Back in 2007, the San Francisco start-up spearheaded the idea of printing advertising on airline boarding passes; fast forward 10 years and online advertising couldn’t be more different.

In today’s highly competitive online market, travel companies use data-driven advertising platforms to get their adverts on to a diverse range of platforms. Bidding for keywords via Google is becoming prohibitively expensive as the online giants such as Expedia and Booking.com spend millions on ensuring their results appear top on the all-important first page of search engine results.

Going native
Now more options are available, such as native ads across Twitter and Facebook, while plans are reportedly afoot that allow marketers to place their branded messages inside apps such as Facebook Messenger – only available in Australia and Thailand for now.

Sojern helps travel brands place their adverts on different devices, at different times, in a bid to capture the customer in the “dream state” as well as across the whole purchase funnel, and with Adara is one of few ad-tech companies to focus 100% on the travel industry.

Cross-device tracking continues to be the Holy Grail in advertising, and European commercial director Matthieu Betton (above) believes 2017 could be a “breakthrough year” for Sojern as it perfects its technology and algorithms. Attribution remains an important aspect in online advertising, as travel companies want to know exactly where the booking is coming from.

However, as people increase the number of electronic devices they use (currently we each own an average of 3.6 devices, reckons Betton), a challenge for advertisers today is figuring out how to target people across multiple devices; working out where the sale comes from can be difficult.

“There are two methods to track the user: deterministic and probabilistic,” he says. The first gives 100% certainty, as for example the user is logged in on all their devices via Facebook or Google. “The second less so, but third-party companies such as Abakus, Drawbridge, Visual IQ and so on are able to determine if the same person is using these devices, by tracking IP addresses and more,” he adds.

Betton argues some ad platforms claim they get this 100% right, but in reality it is not the case. But for Sojern, he says: “We’ll bridge the gap, and our clients are super excited.”

Meanwhile, Betton says consumers trawl 36 websites on average when researching and planning their trip. “People need direction,” he argues, “they are lost online.” At first glance, the options can be confusing and Betton admits there is still need for education among travel companies, which might be put off by some ad-tech companies’ “lack of transparency”.

All change
Betton has spent four years at Sojern in the London office, and last month was promoted to commercial director, Europe, from general manager, Global Car and Strategic Accounts, where he will have a more public-facing role. This follows the relocation of former commercial director Russell Young, who has just opened the company’s Singapore office to focus on the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region.

Betton recollects that Young joined Sojern around the same time, and alongside Stephen Taylor (currently senior vice-president and managing director in San Francisco), the trio launched the UK office, in Soho, London. Today, the firm has 260 staff worldwide, set to grow by 100 this year, and works with 3,000 brands. Betton says he is keen to engage with more UK companies to highlight programmatic advertising’s benefits and potentially help them experience their own “breakthrough” year when it comes to driving online sales.