Mood Media Does Content Deal With TripAdvisor

June 21, 2013 by Dave Haynes

I was talking recently with someone about content and who was out there thinking a little differently about what went on screens,

The gas station guys, I said. They are sourcing material from new and different places. I don’t have much enthusiasm for the stuff shovelled from broadcast networks, but I do like the stuff the gas station guys are sourcing and tweaking from the vast online video world.

So in a weird way I like the overall notion of what Mood Media is doing in a partnership announced Thursday with my online travel bible, TripAdvisor. It’s not the usual news and weather nonsense.

The agreement, says a release, allows for special access to content from the world’s largest travel website that is configured within Mood’s digital signage platforms, creating a unique digital signage solution designed especially for hotels and other hospitality venues.

Mood is marketing the new digital signage solution as “MVision Travel,” offering the TripAdvisor content as a customized supplement to major hotel brands. In hotel venues, the digital signage application serves as a “virtual concierge” for guests. Mood’s feed of TripAdvisor content provides a real-time index of user reviews, recommendations, pictures, and ratings for local attractions. The platform is also customizable for each unique brand so it can leverage any TripAdvisor content it deems appropriate.

“With TripAdvisor, Mood has established another premium digital signage content partner in a rapidly growing market for digital signage technology. By providing local, user-based travel information via the trusted TripAdvisor platform, we will help our clients deliver a more fulfilling experience for their guests,” said Mood Chairman and CEO, Lorne Abony.

Mood serves more than 7,000 hotel clients around the world with music, messaging, digital signage, scent and sound system solutions.

This would presumably necessitate a hotel operator to buy an expensive touchscreen station and develop all kinds of custom user experience stuff, so ka-ching for Mood and ouch for the operator. I’m not sure how many operators will bite when they know their guests can get TripAdvisor, Yelp or any number of other such services on their personal devices.

On the other hand, I know some hotels will happily invest money in something that steers already checked-in guest away from the reception desk to get their dining advice from a machine instead of a busy staffer.

That said, the idea of integrating consumer reviews into signage applications is, at a high level, a good one in the right moment and place. There’s lots and lots of research backing up that peer reviews and opinions are highly valued by consumers.

One of the projects I’m working on, for a retailer, is really well-suited for product reviews and we’re looking at building that in to help shoppers narrow down and validate choices.

If you don’t know TripAdvisor, it’s a terrific site filled with consumer reviews of hotels and inns. It hasn’t steered me wrong yet, but has steered me away from some places where I was thinking of staying. You want to know about the bed bug or crappy wifi issues BEFORE you book.