Trigger thinking: Shut up and take my money | British Tourism & Travel Show 2025
Now, when I researched our next speaker, I discovered that her business, intriguingly called, The Plot, has a strapline that says, Brilliant plans for travel and tourism brands. Now, I always like wordplay, so I think you're probably going to enjoy what's going to come up in a moment. So, please welcome then, the founder of The Plot, Catherine Warrilow. Hi everyone, I feel like I've really got to deliver now, so thank you for the introduction, I appreciate it. So I'm Catherine, as Stuart kindly said, I help travel and tourism brands with their brand strategy.
I sought out that really annoying messy middle bit and that's the bit between what you do and what your customer actually wants and that's where all of your really good intentions can get lost because they don't quite connect with the customer expectations. I'm also a person who does stuff outside of work, which is weird I know, but I go places, I do stuff, I take my family on holidays, I experience days out and destinations exactly the same as you will do, so that's what qualifies us I think really to have this conversation today. The fact that we are all actually consumers of hotels, food and drink, destinations, experiences. So the good news is a lot of what I'm going to talk to you about, you guys already know, I'm just going to give you a few different kind of thought starters to think about how you might use it in your own marketing.
Okay so trigger thinking, it's not about the struggle. We all have struggles, lots of annoying struggles in our day-to-day lives, but they are not what push us to spend our money, to stop talking, to stop researching, to stop googling, to stop shortlisting, to stop comparing between different sites and actually say I'm going to stop and I'm going to spend my money on this thing. So what is it that makes us hit that book now button and it's different for all of your businesses, but I'm hopefully going to give you lots of interesting ways of reframing the way you speak to your customers, market to them, communicate with them. And do you know what's absolute gold? It's that point at which someone says that is the thing for me, I am going there.
I'm not going to go anywhere else, it's that thing. And that is worth it, that's what all of your marketing is designed to do. And that can be really really expensive if you're trying to kind of pick off something over here and say I'll just try that thing, I'll try talking to that person, I'll try talking to that group, that demographic.
It doesn't work, it's expensive, it's boring, it's beige, it's average, so we're going to talk about how we move away from that really beige space and do something a bit more interesting. If you can make your audience feel the excitement and anticipation of a visit to your attraction or experience, destination, day out, then they start advocating for you before they've even been. They start talking about the excitement and what they're going to take and what they're going to wear and especially the younger market, all of you I'm sure are always kind of inhaling as much information as you possibly can about marketing to Gen Z. If you can make the anticipation stage as important as the experience itself, then you're getting three, four times as much marketing bang for your buck. So what is a trigger? What am I actually talking about? So this isn't a dark art, this is not some mysterious dark corner of the marketing space where you're like oh my god I do not know what this thing is, I know marketing, I do not know the difference between the struggle and the trigger. You'll be glad to know it's not a mystery, you're probably doing some of it already, it's just a case of capitalising on what you're doing well and doing it slightly differently.
Okay put your hands up if you're in your 40s, mid 40s, quite a few of us. What happened to us? When did this happen? This kind of oh I'm just gonna get out of bed but I have to kind of go sideways first and then sit up. That is a struggle, that is a really annoying struggle.
Every single morning when you go oh my gosh that bit just doesn't move like it used to but we don't do anything about it do we? Because it's a minor annoyance and there's 27,000 other things in our lives that are more important. This is a trigger. Now for me this is not a pleasant trigger because I am the most un-coordinated person in the entire universe. I mean literally like walking in time to something I find difficult. So when my kids said we want to play pickleball, I was like we could go to the car boot sale, we could go out for lunch, we could like go for a walk around the park, they're like no we want to learn how to play pickleball.
So for me that was the trigger at which I said I'm going to have to do something about my back. That's the difference. It's that point at which you say now I am going to have to do something about that and that is the thing you need to market to. Who's seen this spa in Bucharest? Oh my god. It looks amazing but just someone saying oh it's quite cool.
You're probably going to browse a few Instagram pictures but you're not actually going to do anything about it. You're not going to book a trip. How do you get people to that point where they say that rainstorm room, that is a bit of me. That has got my name all over it, I can see myself there, the photos, the videos on TikTok is going to be insane. And it does look insane but 90% of your marketing, I hate to say it, is just blending in because it's so generic, it's so kind of, that's kind of cool.
It's not put me in that rainstorm room now because my TikToks are going to be like in the millions. I've never reached more than 237 views on a TikTok but when I go there I am going viral. So how do you move that mark? How do you move the needle from meh sounds alright to holy cow.
