Digital chief still bullish on traditional approach

Webjet has appointed Charlie Wong to take on the Hong Kong CEO role for its two travel brands Zuji and Webjet.Following the merge late March, Wong will oversee the development of both brands in Hong Kong with a mission to educate offline customers about their services.In the upcoming months, he said Zuji will be positioned to serve more international flights and hotels, while Webjet will tap into the mainland Chinese market.His biggest headache, however, is not other online travel agencies (OTA) like Expedia and Trip Advisor; rather, it's the traditional offline names that have a strong top-of-mind presence."In online travel, the growth is significant and very quick. So whether it's the competition between Zuji or Webjet or with other OTAs, it's not so much of a problem for us. We are looking at grabbing eyeballs of people who don't use our service," he said, adding that OTA presence in Hong Kong is less than 10% of the total travel size in the city.His solution in the long run is to eventually open up shops in the city; but now, his golden key is traditional advertising in magazines, dailies, event sponsorships, establish call centres for customer support and, eventually, investing in out-of-home media.Though it seems that Wong is going against the flow when every other marketer is trying to push their campaigns online, he said that Zuji and Webjet are just trying to build a hybrid model."Hong Kong is a special place is many ways: because it's so small, it's convenient to go to a local store. This is precisely why we need to have a strong, solid presence on- and offline," he said.And his final advice for online businesses? Don't ignore traditional media."Right now, our pie is about 60% digital and 40% traditional. You can't ignore traditional media in terms of driving traffic and sales - it has repeatedly been proven to be effective for both realms. It's about striking a solid balance between the two."