New Digital Age (NDA) in association with LiveRamp is spotlighting the men and women championing a data-led revolution in the marketing industry. The ‘Meet the Revolutionaries’ interviews focus on the efforts of the industry executives helping to drive digital marketing forward into a new era of data collaboration.
Here, Lena Arbery, Director of Destinations, Travel and Growth, EMEA at Tripadvisor, explains the importance of keeping your mission front and centre when leading any innovation project…
What sort of thing does your current role involve?
I lead the media sales teams in EMEA, covering everything from targeted display campaigns using our rich first-party data to immersive brand partnerships through our award winning in-house creative agency, Wanderlab. Our work spans everything – from engaging content like our Wanderer series on Amazon, to experiential events, OOH, and now conversational AI agents.
What I love most is that it’s always about what’s next. We want our partners to constantly challenge and reappraise Tripadvisor to keep us innovating and on the front foot. I feel like, especially in recent years, we’ve really achieved that.
Can you give an example of a time when you personally have helped to drive innovation?
Most recently, we launched a conversational AI agent that taps into Tripadvisor’s greatest strength – our unmatched user-generated content and data insights. It allows our partners access to business intelligence like never before, powering seamless travel guidance in a way consumers are beginning to expect. AI is accelerating the way people expect information to reach them, so as a leader, supporting innovation and moving fast is absolutely crucial.
What are the most common challenges to innovation?
Time, structure, and alignment of goals – those are the biggest barriers. It’s easy to chase after the next shiny new thing, but real innovation happens when you’re aligned with your core mission. For Tripadvisor, it’s about helping people become better travellers. If innovation doesn’t serve that goal, then it’s just not going to land. Having dedicated teams focused on commercial innovation ensures that everyone is pointing in the right direction and moving at speed.
What tips can you offer others hoping to drive innovation?
Keep your mission and customer at the center. If you do that, you literally cannot go wrong. And put your money where your mouth is. That means dedicating time, resources, and energy into making things happen. You can’t just talk about innovation; you have to structure teams in a way that ensures you’re always looking at what’s next.
How do you think digital marketing might evolve over the next few years?
Honestly, I feel like we need a crystal ball right now! But one thing is clear – AI and machine learning will be huge. They’re only going to get better, and businesses need to lean into that. Personalization will accelerate. Customers are expecting marketing to be relevant to them – what does this mean for me? Understanding the customer at every stage is going to stay critical.
And alongside all this, trust will be more important than ever. With everything happening in the world today, people need to know they’re getting their information from a trusted source. That’s where first-party data and publishers with credibility will be key.
Do you think ‘data collaboration’ will become more important to marketers?
It’s hugely important now, and I don’t see that changing. As the world’s largest travel guidance platform, we sit on a vast amount of data. But the real excitement comes from how we use that data—collaborating with clients, platforms, and ad tech partners to test and learn together. As AI evolves, it’s going to fuel even deeper collaboration and business insights that weren’t possible before.
