Coming from a non-travel background, Lindsay Nelson is keen to bring in fresh thinking and ideas to her role as president, Core Experience, TripAdvisor, a responsibility she describes as 'bringing consumer empathy to TripAdvisor'.

Lindsay Nelson (right) is “bringing consumer empathy to TripAdvisor”.

“We are a content company, an information platform. It is easy to get confused about what is your consumer value proposition and business model – there is sometimes a tension between the two."

“If you have content, drive loyal and direct traffic and brand preference, you have a strong foundation for an advertising business, then your business model and value proposition are actually complementary.

“The key question we are asking now is, what is the traveller relationship with TripAdvisor?”

To answer that, it is currently in deep research to find out what “customers love about us, what they need from us and what only we can provide them”, said Nelson, who was visiting Singapore as part of a trip to Asia.

“We are doing a meaningful assessment of the brand and tapping into consumer empathy,” said the marketing executive who was recognised by Forbes on its 2018 CMO Next List.

These findings will form the foundation of her mission to build brand preference and brand love for the company she joined last October from Vox Media where she served for about four years.

Going back to its roots to find the secret sauce

“In a way, we are going back to the beginning – the original story, 20 years ago, when Steve Kaufer had the insight to create a place where people, spending their hard earned dollars on vacations, can get a sense of what they are going to get. It was very empathetic to the needs of travellers.”

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