MakeMyTrip Targets U.S. Smart Phone Users with Travel Offers

MakeMyTrip, a online travel company, announced an innovative offer for the 1.15 million strong smart phone users of Indian origin in the US.
Under the special offer, MakeMyTrip’s customers got  free subscriptions (worth $129) to watch the Cricket World Cup on their smart phones or PCs in return for every two return tickets to India purchased from the US during the period 25 January – 28 February, 2011. Customers who bought tickets from the MakeMyTrip website or call center were eligible for this offer.
Powered by iVdopia, a video and media mobile advertising network and platform, the innovative marketing allowed smart phone users to respond to MakeMyTrip’s offer video ads by calling or emailing the travel company.
iVdopia is unique in that it enables complete analytics for both applications and advertisements, including information on how many times a pre-app or ad reaches users, how long users stay engaged and how many times they play ads”, said Debadutta Upadhyaya, vice president India, Vdopia, iVdopia’s holding company.
Smart phone users were served these 5-10 second special offer video ads as they waited for their chosen application to load. A frequency capping of -2 views/visitor/24-hours’ helped ensure that after viewing a MakeMyTrip video ad twice, a specific viewer did not see it again for 24 hours, significantly reducing the risk of overexposure for any creative while maximizing reach. And by so doing, MakeMyTrip, a travel industry mover and shaker, succeeded in reaching out to an estimated 1.15 million potential customers of Indian origin in the US registered with top South Asia specific publisher websites.
At MakeMyTrip, we focus on and develop customer-centric initiatives across service touchpoints. This factor has been largely responsible for our huge success in India; MakeMyTrip is today the largest online travel agency and one of the three biggest travel companies in India. Riding high on this success, we were exploring opportunities to monetize our travel solutions across the smart phone enabled Indian diaspora in the US,” said Keyur Joshi, co-founder and COO, MakeMyTrip.
With an objective of increasing user engagement and measuring how smart phone users engaged, we decided to associate with iVdopia and their industry leading ad monetizing capabilities. With iVdopia’s deep understanding of NRI markets, we were sure this initiative would only add to the ongoing World Cup frenzy,” Joshi added.
Recently, Vdopia announced the expansion of its management team. Robert Palma as senior vice president of Network Sales for North America and Joshua M. Kruter as vice president of marketing joined the company as new management team. The addition of new people enables Vdopia to serve its existing clients and partners, while also preparing the company to deliver new, game-changing solutions in 2011.