Marketing Objectives:
Clearly state your marketing goals.
What did your company strive to achieve using this piece or program?In launching its “Behind the Brands” series, Best Western sought to continue shifting perception and educate the travel industry, as well as consumers, on what “Today’s Best Western” is all about. In order to get the messaging in front of the industry at large, the Best Western communications team identified a feature coverage opportunity with Travel Pulse. In pitching a key writer and working together on a big picture look at what was to come from the “Behind the Brands” series, Best Western sought to: • Position the company as a continuous innovator, highlighting its diverse brand portfolio; • Raise visibility about each of Best Western’s 11 unique brands, emphasizing the company’s evolution and innovation; and • Highlight the way Best Western has modernized itself from the inside out, refining its existing brands and creating new brands that appeal to the changing demands of today’s travelers.

Target Audience:
Who was/is the target audience?
Characterize the composition, size, and location of your target audience.The target audience for the initial “Behind the Brands” series push the travel trade, targeting industry professionals who may still be unaware of the impact of the brand refresh, and what “Today’s Best Western” is all about.

Research, Planning, and Implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign? Describe how you planned and produced the creative asseets with the mobile canvas in mind.Today’s Best Western is a company that has emerged from an incredible transformation, diversifying its distinctive brand portfolio, increasing scale across the globe, implementing new technology initiatives and enhancing its already award-winning loyalty program to stay ahead of the game. The company’s communications team, however, realized that an opportunity still existed to shift mindshare and perception, utilizing a creatively packaged PR and social media campaign that would be fun, insightful and educational. As part of the new “Behind the Brands” series, the team put together a pitch that would first, before going out to the consumer audience, amplify the key messages of Today’s Best Western to those within the industry.

Message:
What is the key message intended for the piece/campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?• Today’s Best Western has a new look, feel and appeal for developers as well as travelers, on the heels of a successful, award-winning brand refresh. The 72-year-old company is today an evolved, contemporary, relevant brand that has adapted to continue meeting and exceeding the needs of today’s travelers. • Best Western is going “Behind the Brands” in 2018, diving deep into each of its 11 distinctive brands to showcase just how transformative the company’s brand refresh has been. Each of these brands has its own unique personality, and offers modern, value-driven amenities with a fresh design and innovative technologies.

Results:
Which of your original goals did you achieve and how?
How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns.As a result of Best Western’s creative pitch to Travel Pulse, the popular online travel trade outlet kicked off the company’s “Behind the Brand” series with a major feature, depicting all target key messaging. With a positive portrayal of Today’s Best Western as a frontrunner in the industry, the piece highlighted the brand’s extensive growing portfolio and unique personality. The story reached 142,020 travel industry professionals who may have previously been unaware of the significance of the company’s evolution, assisting with the repositioning effort and bringing “Today’s Best Western” to light.

Project Analysis:
Please provide a brief background on the project and your efforts to preserve the destination’s natural, cultural and historic heritage.

Objectives and Goals:
What did organization set out to achieve in undertaking this project?

Creativity and Innovation:
What new and innovative ideas did you incorporate in either your method of outreach or in the implementation of the project that you think could inspire others committed to sustainability in the tourism and travel industry?

Communication:
How did you communicate your actions to the public, the media and other key stakeholders and what was the aim of the message?
How did you generate publicity in order to build awareness of, or support corporate values on your sustainability initiatives.

Results:
How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve?

Leadership:
Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting preservation and sustainability best practices in the travel and tourism industry?

URL #1:https://www.travelpulse.com/news/hotels-and-resorts/go-behind-the-brands-with-best-western.html

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DivisionPublic Relations

Sub-categoryPR Single Item

CategoryFEATURE PLACEMENT ONLINE - Trade Media

Entry TitleTravel Pulse “Behind the Brands” Series

Innovation Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the project and why you feel it fits the definition of innovation, what the breakout implications are and how it was an industry disruptor.

Sources of Innovation: Did the innovative project result from chance, from research, from inspiration from outside the industry, or from some other source?

Goals and Objectives: What were the goals of the innovative project, and were they met? Were they tied to a business plan? A larger campaign? Or to get specific result (such as views, shares, influencer engagement, or bookings)? And what obstacles did you encounter in the execution of the project and how did you overcome them?

Classification

Situational AnalysisIn 2015, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts launched a revolutionary brand refresh, reinventing itself to keep pace with today’s travelers. As a result of restructuring its system, the brand emerged as an innovative player in the travel space. The refresh has earned accolades and industry-wide acclaim, solidifying Best Western’s place as a contemporary, modern and innovative brand. Heading into 2018, the company’s communications team saw that while the refresh was a success on many levels, a gap remained in overall brand perception. Now was the time to lift exposure for the refresh, raising visibility for BW's new look and feel. In 2018, the team launched a “Behind the Brands” series - a programmatic agenda of press releases, pitches and content to showcase one of the company’s distinctive 11 brands each month. With before and after photos, commentary from leadership, videos, social media programming and more, the campaign revolved around a simple message - “Today’s Best Western."

Research, planning, and implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign?
Describe how you planned and produced the creative assets with the mobile canvas in mind.

Message:
What is the key messages intended for the piece/ campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?
What helped you breakthrough on mobile?

Results:
What original goals did you achieve and how?
How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign?
Entrants should provide quantifiable metrics tied to real business results (eg brand lift, leads, or bookings generated).

Results:
How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve? Please be as specific as possible and share the full impact of your efforts in CSR. Understandably, maintenance is another major part of CSR. If you have continued to actively and consistently work on your CSR process; please add those actions to your results description.

Leadership:
To keep your CSR efforts thriving, you need momentum and passion, which has to come from the top. Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting corporate social responsibility in the travel and tourism industry?