Traveldeal, a leading travel platform, partnered with Yellowgrape to rethink customer profiling and take the leap into AI-driven personalisation using Spotler’s Customer Data Platform (CDP).
The result? A smarter funnel, a shorter time-to-book, and a journey that feels truly tailor-made.
The Challenge: Turning Choice Overload into Relevance
Traveldeal thrives on momentum: fresh deals daily, from short getaways to all-inclusive escapes. But abundance also creates friction. Visitors scrolled endlessly, compared offers, and often left without booking.
The challenge was clear: how can we shorten the time-to-book and make each visitor feel understood — without adding pressure?
Static forms and profile settings didn’t work. They felt like chores, resulting in fragmented data. Traveldeal needed a way to capture intent earlier in the funnel — seamlessly, intuitively, and with real value for the visitor.
The Experimentation Approach
With Spotler Activate, Yellowgrape designed a lifecycle marketing strategy aimed at transforming unknown visitors into known profiles. In a cookieless world, first-party data is the foundation of effective segmentation and personalisation.
But collecting that data had to feel natural — even fun. The process became a cycle of hypothesis, testing, and learning, using experimentation as the driver for progress.
The Wizard: Capturing Intent Playfully
Instead of a dry form, Traveldeal launched a visual “wizard” integrated into the browsing journey. In just four quick questions — about travel companions, trip type, duration, and region — visitors could define their preferences in a way that felt conversational.
The flow resembled a chat with a travel consultant rather than a data form, making completion intuitive. At the end, visitors were invited to leave their email to receive a personalised travel brochure directly in their inbox.
The AI-Generated Brochure
Once preferences were captured, AI took over. Using Brainvine, Yellowgrape’s AI-driven content engine, Traveldeal generated a dynamic brochure page unique to each visitor.
Each brochure combined inspiration and practicality: activities, hidden gems, local cuisine, travel tips, and a personalised top-3 destination list drawn from over 100 options — all tailored to the visitor’s interests.
Omnichannel Personalisation
These profiles fuelled Traveldeal’s entire marketing mix:
- personalised newsletters,
- triggered email flows,
- dynamic social ads, and
- SEA campaigns with intent-based messaging.
Consistent, data-driven storytelling ensured every channel reinforced the same customer narrative.
Continuous Optimisation
Throughout the project, the team tested multiple elements — placement, copy, imagery, CTA contrast, and tone of voice — refining each iteration based on performance data. Experimentation wasn’t a phase; it was a mindset.
Results: Personalisation That Feels Like Tailoring
Traveldeal’s approach turned profiling into an engaging, inspiring experience that customers actually enjoyed. The results:
- Reduced time-to-book by surfacing relevant offers sooner.
- Higher opt-in rates thanks to the intuitive wizard.
- Greater engagement through AI-personalised brochure content.
- Improved conversions across channels with consistent messaging.
The broader achievement: a scalable personalisation engine, powered by AI and experimentation, built on Spotler Activate’s 360° customer profiles.
Why It Matters
The travel industry faces dual pressure — rising acquisition costs and the decline of third-party cookies. Without first-party data, personalisation efforts fall short.
Meanwhile, consumer expectations are higher than ever: 71% expect personalised interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them.
McKinsey reports that companies excelling at personalisation generate 40% more revenue from those activities. In travel, that lift can reach 35%.
Traveldeal’s results show that even mid-sized players can achieve enterprise-level outcomes when AI and experimentation work hand in hand.
Lessons Learned
- Profiling should inspire, not interrupt. Visitors engage when the process is fun and rewarding.
- AI scales creativity. Machines deliver relevance; humans craft meaning.
- Consistency builds trust. Omnichannel personalisation reinforces the same story at every touchpoint.
- Small tests, big gains. Incremental optimisations across questions and CTAs created major cumulative impact.
- First-party data is the growth engine. In a post-cookie era, intent-based engagement is essential.
Conclusion
Traveldeal’s partnership with Yellowgrape, powered by Spotler Activate CDP and Brainvine AI, shows how experimentation and AI-driven personalisation can transform the booking journey.
By making profiling intuitive, generating AI-powered brochures, and extending insights across channels, Traveldeal turned a complex funnel into a seamless, inspiring experience.
The takeaway for every experimentation hero: personalisation at scale isn’t just about data or algorithms — it’s about blending human insight, AI precision, and a culture of continuous testing. Done right, every journey feels personal, and every visitor feels understood.
Mark van den Berg
CMO | Spotler
Martijn Versteeg
Senior Customer Journey Consultant | Yellogrape
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From Profiling to AI-Powered Personalisation: How Traveldeal Created Tailor-Made Journeys for Every Visitor
Vacature: Lid DDMA Commissie Experimentation & Optimisation (op vrijwilligersbasis)
