Personalisation has evolved from a marketing buzzword into a key differentiator in competitive industries like travel. Speaking directly to customer needs — at scale and in real time — is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
Traveldeal, a leading travel platform, partnered with Yellowgrape to rethink customer profiling and take the leap into AI-driven personalisation using Spotler’s Customer Data Platform (CDP).
The result? A smarter funnel, a shorter time-to-book, and a journey that feels truly tailor-made.
The Challenge: Turning Choice Overload into Relevance
Traveldeal thrives on momentum: fresh deals daily, from short getaways to all-inclusive escapes. But abundance also creates friction. Visitors scrolled endlessly, compared offers, and often left without booking.
The challenge was clear: how can we shorten the time-to-book and make each visitor feel understood — without adding pressure?
Static forms and profile settings didn’t work. They felt like chores, resulting in fragmented data. Traveldeal needed a way to capture intent earlier in the funnel — seamlessly, intuitively, and with real value for the visitor.
The Experimentation Approach
With Spotler Activate, Yellowgrape designed a lifecycle marketing strategy aimed at transforming unknown visitors into known profiles. In a cookieless world, first-party data is the foundation of effective segmentation and personalisation.
But collecting that data had to feel natural — even fun. The process became a cycle of hypothesis, testing, and learning, using experimentation as the driver for progress.
The Wizard: Capturing Intent Playfully
Instead of a dry form, Traveldeal launched a visual “wizard” integrated into the browsing journey. In just four quick questions — about travel companions, trip type, duration, and region — visitors could define their preferences in a way that felt conversational.
The flow resembled a chat with a travel consultant rather than a data form, making completion intuitive. At the end, visitors were invited to leave their email to receive a personalised travel brochure directly in their inbox.
The AI-Generated Brochure
Once preferences were captured, AI took over. Using Brainvine, Yellowgrape’s AI-driven content engine, Traveldeal generated a dynamic brochure page unique to each visitor.
Each brochure combined inspiration and practicality: activities, hidden gems, local cuisine, travel tips, and a personalised top-3 destination list drawn from over 100 options — all tailored to the visitor’s interests.
Omnichannel Personalisation
These profiles fuelled Traveldeal’s entire marketing mix:
- personalised newsletters,
- triggered email flows,
- dynamic social ads, and
- SEA campaigns with intent-based messaging.
Consistent, data-driven storytelling ensured every channel reinforced the same customer narrative.
Continuous Optimisation
Throughout the project, the team tested multiple elements — placement, copy, imagery, CTA contrast, and tone of voice — refining each iteration based on performance data. Experimentation wasn’t a phase; it was a mindset.
Results: Personalisation That Feels Like Tailoring
Traveldeal’s approach turned profiling into an engaging, inspiring experience that customers actually enjoyed. The results:
- Reduced time-to-book by surfacing relevant offers sooner.
- Higher opt-in rates thanks to the intuitive wizard.
- Greater engagement through AI-personalised brochure content.
- Improved conversions across channels with consistent messaging.
The broader achievement: a scalable personalisation engine, powered by AI and experimentation, built on Spotler Activate’s 360° customer profiles.
Why It Matters
The travel industry faces dual pressure — rising acquisition costs and the decline of third-party cookies. Without first-party data, personalisation efforts fall short.
Meanwhile, consumer expectations are higher than ever: 71% expect personalised interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them.
McKinsey reports that companies excelling at personalisation generate 40% more revenue from those activities. In travel, that lift can reach 35%.
Traveldeal’s results show that even mid-sized players can achieve enterprise-level outcomes when AI and experimentation work hand in hand.
Lessons Learned
- Profiling should inspire, not interrupt. Visitors engage when the process is fun and rewarding.
- AI scales creativity. Machines deliver relevance; humans craft meaning.
- Consistency builds trust. Omnichannel personalisation reinforces the same story at every touchpoint.
- Small tests, big gains. Incremental optimisations across questions and CTAs created major cumulative impact.
- First-party data is the growth engine. In a post-cookie era, intent-based engagement is essential.
Conclusion
Traveldeal’s partnership with Yellowgrape, powered by Spotler Activate CDP and Brainvine AI, shows how experimentation and AI-driven personalisation can transform the booking journey.
By making profiling intuitive, generating AI-powered brochures, and extending insights across channels, Traveldeal turned a complex funnel into a seamless, inspiring experience.
The takeaway for every experimentation hero: personalisation at scale isn’t just about data or algorithms — it’s about blending human insight, AI precision, and a culture of continuous testing. Done right, every journey feels personal, and every visitor feels understood.
Authors
Mark van den Berg, CMO at Spotler
Martijn Versteeg, Senior Customer Journey Consultant at Yellowgrape