Marketing Objectives:
Clearly state your marketing goals.
What did your company strive to achieve using this piece or program?Best Western’s marketing objectives for the summer promotion included: - Increase loyalty, retention and activations among Best Western Rewards members by offering them a special promotion through personalized ad engagements - Drive enrollments into the award-winning loyalty program, Best Western Rewards - Increase hotel reservations via bestwestern.com during the summer season and incentivize future bookings - Educate guests on Today’s Best Western and the brand’s modern amenities and exciting new hotel brands. - Leverage innovative marketing strategies and techniques to connect with today’s modern travelers

Target Audience:
Who was/is the target audience?
Characterize the composition, size, and location of your target audience.Best Western’s Summer Promotion messaging strategies targeted BWR’s more than 30 million core and elite-level members as well as potential members. Some of the specific audiences targeted across business and leisure categories in both Canada and the United States included: - BWR members and Best Western brand loyalists who book with Best Western’s preferred partners including AAA, CAA, and AARP - Digital-savvy millennials who are active on social media - Travelers in-market, looking for a place to stay using wayfinding apps like Waze - Families with children and parents who make travel decisions for their families - Budget-minded travelers who are interested in loyalty redemption opportunities - Road warriors who travel frequently for work and are interested in convenient amenities - Motorcycle enthusiasts who need convenient and comfortable accommodations while on the road

Research, Planning, and Implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign?Best Western’s digital approach included extensive retargeting strategies to deliver messaging to users who visited bestwestern.com or bestwesternrewards.com on the pathway to purchase but who did not book. This data-driven approach allowed for strategic ad placement that captured consumers when they were at peak interest for booking. To reach new guests, the summer promotional campaign used key strategies for winning consumers by focusing on competitive tactics to target new travelers. Knowing that, in 2018, 49% of Best Western’s business came from walk in bookings, Best Western targeted prospective guests on the road in need of a hotel by showcasing Today’s Best Western’s modern amenities and rewarding experiences through DOOH Billboards, podcasts and video placement via gas station TV screens, proving to be highly successful with +712,000 engagements YTD.

Message:
What is the key message intended for the piece/campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?The 2019 summer promotion delivered high-impact creative messaging that strategically reflected the offer. Imagery and messaging included an emphasis on leisure and family visuals, attracting guests to book to receive a $20 gift card “after your first stay” and that “it’s not too late” to take advantage of the promotion. The campaign focused on conquesting tactics that targeted travelers on the road and enticed them to choose Best Western by showing value with promotional messaging and ease of booking. Best Western partnered with Verve to target prospective travelers while on a road trip and in need of a hotel. Through creative imagery that showcases Today’s Best Western and promotional messaging, the tap-to-map user experience allowed guests to “scroll down to view the closest Best Western” and then provided easy tap to map directions from their real-time location to their nearest Best Western property.

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.

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 part of the brand’s loyalty strategy, the summer promotion supported Best Western Rewards 49% contribution of brand revenue fiscal year to date in 2019. These results demonstrate that the brand’s summer campaign helped to improve the brand’s overall bottom line while also attracting loyal customers. Best Western’s 2019 summer promotion was highly successful, delivering the additional results: - More than 36,644 gross reservations booked through bestwestern.com via digital media - More than 127 million digital advertising banner impressions - More than 24 million impressions from OTT and CTV platforms - More than 54 million impressions from social media platforms - More than 103 million digital video impressions - More than 42 million native advertising impressions

Research, Planning and Implementation
What research was conducted prior to planning the initiative? Describe the step by step efforts to plan and implement the initiative in a way that would allow others to be able to duplicate your efforts. Were their individuals or teams that offered leadership to ensure effectiveness?

Message and Communication
What were your key messages? How did you differentiate your messages? What was the purpose of the communications? How did you communicate your actions to the target audience? What other stakeholders or media did you approach for assistance?

Results and Impact
What results had the greatest impact on your target audience? What results were directly tied to the HSMAI Foundation Mission? Which of your original goals was achieved? Please comment on the process and the outcomes. What measures were used to determine success? How was the data collected? What is the status of the initiative now – will it continue? Was it effective? Will it be used continuously? Will you help others use the initiative to help the industry meet its needs for exceptional talent? How?

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).

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?

Entry TitleBest Western’s 2019 Summer Promotion

DivisionDigital Marketing

Sub-categoryDigital Campaign

CategoryIntegrated Market Campaign for Consumers (B2C)

Classification