Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing
Advertiser: BEST WESTERN
Product/Service: BEST WESTERN TRAVEL APPLICATION
Media Agency: INITIATIVE, New York, USA
Managing Director Marketing and Ecommerce: Karmela Gaffney (Best Western)
Senior Vice President/Marketing And Sales: Dorothy Dowling (Best Western)
Director/Ecommerce: Tiffany Tchida (Best Western)
Director/Advertising/Online Media: Pat Campbell (Best Western)
Executive Vice President/Managing Director: Randy Bixler (Initiative)
Executive Vice President/Director/Innovations: Dave Rosner (Initiative)
Vice President/Group Account Director/Digital: Elvin Kawasaki (Initiative)
Vice President/Director/Account Planning: Sherry Crider (Initiative)
Director/Analytics: Richie Singh (Initiative)
Executive Vice President/Director/Performance: Bret Leece (Initiative)
President/Chief Strategist: Mattew Clyde (Ideas Collide)
Senior Account Manager: Mark Deyer (Ideas Collide)
Group Account Director: Marcus Gamo (Allison And Partners)
Account Director: Bill Ehninger (Gotham)
Managing Partner/Group Account Director: Tenny Pearson (Gotham)
Global Marketing Solutions: Johnathan Murtaugh (Facebook)
Media placement: Facebook Application - N/A - 2/6/2012
Media placement: Digital Media Placements, Over 220 Variationa Accross Multiple Ad Types - Facebook - 2/6/2012
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Best Western hotel chain’s goal in North America was to increase revenue and elevate loyalty and sign-ups to their rewards program. The focus was on frequent business travellers.
Our insight was that business travellers feel guilty about the time they spend away. A Wakefield study of 500 business travellers revealed the majority of business traversable (62%) feel guilty about being away, they miss loved ones (66%) and feel separated from occasions and events. We had a powerful, human truth to guide us.
The strategy: make people feel proud, not guilty about their business travel by recasting how rewards programs are considered.
The idea: Travel Hero, a social media program to help our target connect with loved ones by using travel rewards to create leisure trips. With vacation opportunities to look forward to loved ones will root for the target to travel instead of making them feel guilty.
Creative Execution
The “Travel Hero Program” connected the existing rewards promotion to a more engaging social experience through the launch of the “Travel Hero” app on Facebook. Travellers were able to book a room at any of its 4,000 hotels without leaving Best Western’s Facebook page.
On Facebook, the target was invited to pick their dream vacation, invite loved ones and get started on their Travel Hero journey. The program harnessed the huge network effect of friends and family for additional exposure. Rewards members who booked trips and invited a friend received additional entries into the dream vacation give-away. Weekly instant win opportunities kept our target engaged.
The program was supported with an extensive reach campaign on Facebook supported by 200+ ad units/variations.
Knowing we were breaking new ground in the social arena, we built an econometric model to provide learnings and measurement. With it, we continuously optimised performance.
Results and Effectiveness
We proved the power of social media can deliver meaningful business results for a hotel brand (this was clear given social was the only difference in the promotion year over year).
•More ‘likes’ –250%+ making Best Western the #1 national hotel brand on Facebook
• More engagement—engagement on Facebook shot up 1,250% during the program
• More talk—400+ million earned impressions (via PR and Facebook)
• More revenue—30%+ revenue versus the same promotion in the previous year
o Best Western’s most successful spring promotion ever, generating as much revenue as the previous two years’ spring promotions combined