I cannot not go to this place. That family trip to Portugal, forget it. I'm going here on my own. So what do we know to be true already? Because we're smart, we know a lot of this stuff already. We know that we have to solve a problem for our customer. There has to be a, you need this, I have that, spend your money with me.
But we also know that we have to solve it better than anyone else does. And that's not about price and we'll talk a bit more about that in a second. That is usually about the way you make someone feel. And we are in the business of making people feel good, happy, relaxed, switched off, detached from work, detached from life. So we have to solve a problem in a better way.
We have to understand actual people. And I'm going to share in a minute my biggest bugbear about how we segment people. Because it doesn't work.
And it's fine to accept it's hard. How many people here are part of a really small team or a marketing team of one? Lots. This is really hard to keep on top of. Every morning you look at your to-do list and you go, and it just says social media. And you're like, I have to think of something compelling and different and imaginative and with a great image, and everyone keeps saying I should be doing short form video, really don't understand YouTube shorts. And you either do nothing or you just go, what have I got on my camera roll that's okay? And I'll put a little caption with it and it's nice and sunny in the Cotswolds today.
And you click send and you think, well, sod it, at least it's off my to-do list till tomorrow and then maybe I'll come up with something more imaginative. It's hard. It's really hard. And that's fine. We also ignore a load of really important things. These are the bits that make it harder, so that's why we ignore them.
Proper social proof. And what I mean by that is TOWIE reality star from 2016 came to our thing once, is not social proof that your thing is good. I'm really sorry. It doesn't qualify. You've got to find authentic ways to create social proof around your destination, experience, hotel, restaurant, that actually connects with people.
But that's quite difficult. So we tend to ignore that. Anchors.
And what I mean by that is every brand has anchors. So Blackpool, for example, heritage, fun, nostalgia. their anchors should come through in everything they do and you may have whatever you decide to call them, marketing pillars, foundations, content categories, it's irrelevant what you call them but you will have some kind of anchors that you always want to draw people back to and that even that alone helps you with that social media on my to-do list where am I going to start but we ignore that because we're like oh what's that shiny thing over there that we could talk to people about and just because it's Red Nose Day or just because it's and I hate to say it and I'm sorry English Tourism Week we're like oh we should probably do something about that that's not necessarily the case your customers might not care about that thing that you think you should post about so what are those anchors that people actually care about and belonging. Look at Airbnb, love or hate them the over tourism debate all of that love or hate them they have created this sense of belonging, this sense of community. The way they share host stories, the way they share information about a destination, the way they share real people in all of their marketing. N
ow none of us are Airbnb, we don't have these multi-million pound budgets but that's not a problem. It's easier than you think to be authentic with little to no budget. Actually, it's kind of easier because you don't have 13 layers of approvals and red tape through marketing teams and directors and sign-offs and boards to get through for that one photo of someone pulling a funny face outside of your museum. So it's actually easier for us. Where we get lazy: FOMO—oh my god, a special offer—is not a compelling anchor. BOGOF is not a compelling anchor. Prices go up tomorrow is not a compelling anchor. Using fear of missing out around things like price just pushes us further in that race to the bottom. And that's not what we're in it for. We're not in it to discount our products and services to be cheap is best. We're in it to be experiences best, memories are best, photo moments are best. Authority—wheeling out a professor with some data relevant to your thing is boring. I'm really sorry, it's dull; people don't care. Unless you are, like, splitting atoms in ways atoms have never been split, we do not need a professor or a psychologist or a doctor or even a celebrity to tell people why our thing is really good. We need other customers; we need advocates; so we need to tell stories. Loss—loss is about saying, oh well, if you don't buy our thing, you're losing out, and it's insulting to the customer. But we think that, kind of in the same way we use fear of missing out, we think loss is a good way to market, and it's not. Oh well, if you don't put your child in Clarks shoes, you're going to cripple them for the rest of their life, and they're going to walk like a hobbit. What you get or stand to lose is not a good marketing tactic. We're smarter as consumers than that; we see straight through it.
