The tool is billed as a way travel companies can collect, moderate and publish customers’ stories, experiences and reviews “to build your reputation, reach new customers, increase conversions and improve customer loyalty”.

To date, Bent says he has worked on campaigns with the likes of Qantas, Voyages-SNCF.com, Merlin and Tourocity - and these have all been helping to “prove the concept” he says.

“We’ve ran a few campaigns, and have been developing. I’ve been reluctant to go for a big push, but I’m happy with it now,” he adds.

Issues he cites surrounded ownership, and moderating: “Social media networks change their settings every week, and data legality is a key part of the platform. There’s more emphasis on the owners [of the content], and data is a key part of loyalty.”

He says many brands are now “scraping social media sites for hashtagged stories” – a practice that means some companies will get caught out having to deal with customers who did not give permission for their content to be repurposed, and could face a PR nightmare as those users vent their frustration online.

Social medial, and user generated content (UGC) in particular, are still seen as crucial in promoting products today. According to Bent, UGC is 50% more trustworthy, 35% more memorable and 20% more influential than brand content.

Building up pictures

The platform also has the added benefit of allowing brands to talk to social media users – out goes traditional marketing, in comes engagement. As a result, Discvr - billed as a “storytelling" platform – offers a way for brands to store profiles of customers, and so target them with specific offers.

Campaigns are able to gather additional profiling information and data capture, as well as to communicate details of incentive prizes and campaign timings. With permission from customers, content can be used to create themed story walls, publish stories to Facebook and website landing pages and exported offline for e-shots.

One of the first users of Discvr was Qantas, which ran a social campaign called was FlyMeHomeQantas to grow engagement with existing customers, with a focus on Australians living in the UK. They were asked to share what they missed most about home with a prize of flights to Australia for a family of four for the winning entry, generating over 900 authentic customer stories with over 55% opting in to receive future communication from Qantas. 

Over the next couple of months, Bent says a new multi-lingual campaign will run with a major "Interrail service" that spans nine countries. A future Legoland is also being planned for this summer.

Bent says these will help "build the momentum" for the product - and for travel brands hoping to engage with customers in a more respectful way, Discvr could be the right platform to build momentum themselves when converting social media into sales.