Context

Nexxt Intelligence conducted a series of in-depth interviews at scale since the spring of 2020 on the impact of the pandemic on the travel market.

Research

In the May and July studies, we asked over 500 Canadians and Americans “What needs to happen before you’ll feel comfortable vacationing again?” inca generated an emoji mood board based on what our research participants told us in May and July respectively. 

In May, we detected two dominant emotions. The big no-no emoji indicated how travel-averse many consumers were as vividly exemplified by the quote referenced above: do absolutely nothing! The ‘Okay’ emoji was in fact hypothetical approval, according to the verbatims: travel will be OK once things are under control. 

In July,  those sentiments stayed, but were joined by two more emotions. While it’s exciting to see that people were ready and wanting to vacation again (the ‘Sunglasses’ emoji), it is, however, balanced by lots of precautions (the ‘Mask’ emoji).

Outcome

Clients are able to see changing attitudes within a short time span quickly and vividly through the mood boards.  Such sentiment changes are important for marketers to keep abreast of in a timely manner. Through emotional connection, marketers can create marketing programs and communications with empathy and authenticity.