That fits in the guilt element as well as imitation. Don't copy what other people are doing. Even if it gets today's social media post off your to-do list quicker, find your groove, find your vibe, find your anchors, find your story, talk to your customers. It astounds me how infrequently travel and tourism brands speak to actual customers. Did you have a nice time? I mean, why do we forget these things are so important? We get so busy. And actually, if you did no marketing, no PR, nothing over the next month, but you spoke to five customers, I guarantee you would be in a better position—a far better position. You'd be like, oh my god, this has been an epiphany; why did we not do this before? But we get busy, so it's hard to build these things into our day-to-day marketing lives. Okay, a little recap: we know we need to solve a problem, we know we need to create moments, we definitely don't want to be beige and blend into what everyone else is doing, and we're not going to be lazy about the way we get people to part with their money—the way we trigger people. By the way, I absolutely love the amount of people that are scribbling. That makes, that absolutely fills me with joy. If you also want to chat afterwards, or you want the slides, then come and grab me. I'm around all for the rest of the day, so I'd love to chat to people afterwards. Okay, we're getting closer to an answer, which is a relief really, because if I left here, then it would be a little bit disappointing, wouldn't it? This is what triggers people.
It's emotion, it's purpose, it's our values, it's our inner beliefs. It's not, I'm afraid, voted number one. It's not recommended by, it's not those badges of approval, those regional awards that you won, and don't get me wrong, congratulations, because those awards are industry social proof that we are delivering fantastic experiences, but our customers want so much more than that. They want to know that parting with their money with you aligns with their social beliefs, with their values, their passions, whether that's around sustainability, really good food, just letting go and having a totally amazing, immersive experience. This is the number of messages you are potentially bombarded with every single day, every single day.
So it's no wonder that 90% of our marketing just falls down a black hole, because it just blends in. I mean, even in this room alone, my God, it is, it's overwhelming, isn't it? What are you going to remember? And I guarantee it will be something that made you feel a certain way, a person, an image. It might be something as simple as someone's tone of voice, or the way they smiled at you when they walked past. I walked up and down the whole show when I got here, and I think out of all the stands, two people caught my eye in a genuine, authentic way. One lady from the Brend Hotels Collection, don't know if she's here or not, just said, oh, what are you speaking about? And another chap just said, you look a bit lost, what are you looking for? No hard sell, nothing, just a conversation, just a conversation starter.
Who's in the market for one of these? I mean, I guess even if you were, you're not going to put your hand up. Whether you are a Tesla customer, or whether you are more in the market for an afternoon in a cozy book shop, picking out your next read, my point is that customers are all incredibly different. And I'm going to talk to you about how we market to different people at the moment, and why it doesn't work. So regardless of whether you are, I don't care what anyone says, I love my Cybertruck, or you're, I'm going to escape and buy some secondhand books this afternoon because that's what fills me up, that's what fills me with joy. We have to understand that to trigger people to buy, they buy on really nuanced things that we often don't think about.
This is a trigger. This is that moment at which you go, where are we going to go, I am booking something. And bougie means different things to different people. It might mean that Bucharest Spa, it might mean an afternoon in a book shop with a pot of tea and good company.
It means different things. But this is that enough is enough moment. Enough is enough is a trigger.
But it's very different to marketing through guilt or loss. But how do you market to this when someone needs something specific? Think about how your marketing talks to people. Does it scoop them up out that a moment of kind of, life is shit and say, I have the answer for you.
It's a spa. It has a rainstorm room. You are going to look so good in those pink and purple and blue and green lights under our palm trees on your TikTok and potentially on your matched, no, matched.com is that, this is probably not still a thing, is it? I missed out on the whole online dating era.
I'm not going to give another example. So I'm scared I might pick one that's really inappropriate and that you're actually not supposed to be on or something. But this is a trigger. Work sucks and I just want to get away from it all and post fun TikToks with Sabrina Carpenter songs in the background and stand in front of a waterfall and it all be lovely and glamorous and tranquil and nice. This is the work chat, everyone is WhatsApping saying where they're going on holiday and you haven't booked anything and you are at that crunch point of "why haven't I booked myself a holiday? Everyone's going to these interesting places, everyone seems to find better things to do than me, I'm ready to book.
I want to share on that WhatsApp group that I am going to somewhere no one's ever heard of, I've discovered it." Please don't get me started on hidden gems, please don't put hidden gems in your marketing ever anywhere, otherwise we can't speak again. It's more than that, it's more, it's so much more. It's my birthday and I need attention, please spoil me. As much as I say special offers and flash sales and things aren't a hook, aren't an incentive, if you do surprise upgrades for people's birthdays then great, talk about it, talk about how you embrace moments of celebration, birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, talk about that and use it to your advantage. I'm not saying you need to find out when Sandra who's coming on your next coach towards birthday is because that is a lot of effort but talk about how you celebrate moments with people and for people and how you make them different and special.
