This Miami tech company wants to boost the power of travel brands

When you’re booking a flight, you’re probably focused on time and cost.

But a Miami-based tech company believes travelers also care about airline quality and service. EveryMundo, an airfare marketing technology company, strives to help airlines and other travel providers highlight value — not just price. That, in turn, can turn customers back to the supplier’s own site, and away from price-driven sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Kayak. In most cases, online booking sites take a percentage of a flight sale as a commission, costing airlines money.

“Our goal as a company is to shift a little bit back towards the airline,” said founder and CEO Anton Diego.

When Diego started EveryMundo in 2006, he focused on digital marketing and campaigns for companies trying to reach the U.S.-Hispanic and Latin American markets. Current president and co-founder of the current iteration Seth Cassel came on in 2010, and the company transitioned into what it is today: a software producer that creates products airlines can plug into their websites, enabling them to compete with the third-party giants of the travel industry.

EveryMundo designs landing pages to promote certain flights and routes. On those pages, airlines can choose “modules” that show off prices, destinations and even weather patterns to the customer. For example, airlines can choose a calendar layout, where customers can see the current starting price for each day. Or they can deploy a trending destination module, where airlines can push routes they need to sell. And airlines can pay to get those pages in several device formats and in every language.

From there, airlines can swap modules in and out, “like video rental,” Cassel said.

“We’re giving them the technology to create a user experience that rivals if not surpasses that of the travel agencies, and therefore gives the user more of a reason to stay there, to make the purchase there, to feel confident they’re getting the price they want there,” Cassel, a fourth-generation Miami resident, said.

EveryMundo says that some of its biggest customers include American Airlines, Air Canada, Aer Lingus, Emirates, LATAM and Singapore Airlines. Several airlines declined or failed to comment for this story, but some confirmed an existing relationship with EveryMundo.

Cape Air, based in Barnstable, Mass., started working with EveryMundo last year. The airline has seen “great increases in revenue” and “good increases in passenger counts,” said Cape Air Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations Trish Lorino. She credits the targeted nature of EveryMundo’s products.

“We’re delivering the right message to the right person at the right time,” Lorino said.

EveryMundo wants to branch out beyond air travel. It recently secured a deal with iconic bus company Greyhound.

Cassel said the work EveryMundo does contributes to both branding and the bottom line, while online booking sites treat travel as a commodity. “There’s no story,” Cassel said. “And the airlines have a story. They want to tell the story.”

Airlines also have the opportunity to build brand loyalty if an airline is in contact with a customer from initial sale to flight boarding, Cassel said.

Sites like Expedia take a different view, arguing that customers find value in seeing all of their options up front.

“We always want to make it easy for travelers to quickly shop and compare flights across all airlines,” said Greg Schulze, Expedia’s senior vice president of commercial strategy and services.

Expedia works closely with airlines to make sure their brand is represented well, even if a customer doesn’t book through them directly, Schulze said.

But Lorino said she’d rather pay EveryMundo and drive up direct bookings than pay fees to third-party booking sites. “The end game really is to drive more direct traffic to our site,” Lorino said.

EveryMundo says it books 1.27 billion passengers on flights a year, or 30 percent of the market. Diego has his eyes set on 50 percent of the market in the next couple of years. But he doesn’t intend to ever try to push sites like Expedia out of business.

Diego bootstrapped the operation and has yet to raise additional capital. That might sound penny-wise, pound-foolish, but Diego, who was born in Russia and raised in Cuba, said it’s just the immigrant mentality — “you have to earn the next step.”

He and Cassel have brought that attitude into every part of the company, which Diego said has been profitable since the beginning.

“We want to build a company that changes the fabric of Miami,” Diego said. “And we believe we have that opportunity and the only way we can do that is by bringing immigrants here.”

EveryMundo

Founder and CEO: Anton Diego

President and co-founder of current iteration: Seth Cassel

Employees: 94

Founded: 2006

Based: Miami

Airline customers: 41

Milestones: Inc. 5000 company 2014; Endeavor Entrepreneur

Website: everymundo.com