Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau, Iberostar, Korean Air, RIU Hotels & Resorts, Travel Alberta, YAS Island and Sun International Recognized for Campaign Innovation and Success
Seattle, June 25, 2015 – Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of the Expedia group, today announced the recipients of its 2014 Global Partner Awards. The annual Partner Awards acclaim original and groundbreaking campaigns that demonstrate exemplary innovation and success in digital marketing and advertising.
Expedia Media Solutions partners with brands to develop creative and strategic campaigns that capitalize on its expertise and reach, with advanced online technology, ground breaking creative and innovative tactics. The 2014 Global Partner Award recipients prove these to be effective tools in building successful campaigns with far-reaching results for their brands.
“This year’s Global Partner Award winners have exhibited the creativity and advanced innovation necessary to succeed in the Digital Age and frankly, the results speak for themselves,” said Noah Tratt, Senior Global Vice President of Expedia Media Solutions. “It has been our pleasure to collaborate with these brands in delivering imaginative solutions to achieve their respective organizational and communication goals.”
The annual awards consider campaigns across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, Latin America and Middle East & Indian Ocean regions, and this year’s winners include:
2014 Asia-Pacific Air Campaign of the Year: Korean Air
Korean Air, the flagship air carrier of South Korea, aimed to increase stand-alone and package ticket bookings from Japanese markets. By collaborating with Expedia Media Solutions, the two brands aligned Korean Air’s marketing activity and special fares with Expedia Japan’s promotion schedule. As part of the marketing efforts, the Korean Air banner and logo were displayed on Expedia Japan’s “winter sale” campaign and additional branded content was posted on Expedia’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote Korean Air. The campaign delivered phenomenal results, including a 40-1 return on ad spend (ROAS) and a significant increase in bookings.
2014 Asia-Pacific Destination Marketing Campaign of the Year: Travel Alberta
Travel Alberta turned to Expedia Media Solutions to increase exposure and incite potential tourists to travel to the Canadian province’s picturesque winter destination from Japanese markets. The Expedia Media Solutions team leveraged Facebook and the strength of social sharing to launch its first Facebook quiz in Japan that awarded participants with tangible prizes. The campaign strategically aligned the Travel Alberta global initiative to that of Travel Alberta Japan in order to double exposure. By collaborating with Expedia Media Solutions, Travel Alberta was able to garner exceptional results in reaching its objectives. More than 7,000 Japanese Facebook users participated in the quiz, and Alberta saw a 47 percent increase in year-over-year visitors during the promotional period.
2014 Caribbean Campaign of the Year: Iberostar
Leading hotel chain, Iberostar, collaborated with Expedia Media Solutions to develop a media plan that would stimulate consumer interest and increase hotel stays in the Caribbean. Expedia Media Solutions worked in tandem with Expedia’s cutting-edge customer-hotel matchmaking technology to direct tailored sales and offers to their desired audiences across Expedia’s Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.K., and U.S. sites, as well as Hotels.com and Travelocity. The team also designed and localized landing pages on each of these points-of-sale to ensure all resorts were featured. The initiative provided staggering results that surpassed all of Iberostar’s previous campaigns with a return on advertising spend ratio of 21-1. The brand found Expedia Media Solutions to be the most successful partner it had worked with and extended the partnership through 2015 to continue raising the bar.
2014 Mexico Destination Marketing Campaign of the Year: Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau
Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) sought to increase market share and raise awareness of the city’s diverse travel experiences. In particular, the tourism bureau wanted to transcend focus from its already well-known beaches and nightlife and educate consumers on the city’s other illustrious gems, such as its gastronomy, culture and history. Engaging with Expedia Media Solutions, Cancun CVB integrated an online campaign that was hosted on Expedia.com and spread across to Expedia’s Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages. It incorporated two homepage takeovers, targeted email marketing and multiple display placements across the multiple channels. Expedia leveraged its unique relationship with hotels to develop very attractive offers and great deals that were featured throughout the campaign. Expedia Media Solutions was able to equip the homepage takeovers with exclusive deals and discounts, trip giveaways and themed social content; providing Cancun CVB with a unique opportunity to grow its social following. The effort effectively drove a return on advertising spend at an exceedingly profitable 45-1.
2014 Mexico Hotel Campaign of the Year: RIU Hotels & Resorts
RIU Hotels & Resorts worked closely with Expedia Media Solutions to craft a media plan that would drive increased room night purchases across its Latin American properties from North American visitors. To motivate overnight stays, Expedia Media Solutions created a consistent RIU presence across search results pages and placements on Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and Hotels.com. RIU also had presence in Expedia’s quarterly dedicated consumer emails. Throughout the year this campaign drove substantial results with an average 45-1 return on advertising investment.
2014 Middle East & Indian Ocean Destination Marketing Campaign of the Year: YAS Island
Expedia Media Solutions was engaged to develop a campaign that would drive tourism to Abu Dhabi’s man-made YAS Island. The goal was to increase awareness of the island’s hotels and activities, tapping into the Abu Dhabi and Dubai tourist markets to position YAS Island as a unique vacation destination in the United Arab Emirates. Leveraging Expedia Media Solution’s vast network and innovation, they launched “YAS Island Store,” which was hosted on Expedia’s U.S., U.K. and German points-of-sale, Hotels.com Arabic and eLong. As target audiences searched for United Arab Emirates holidays, the custom campaign led them to the online store that showcased exciting island activities. The campaign delivered robust six figure gross booking revenue for YAS Island Hotels and an impressive reach of almost six million impressions and more than 20,000 customers from the various points-of-sales. Users spent on average more than 2.30 minutes on the YAS Island Store – a record in content engagement for the brand.
2014 Africa Campaign of the Year and TravelAds Partner of the Year: Sun International
Sun International (www.suninternational.com) sought out Expedia Media Solution’s expertise to gain visibility and increase sales in competitive markets for 2014. To generate awareness, Sun International implemented Expedia TravelAds—the world’s leading search advertising program for the travel sector— which allows hotels to reach in-market travelers through paid search and sponsored listings. This campaign resulted in an average return on investment of 37-1, and due to this success, Sun International continues to leverage a display campaign with Expedia.
About Expedia Media Solutions
Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia’s network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. Expedia Media Solutions is operated by Expedia, Inc. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.
About the Expedia group
The Expedia group (NASDAQ: EXPE) is one of the world’s largest travel companies, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes leading online travel brands, such as:
- Expedia.com®, a leading full service online travel agency with localized sites in 31 countries
- Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with localized sites in more than 60 countries
- Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia
- Travelocity®, a pioneer in online travel and a leading online travel agency in the US and Canada
- Egencia®, a leading corporate travel management company
- Venere.com™, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
- trivago®, a leading online hotel metasearch company with sites in 51 countries
- Wotif Group, a leading operator of travel brands in the Asia-Pacific region, including Wotif.com ®, lastminute.com.au®, travel.com.au, Asia Web Direct®, LateStays.com and GoDo.com.au
- Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences and ground transportation in hundreds of destinations worldwide
- Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
- Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, a provider of exceptional value and expert advice for travelers booking cruises and vacations through its network of 180 franchise locations across North America
- CarRentals.com™, the premier car rental booking company on the web
The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market consumers through Expedia® Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world’s leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.
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