Because we all know that it's not expensive to do surprise and delight, we all know that when someone comes in with a I'm gonna be 50 badge and her friends have dressed her up to look like a right idiot and they've even given her a sash like she's getting married or something but she's going with it because she thinks you know what if they know it's my birthday something fun might happen here and hopefully you get given a free glass of champagne not like a cupcake that they just found in the cupboard or something but talk to people about how you use those moments. Okay I'm going to make this really easy for you to do useful stuff with. What do people actually book? All of these things that are driven by emotions and thoughts and feelings, this is what people book based on. Life goals, a release from a really demanding job.
They don't book this unfortunately and luckily in my gaze from here I can't see any images like this but this is not real life, this is not what people book. People book the rough and ready, taken in a hurry photo that captures that really awkward funny smile or the kid picking his nose or whatever else is going on in real life not this. Okay who isn't booking? None of these people are booking your thing. Gen Z aren't, women with kids aren't, empty nesters with a bit more disposable income than they used to have aren't, men who like extreme sports aren't, none of these are, bargain-loving Brits even aren't booking your thing.
Of course all of these people are booking but not like not defined like this. This is who's booking. Lovers of beautiful green outdoor spaces who want to escape from it all, be surrounded by tropical idyllic greenery.
People with a penchant for pistachio cream in chocolate, the Dubai chocolate thing just went wild didn't it? That's how you categorize someone. Fashionistas who make cardigans look amazing. These women who make like grandi cardigans look incredible. I mean I don't know how it's possible but they are they are a demographic.
Not women over 30 with children under three. That is not a demographic. Travel industry conference goers who work too hard like all of us. Get really specific with how you trigger someone to buy.
Okay what are you going to do now? How are you going to make people go oh my god that's the thing it's the thing it's the thing I need to go and do. I can't cope if I don't go there. How are we going to do that? Get repetitive. Repetitive isn't boring. Just because you've been looking at that social post for the last three weeks, or your boss has sent it back seven times and now you've seen it 32 times, doesn't mean your customer's gonna see it. They may see one in 32 of the things you do.
And stay consistent. Keep coming back to those brand anchors. Keep coming back to the same key messages. And be situationally relevant. What are people talking about right now? And don't be lazy.
Don't fall back on those old marketing techniques that we know don't work, so don't tap into the way people buy. If nothing else, figure out who is ready to throw their money at you. So I'm gonna shut up.
I hope you take something from this talk that helps people shut up and give you their money. And I think, hopefully, we've got a couple of minutes for questions. Now, this is the slide that you take a picture of. And I stand really still because then I don't get a closed eye shot.
And I smile. And you put it on LinkedIn. And we all have fun. Thank you so much.
Well, I'm not sure how you follow that. I feel as though I should have come on this stage wearing a silly hat, because people remember you. They won't remember me, but that's as it is.
We have a couple of moments and I'm very happy to just take a little bit longer, a couple of minutes to ask a couple of questions. If anyone would like to ask a question, we have a roving microphone. Or you've shut everybody up, you see, it's excellent.
Lady at the front, Jacqui, can you tell us who you are and who you represent when you... Please. Hi, I'm Jill Barker. I'm from Glastonbury. I have a holiday complex there that we have a lot of groups to stay with us as well.
But getting the message to find the right market is a challenge. And it's interesting, your final thing is share on LinkedIn. And that is my question about so which platform do we figure out is LinkedIn? I've never spent any time on LinkedIn, but possibly it is. But it changes all the time. I've got young staff who are quite happily on TikTok.
And I kind of look at them and go, is that really my market? But I guess that is the big million dollar question is where do you concentrate your efforts, which platform? So I guess if you're in Glastonbury, you're trying to diversify business away from just the festival and look for year-round business. I mean, more people are using TikTok than Google as a search engine. So I would absolutely invest time in a channel like TikTok if you have the capacity to do it properly.
If you are going to stitch together the stock photography that you did two years ago and put it on TikTok, it's not worth doing. It's not worth time. If you are going to capture content with your staff, across your site, with guests, and post real moments of people enjoying experiences, then 100% TikTok is the place to be.
If you are trying to find partnerships through corporates, through train lines, through other venues, through local attractions and experiences, then absolutely I would be on LinkedIn and I would be working in collaboration with your local tourist board, people like UK Inbound, like anyone who is amplifying brilliant products to a wider B2B audience. The key is to figure out what your anchors are and figure out how you translate those on different channels because it will be different for every channel and that's what makes it time-consuming. OK, thank you, Catherine.
I know we're on time now, up to time, so I'm going to bring things to a close. Thank you very much indeed. Absolutely magnificent. Can you thank Catherine in the usual manner, please?
2025-04-25 18:23
