This week at ITB in Berlin, we had the pleasure of presenting our annual partner awards to campaigns launched in EMEA that demonstrate innovation, creativity and achievement in travel marketing. The partner awards recognize campaigns that leverage media solutions across travel marketing categories, and include the following recipients this year.
Most Innovative Campaign of the Year: VisitBritain
VisitBritain entered a joint, multi-year partnership with Expedia and Expedia Media Solutions to encourage more American, French and German travelers to visit Great Britain and experience the diverse range of activities available across the region. Leveraging VisitBritain’s successful global marketing campaign #OMGB ‘Britain, Home of Amazing Moments’, the first phase of the campaign featured an integrated content platform that highlighted stunning images, special events and educated travelers about amazing moments happening all year in Britain to convert travel inspiration into bookings. Display media, special travel offers, blogger integrations and social media promotions were also incorporated to drive engagement in the target markets. The campaign delivered a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 25:1, with almost 30 million impressions delivered to-date.
European Campaign of the Year: VisitDenmark
In 2016, VisitDenmark extended its partnership with Expedia Media Solutions to refresh a successful 2015 Creative Partnership campaign. The new iteration of the campaign was designed to reach and inspire travelers in the U.K., Germany and Italy, and centered around a microsite featuring fresh content highlighting Aarhus and Copenhagen across six main themes, including design and architecture, Vikings and fairytales, shopping and more. To attract users to the microsite, a six-week social activation was launched, during which, each week represented one of the main content themes. To reach new audiences, specially-targeted Facebook posts and in-banner video PassportAds audience extension supported the microsite. The campaign refresh resulted in a more than 12:1 ROAS for the year and more than 40 percent year-over-year growth in flight demand to Aarhus. Additionally, the video Passport Ads drove awareness and engagement, with over 60 percent of viewers opting to play the full video.
Middle Eastern Campaign of the Year: Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority
To increase brand awareness and bookings, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority engaged the Expedia Media Solutions’ Creative Partnerships team for a 12-week test campaign targeting travelers in the U.K., U.S, Germany, India and countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Through a test concierge-type campaign in the U.K. social media content, e-mail communication and PassportAds across multiple Expedia Inc. sites in the other targeted countries, the campaign helped raise awareness of and inspire travel to Abu Dhabi. The Expedia Media Solutions team leveraged social media to drive visibility for Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority’s new brand video and educate a global audience on the unique destination offerings. Leveraging Expedia’s localized relationships with hotels and airlines, the campaign included attractive lodging deals within Abu Dhabi, as well as competitive airfare deals on behalf of Etihad Airways. True partnership and a test and learn approach were core to the success of the campaign, which resulted in an uplift of brand awareness and a more than 10:1 return on investment.
TravelAds Campaign of the Year: Barceló Hotels
A long-term partner of Expedia Media Solutions, Barceló Hotels has been using TravelAds since 2011, and continuously growing their yearly investment in the pay-per-click search advertising product to reach specific travel audiences. With a primary goal of driving room nights and revenue for properties in EMEA, the Expedia Media Solutions team developed a year-long campaign for Barceló Hotels that incorporated a strategic TravelAds fund allocation per property. These allocations were based on historic need periods as well as the seasonality of the feeder markets for each hotel property. Because of the flexibility that TravelAds offers hotels, the campaign can be optimized throughout the year to achieve the maximum ROAS for each property. To-date, the campaign has resulted in a ROAS of more than 27:1 for Barceló Hotels.
Airline Campaign of the Year: Etihad Airways
As one of the largest and most prominent airlines globally, it is essential for Etihad Airways to maintain and grow their market share in all territories, but especially close to home across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen. In true collaboration, Expedia Media Solutions worked closely with Etihad Airways to implement a strategic test campaign with sophisticated targeting for the GCC market and identified key time periods that would allow for maximum visibility and share of voice across an extremely competitive marketplace. The campaign mix included display advertising on Expedia sites and other Expedia, Inc. brand sites and the highly-targeted campaign helped influence traveler decisions and increase demand for Etihad Airways over its Middle East and global competitors. The campaign resulted in a more than 42:1 ROI and has further validated the strength of the Middle Eastern market and how implementing a strategically targeted campaign can yield impactful results.
We work with amazing partners in the travel and non-travel space and look forward to continuing to partner with innovative digital marketers to engage travelers across our platform. You can stay up to date on our latest news, research and case studies by signing up using the subscribe form above, or following us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
