Looking to Increase Traffic? Try Holograms
As unfortunate as it is, the corporeal limits of our bodies and physical limitations of this dimension only allow us to exist in one place at a time. As much as we’d like to send a version of ourselves to work while we do all the things we never have time for, we simply haven’t developed technology advanced enough to pull it off. However, we do have the next best thing.
You probably haven’t heard the name Dennis Gabor, but if you’ve ever watched Star Wars or The Jetsons, you’ll probably be familiar with his Nobel-Prize-winning invention: the hologram. Holograms have been around for decades, but we are just now reaching an age where that technology is commercialized and accessible. That leaves businesses to determine how they can best use the technology to their advantage. Hospitality, in particular, is an industry uniquely positioned to use holographic technology to its advantage. Here’s how:
[How Travel Marketing Tech is Powering the Hospitality Industry]
Marketing and Branding
Holograms are an excellent and effective promotional tool. Beyond shock value, they also leave a memorable and long-lasting impression that viewers will associate with the brand that is being advertised. The Future of Marketing, a forum for market research, believes that holograms represent an innovative new direction for marketing of kinds thanks to their experiential enhancement, memorability and versatility.
Each of these qualities are also major concerns that every hospitality sector and company tries to perfect. Hospitality is an industry that requires presentation to be on par with service for any provider to be successful. It’s all about engaging the customer in every way you can. Consumers expect to be taken care of and entertained. Holograms can be used in this industry as an exhibition of the actual experience customers will receive.
The foodservice industry should certainly take advantage of the proliferation of holographic tech. Restaurants could choose to project anything from the food itself to an interactive experience with a chef. It could be used to demonstrate what is going into the food the patron is about to eat, giving them a peek behind the scenes and an experience they couldn’t have anywhere else. Holograms could even help showcase the quality of the ingredients being used or the unique preparation of the food. This case incorporates all three ideas that holographic technology brings to the marketing world.
The restaurant can demonstrate its ability to create an interesting and original environment by adding cutting-edge technology, the patrons will enjoy a meal unlike anything they’d seen before in the presence of a chef, and each location or restaurant chain can use the hologram to emphasize its best qualities.
Enhancing the Customer Experience
Holograms are an exciting technology for hotel use cases, as well. While hotels can certainly use the marketing and branding advantages that holograms provide other hospitality industry sectors, they should also see the technology for its practical selling points. Some hotels have already incorporated holographic tech into their concierge and receptionist offerings. This can free up employees to work on other matters while giving the patron a refreshing experience. Hotels can also use holograms as a feature of their programming. One hotel chain proclaimed “holograms are the future” as they hosted a movie premiere with the actors making a holographic appearance in a Spanish franchise of the same hotel all the way from Germany.
Cruise ships should also consider using holograms to enhance their guest experience. After COVID devastated their industry, cruise ships are searching for ways to bring customers back on board. It might be a valuable tool to expand the range of entertainment they can offer their guests. Instead of hiring a band, a magician and a performance artist for every ship, cruise lines can just hire their best performers and have them broadcasted to all of their ships more cost effectively.
The democratization of holographic technology affords the hospitality industry with a
cutting-edge tool that can change B2C experiences. The industry has been slow to adopt this tech, but in a post-COVID world, the benefits that it provides might be enough to convince restaurants, hotels and cruise lines of its viability.
About the Author
Jonathan Fishman is co-founder of Bizydev, an NYC-based business development firm