Sojern: Empowering The World's Travel Marketers

The travel industry is one of the largest service industries in the world. Its contributions to the world economy could be counted in trillions of dollars each year. While the number of travelers increases each year, capturing the imagination of these travelers is a different sort of challenge. Based in San Francisco, Sojern is a company that helps travel companies make bookings. Till date, it has helped companies make $13 billion year over year in bookings through multi-channel branding and performance solutions.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Sojern was founded in 2007. The company has rapidly expanded since its inception and today has teams based in Berlin, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Mexico City, New York, Omaha, Paris, Singapore, and Sydney.

The city where it all began

Omaha was where the Sojern story started. Earlier this year, Sojern held its annual conference here and hosted about 600 of its employees from all over the world who had gathered for training and celebration. The weeklong conference was held at Downtown Omaha.

One of the distinguished speakers at the conference was Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts. During his speech, he appreciated and applauded Sojern’s investment in Omaha. And he also spoke highly of the company’s drive to encourage women at the workplace. 55% of the company’s workforce is comprised of women which is unusual for a technology company but that is how Sojern distinguishes itself.

Raises money

Until 2018, the company had raised $42.5 million over three funding rounds. But last year, Sojern closed in mega Series D round where it raised a massive $120 million. The round was led by TCV. The investments are a testament to the belief of investors.

The company today works with over 8,500 customers from all over the world leveraging the help of over 500 of its employees across all major travel markets. Sojern has year over year helped its customers grow and generate about $13 billion in bookings.

Giving back

Sojern is a company with strong values. While its splendid work reflects this, their effort to give back to the community is something that reaffirms it. The company gives its employees 40 hours off each year to volunteer and help organizations around the world.

The global organization believes in making the effort at a local level. Through the Sojern Gives Back program the company decides on a theme like going green, literacy, and education. It then forges partnerships with small and local organizations to help. The company has so far worked with organizations like give me tap!, Special Olympics, The Salvation Army, NSPCC, Food Bank, Toys For Toys and many more.

Meet the Chief

Mark Rabe, Chief Executive Officer

Mark has over two decades of senior leadership experience. He has held various leadership positions at Yahoo!, Overture, and About Inc. Under his leadership, Sojern has made it to Deloitte’s 500 Fastest Growing tech firms list five times. He’s an active board advisor for multiple startups.

He earned his MBA from the Duke University and has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology and Economics from the Denison University.

A Case Study

320 Guest Ranch, located in Montana did not have too many competitors considering their location. But the management here had a tough time managing expectations as the guests often booked their stay indirectly. Due to this, 320 Guest Ranch got customers who had different ideas of what a ranch is. Customer’s sometimes showed up expecting a swimming pool or a spa. Hence, it was important to manage expectations by getting more direct bookings as OTA’s gave the ranch little information about the customers.

Sojern stepped in to help. They created ads and placed them in front of inmarket travelers which drove as many as 58 bookings directly to 320 Guest Ranch’s website. Using this information, the business was able to communicate about the property’s amenities to appeal to the right kind of travelers. Further, 320 Guest Ranch used the Sojern portal to maintain books and payed only after a guest stayed. Sojern’s effect was noticeable and generated net revenue of over $37,868 over the course of the year.

Customers Speak

“We continue to use Sojern Dynamic Creative today as a way to provide more granular, personalized messaging and reach new travelers.” – Michael Lim, Deputy General Manager Marketing

“I’ve been really impressed with Sojern: the campaign has delivered strong results and the team has been friendly, responsive and knowledgeable throughout.” – Carrie Thomson, Media Director, Strategic America

“We’ve been happy Sojern customers—there’s an honesty in the way they work. As someone who tried a competitor and was let down, I can say that their solutions for small, boutique hotels have really delivered results for our property.” – Dagmar Lombard, General Manager, Auberge Saint-Antoine

“Sojern has specialized in traveler path to purchase data for over a decade and our aim is to know all the world’s travelers and move them from dream to destination.”

“With over a decade of experience in data-driven travel marketing and analyzing traveler pathways to purchase data, Sojern brings a distinct perspective to the programmatic advertising and digital marketing ecosystem.”