If you are in need of a little distraction in the office - or some inspiration for your next long weekend away - this tool produced by The New York Times and Google Maps is something else.
As far as paid advertorials go, this one is brilliant in every aspect. It took me a couple of minutes of playing around on this, a paid post on The New York Times' website, before I realised just how good it was an inbound marketing ethos native ad.
It's cool to look at and play around with, whilst allowing you to fantasize about visiting a whole host of cities around the world. Nice.
Whilst you are "there", the writers from The 'Times have described an in depth itinerary of activities and Google Maps give you a Street View of the places in question.
On the left, The New York Times' 36 Hours team have planned an itinerary for you. Centre screen you can utilise Google Maps and Street View to view the city. On the right, is the list of viewable cities - or you can let the tool surprise you (most fun).
We straight away then imagined the possible potential uses for this: direct booking via Google Travel and Shopping, links through to the places mentioned in the micro-travel-blog within your interary so you can book directly and probably the chance to bid for paid placements on the tool.
I don't think The New York Times would be best pleased about what is essentially sub-letting their site, so it might only happen exclusively on a Google Maps planning tool. But still, it's another possible PPC opportunity.
In the meantime, enjoy having your next trip away planned for you.
We Have A New Free eBook With Other Great Inbound Tips
And it's full of lesser known and underused techniques which will help improve your inbound marketing.
It's 50 pages and completely free, so download it now. Just press the red button.
