Today we are launching the FREE report, <strong>What's Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy</strong>, brought to you in partnership with <a>Checkmate</a>! Today’s messaging platforms provide an appealing alternative to native apps, welcoming in a new framework for how the travel industry reaches its customers. Smart marketers are adapting to this change, ringing in a new era of better customer service and streamlined operations. Welcome to the Post-App Economy.

1. WHAT’S NEXT IN MOBILE:
MESSAGING STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL
BRANDS IN A POST-APP ECONOMY
Skift + Checkmate Present:
special
report
Today’s messaging platforms provide an appealing
alternative to native apps, welcoming in a new framework
for how the travel industry reaches its customers.
Smart marketers are adapting to this change, ringing in
a new era of better customer service and streamlined
operations. Welcome to the Post-App Economy.
+

3. What’s Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy SKIFT REPORT 2016
3
Checkmate’s communications platform enables businesses to engage
customers across any channel – SMS, email, messaging apps – and improve
coordination within their teams. Checkmate gathers all this communication
into one inbox shared by every employee, creates a single conversation thread
for each customer, and facilitates team collaboration. As a result, businesses
can better delight customers, prevent service shortfalls from turning into
negative reviews, and strengthen their operations.
Founded in January 2013, Checkmate was acquired by Room 77 which has
raised $43 million from leading travel and technology investors. For more
information about Checkmate, visit www.checkmate.io.
About Checkmate

4. What’s Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy SKIFT REPORT 2016
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About Skift
Skift is a travel intelligence
data, and services to
professionals in travel and
professional travelers, to help
them make smart decisions
about travel.
Skift is the business
of travel.
Visit skift.com for more.
Introduction: Welcome to the Post-App Economy 5
How Traveler Communication Preferences Have Evolved 7
The Rise of Conversational Marketing 9
Why The Contact Center Model Must Evolve 11
Messaging as an Operational Strategy 13
Hospitality: Creating The Next Generation Of 16
Operations With Messaging Technology
(Free Excerpt from Skift’s The Future
of Messaging Technology trend report)
Insights and Strategies 18
A Note to Travel Marketers: Adapt or Fall Behind 19
About Skift 20
Table of contents
This report has been adapted from the co-branded Skift and Checkmate series Welcome to the Post-App Economy.
Read the full series here and learn more about the future of messaging technology at Checkmate.io.

5. What’s Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy SKIFT REPORT 2016
5
Introduction:
Welcome to the Post-App Economy
Whenever a traveler is faced with a challenge, big or small, a common phrase will be
uttered by a friend or colleague: “There’s an app for that.”
This refrain has defined the mobile space for nearly a decade. But today, an emerging
alternative is driving significant change and providing a more effective way for travel
businesses to deliver mobile experiences. Welcome to the Post-App Economy.
What is the Post-App Economy?
The Post-App Economy consists of rapidly growing messaging channels that provide
brands and businesses with real-time opportunities to interact with customers. This
economy includes both new platforms like Facebook Messenger’s ambitious scope,
WeChat, and Google’s soon to be launched messaging app, as well as established
channels like SMS and web chat. All of these channels allow for real-time, one-to-one
communication, providing an alternative model for the development and distribution of
a mobile experience.
When the iPhone launched in 2008, native
apps were the only game in town. They are
powerful tools, but apps have not taken root
in categories with infrequent purchases.
As apps proliferated – today the App Store
alone has over 1.5 million apps – consumer
engagement concentrated to only a few
apps. Last year, consumers spent 79 percent
of time on their mobile phone using five
apps. Furthermore, only 10 percent of apps
downloaded are ever used more than once.
Thus, it is a growing challenge for businesses
– especially those in infrequent purchase
categories such as travel – to develop an app
that is discovered, downloaded, and used.
Today, messaging platforms provide an appealing alternative to native app development.
These platforms - Whatsapp, WeChat, FB Messenger, and Line - have more active users
and are growing faster than leading social networking apps (see chart above).
Growth of Messaging Apps vs. Social Networks
Monthly active user for top 4 social networks and messaging apps
Big 4 Messaging Apps
Big 4 Social Networking Apps
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
Millions
Source: BJ Intelligence
2012 2013 2014 20152011

6. What’s Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy SKIFT REPORT 2016
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Messaging platforms provide development and discovery tools that address the
challenges of native apps and the app stores. Analyst Benedict Evans provides an
outstanding description of these trends in his 16 Mobile Theses. Three characteristics of
these messaging platforms stand stand out:
1. Easy engagement: Unlike apps, messaging services are present on every user’s
phone, as every device comes with SMS (and Facebook Messenger, the other top
messaging app, has over 1 billion users). The user does not need to visit the app store
and download an app to engage. Messaging with friends and family have habituated
consumers to this communication channel, and travel brands must be ready to engage
in the conversation.
2. Multi-channel: Consumers use many channels in the post-app world. An individual
consumer uses SMS, Facebook Messenger, and Whatsapp when interacting with friends
and family. Unlike apps, where a phone purchase would lock a user into Android or
iOS, individual consumers bounce across channels in the Post-App Economy. Travel
brands must move seamlessly across all of these channels to connect with their
customers.
3. High signal: Messaging demands relevancy. The ping of a new message pulls the
consumer away from his or her day and into the phone. Unlike apps that could sit
undisturbed on the back screen of a user’s phone, messages clamor for attention.
Messaging services know they cannot abuse this privilege with blast marketing,
and travel brands must ensure their messages contain relevant content based on a
consumer’s unique interests and needs.
These characteristics present major opportunities for travel brands for two reasons:
•Messaging depends upon real-world, last mile activity. Messaging rewards real-time
responses and emphasizes messages that result in action, areas where travel brands
excel. Consumer requests through messaging platforms may demand real-world
follow-up (e.g., “please have room service send up a burger” or “your room has been
assigned”). These messages are only helpful when they result in a real-world action.
• Purchase frequency is relatively less important. Messaging channels solve for
discovery and engagement, a real challenge for infrequently purchased categories. In
the app economy, discovery was controlled through the popularity of Top 10 lists, which
bene ted intermediaries with the greatest breadth of inventory and product uses (e.g.,
explore, compare, and book across product categories). Infrequent purchase patterns
limited travel brands’ reach. However, in the post-app economy, reach matters less
because businesses interact directly through the channels that consumers already use.