Sojern's global expansion and focus on performance marketing accelerated the company's growth last year.
SAN FRANCISCO – Sojern, the world’s leading performance marketing engine for travel brands, announced that it delivered a record $1 billion travel bookings for its clients last year, representing almost 3.5 million reservations worldwide. In 2014, Sojern added new strategic data partners, expanding its global data footprint to more than 350 million traveler profiles, and continued a trend of doubling revenues on average for the past three years.
“At Sojern, our experienced team of travel, e-commerce and digital media experts are using their passion for travel and technology towards one ambitious goal: to put more heads in beds, butts in seats and tourists in towns than anyone else in the world,” said Mark Rabe, CEO, Sojern. “With our exclusive focus on travel, our strategic data partnerships and our advanced performance marketing platform, Sojern is uniquely positioned to meet the digital marketing and distribution needs of travel companies across the globe.”
In recent years, the global rise of income levels combined with the ease of online travel planning has led to a surge in travel to and from markets like Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. During the first quarter of 2015, the biggest gains in passenger traffic were recorded in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, with respective gains of 11.1% and 10%, according to a report from Airports Council International (ACI) World. To help new and existing customers capitalize on this continuing trend, Sojern has grown its staff by 60% last year, adding key hires globally. In addition to adding staff in the US and UK offices, the company also opened new offices in Dubai and Singapore to meet rising demand for performance marketing solutions in the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
“Sojern’s geographic expansion to Dubai and Singapore comes on the heels of explosive growth across North America and Europe,” said VP and Managing Director, International, Stephen Taylor. “The increased geographic breadth of our data now allows us to serve clients with insights on traveler behaviors, globally. Critically, these insights enable us to drive unique, time-sensitive and highly relevant offers on behalf of our clients, thereby enabling them to engage and convert new customers.”
Millions of modern travelers turn to the Internet for research and purchasing everyday, and the travel industry is following them online: according to eMarketer, the US travel industry’s digital ad spend will reach $6.4 billion by 2018, up from $4.15 billion in 2014. As one of the first companies to have successfully cracked big data in online travel marketing, Sojern has been helping more than 650 of the world’s top travel brands to convert and retain travelers. The company’s performance marketing platform is fueled by advanced machine learning technology and real-time bidding. Sojern also leads the market with its quarterly travel insights reports that offer actionable data for global travel brands.
In 2014, Sojern drove heads in beds, butts in seats and tourists in town for more than 600 travel brands such as Avis Budget Group, British Airways, Carnival Cruise Line, Colorado Tourism, Emirates, IHG, Samsonite and Starwood. The company also made Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for two consecutive years, with a five-year sales growth of more than 1,000 percent, the fastest-growing travel technology company on the list.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
