Tock as a platform would be suitable for the sector.
He shared his top ten points for attractions to start thinking about this Autumn as we head towards 2022.
