Digital marketing agency BANC's travel data plugin, Pontoon, took home the Travel Marketing Technology Supplier award at The Travel Marketing Awards. Taking place July 16 from the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, Pontoon – created in partnership with travel data supplier Widgety – allows travel businesses to customise, brand and display Widgety data their own way, so they can maximise the value of Widgety’s capabilities even more effectively.
Born out of the challenges they saw clients facing, Pontoon was created to be a bridge between technology and marketing, empowering travel agents to make stronger connections with users landing on site.
Seamlessly integrating into WordPress websites, businesses can take existing third-party itinerary data and override the content to their liking. With Pontoon, they can filter out specific cruise types, entire river sailings, and add in brand-specific deals and extras. Whatever they want to remove or include, they can. Better still, they can do it without web developers having to do it for them.
Speaking on the win Martin Cozens, MD of BANC, said: “I’m thrilled! To be making such an impact at this early a stage is a truly wonderful feeling. I couldn’t be prouder of the team for all the hard work they’ve put in, they’re more than deserving of this award. Plus, I got to meet Anton Du Beke, what a moment!”
BANC have integrated Pontoon into multiple websites, with the plugin making an immediate impact already. Speaking about their previous setup, Ann Anglesea of Perfect Cruises said: “Any time we wanted to update a page on our old website, we’d need our developers to do it for us, which was a slow and frustrating process. We were also limited by an integration that only pulled through top-level cruise itinerary information.”
But using their plugin solution, BANC designed and built a new website for Perfect Cruises, integrated with Pontoon. “Now”, Ann says “we can pull through full Widgety data for nearly 60,000 cruise itineraries, which our agents can edit with unique info and exclusive deals themselves.”
