Every year we celebrate the very best creativity and achievement in travel marketing with our Expedia Group Media Solutions Partner Awards. We are pleased to share the 2019 winners from our EMEA region, which push the boundaries of travel marketing with creativity, sophistication, targeting and insights-led strategies. This year we recognize the following successes.
EMEA Destination Campaign of the Year: The Moroccan National Tourism Office
The Moroccan National Tourism Office teamed up with Expedia Group Media Solutions to create the Moments in Morocco campaign that used custom content to attract visitors to all parts of the country. Over the course of the campaign, the microsites had over 10,000 visitors and 2 million impressions delivered through influencer content alone. Average time on the microsites was an impressive four minutes, demonstrating just how engaged visitors were with the content.
EMEA Hotel Campaign of the Year: Corinthia Hotels
With the support of TravelAds, Corinthia Hotel Lisbon drove the highest amount of gross booking value in the region by regularly optimizing their campaign strategy and working closely with the TravelAds and Market Management teams. The collaboration resulted in an overall ROAS of 17:1, a more than seven percent increase in year-over-year (YOY) revenue with Expedia Group and increased Corinthia Hotel Lisbon’s YOY ADR by five percent.
EMEA Most Innovative Campaign of the Year: Whyte & Mackay
Whyte & Mackay executed the Say Goodbye to Ordinary campaign with our Creative Partnerships team in the last quarter of 2018. The concept was an interactive user experience that linked Jura, Whyte & Mackay’s single malt scotch whisky brand with Jura the island, playing on how both are a long way from ordinary. The creative campaign delivered this message across Expedia Group websites in both the US and UK and drove visitors to a dedicated microsite. The results were outstanding, with the camping delivering more than 11,000 clicks across social media posts, display ads, and off-site Passport ads. User sessions on the microsite topped 9,500 and the contest saw over 2,300 entrants.
EMEA TravelAds Partner of the Year: AccorHotels
To further increase visibility and conversion for online room bookings and drive visitors to its various properties, AccorHotels strategically expanded its previous TravelAds campaign. By leveraging TravelAds throughout the year, and increasing the number of promoted properties, AccorHotels achieved tremendous results, including an overall ROAS of 14:1. YOY room night demand increased 18 percent in France, 230 percent in the U.K., and 105 percent in United Arab Emirates.
European Campaign of the Year: The Hungarian Tourism Agency
The Hungarian Tourism Agency partnered with Expedia Group Media Solutions to create an awareness campaign that encouraged German and Austrian travelers to recharge and refresh their spirits by exploring the breath-taking experiences in Hungary. Through a dedicated campaign microsite, Recharge in Hungary featured an image gallery showcasing a range of destinations and activities while inviting users to pick their three most desired experiences surrounding the themes of nature, culture and food. Based on their image selections, visitors were provided a suggested three-day itinerary, destination information and maps. The campaign generated impressive results, including an increase in searches for Hungary and a strong YOY increase in room night demand.
Middle Eastern Campaign of the Year: Jordan Tourism Board
Jordan Tourism Board leveraged its strong relationship with Expedia Group Media Solutions to promote new Ryanair flight routes from ten different Eastern European countries including Belgium, Greece, and Romania. Routes to Amman and Aqaba were promoted on Hotels.com in these locations, resulting in strong engagement and increased lift in the target markets.
African Campaign of the Year: Kenya Tourism Board
As part of a wider strategy to promote and raise awareness of Kenya, the Kenya Tourism Board partnered with Expedia Group Media Solutions to develop an incredible launch campaign that would inspire potential travelers to explore the magical and unexpected experiences in Kenya.
“Can You Kenya?” featured a custom content microsite where visitors could explore Kenya and learn about the experiences, culture and cuisine of the country, and book a trip. An integrated influencer campaign allowed social followers to help plan a Kenyan adventure for the influencers by voting on activities via polls in Instagram Stories. A contest for a chance to win tickets to Kenya further incentivized voting. “Can You Kenya?” was a huge success, generating over 2.1 million impressions, 90,000 unique visits to the microsite and more than 15,000 competition entries via the Instagram Stories polling feature.
We were thrilled to celebrate these campaigns with some of our partners. We work with a wide range of brands spanning travel and non-travel sectors and will continue to innovate and drive digital travel marketing forward with these partners throughout the coming year.
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