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B
y the time this magazine
comes out, I wonder what the next viral online sen-
sation will be. As I write this, the reverberations of
the black-and-blue or white-and-gold dress debate
are still causing a few shudders in the media. Our
social media experts explained to me why this
seemingly unimportant post asking viewers to weigh
in on dress color had the impact of a digital tsunami.
It seems it’s a combination of relatability to the pub-
lic, social engagement, and timing.
But the episode did give me some things to think
about: No doubt, social media has become an inte-
gral and irrevocable component of our relationships,
whether personal, professional, or commercial. And
its power is profound. Don’t we all wish we could
ignite such an explosive social media response with
our own marketing and promotional efforts? If only
there were a simple formula to get the public to follow,
like, click on, activate, or otherwise pay attention to
our ads, offers, and posts. While there may be no
magic spell, our best course of action is to stay in the
know about how to engage followers. (For more on
this topic read the articles about content engagement
and reputation management on pages 12 and 14.)
Adding up Followers
At ILG and its family of companies, a presence on
social media sites has become as important to our
business as our print communications, call centers,
and other means of doing business and maintaining
relationships with customers and the public. We’re
quite pleased with the number of followers we’ve
attracted to Facebook, not to mention the response
we’ve received on our other social media sites.
Interval International’s own members-only forum,
Community, recently reached five years, celebrating a
following of more than 210,000 members — a num-
ber that continues to increase — who want to
connect with other members. In turn, Community
provides Interval with greater insight into member
interests, behaviors, and concerns that the company
can use to better serve its resort partners.
And while Interval is not getting as high a
response as the dress-color debate did — which I
read garnered 16 million likes in two days — its
most recent hashtag campaign encouraging
viewers to post their vacation pictures is getting a
lot of attention.
We’ve tapped into something here — when look-
ing at photos of travel destinations we’ve been to or
want to go to, we’re viewing something more than
palm-tree silhouettes, golden suns sinking into the
horizon, or shimmering blue bodies of water. We’re
recalling some of the best experiences of our lives. Or
we’re seeing possibilities of a future that’s within our
reach. And that’s powerful.
Ambiguous Information
But back to the dress: As part of the storm of cover-
age, some neuroscientists and vision experts chimed
in with scientific explanations for the phenomenon,
throwing around terms such as color constancy,
visual perception, wavelength interpretation, and
ambiguous stimuli.
Here’s my take: I’ve viewed the dress on more
than one site, as well as on TV and in print. In some
pictures it was white and gold; in others, it was blue
and black. It may have been the same dress — but
the pictures were clearly different.
Let’s keep that in mind when we examine our
own industry issues, which are a lot more relevant.
Many were thoughtfully explored during the 2015
ARDA World conference in April through presenta-
tions, discussions, and forums. Yet, I think we can all
agree that those issues most critical to us demand
further and ongoing scrutiny. Topics such as evolving
consumer travel preferences, rapidly changing tech-
nology, legacy resorts, resales....
And trade-ins. Accepting timeshare trade-ins as
part of the purchase of a week or points product
appears to be an increasingly acceptable way for
resorts to sell. All well and good. But if the resort
accepts a trade-in, only to then pass it off to a transfer
company that sails off into the sunset never to be
heard from again — that’s a very different picture
indeed.
VIEWPOINT
6
RESORTDEVELOPER.COM
vacation industry review
JULY – SEPTEMBER 2015
BY
Craig M. Nash
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO
INTERVAL LEISURE GROUP
Change of a Dress
“Don’t we all wish
we could ignite such
an explosive social
media response with
our own marketing
and promotional
efforts? If only
there were
a simple formula.”