Marketing Objectives:
Clearly state your marketing goals.
What did your company strive to achieve using this piece or program?Best Western’s marketing goals for its Amazon Fire 360 campaign sought to: - Deepen customer engagement and increase brand awareness with exciting 360-degree content in an uncrowded premium ad environment - Drive brand-building messaging via 360-degree video engagements to support new brands and Today’s Best Western messaging - Drive customers to engage with branded video content in a seamless environment built for online viewing and engagement - Drive users to bestwestern.com via “Send Me More” interactions as part of the engagement Best Western’s Amazon Fire 360 engagement was part of an integrated campaign that built brand awareness for each of Best Western’s 16 hotel brands. Running concurrently with social media, influencer content, videos and more, the Amazon Fire 360 ads proved to be highly successful in supporting this overall messaging campaign.

Target Audience:
Who was/is the target audience?
Characterize the composition, size, and location of your target audience.Best Western’s Amazon Fire 360 campaign leveraged the brand’s own CRM data coupled with Amazon’s first-party shopping platform data to target content to the right person at the right time, delivering branded messaging to users at critical moments in the path to booking. Using a strategic mix of targeting tactics, the campaign served ads to custom-built “book-alike” and look-alike audiences modeled from Best Western guests and loyalty members. Amazon’s data targeted in-market travelers based on recent user history within Amazon platforms that indicated intent to travel. The partnership with Amazon provided Best Western with access to Amazon’s robust and precise data, with more than 310 million active Amazon users and 100 million Amazon Prime subscribers.

Research, Planning, and Implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign?In 2016, the VR industry generated $3.7B in global revenue and by 2020, the industry is expected to generate more than $20 billion. Research proves that 360-degree video ads drive 7% higher purchase intent compared to traditional video ads. Best Western’s early adoption and investment in rich 360-degree content has established the brand as an industry innovator. To align with this trend, Best Western partnered with Amazon to develop multiple Amazon Fire executions, such as 360 videos, pre-roll and mid-roll video within premium apps like Travel App, Tubi TV, and Discovery. Best Western also relaunched the successful banner to promotional video execution where users engage with a promotional banner on the Amazon Fire TV homescreen to watch Best Western's full summer promotional commercial.

Message:
What is the key message intended for the piece/campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?Over the last few years, Best Western has evolved its brand identity, signaling the modernization of the brand as it emerges as a global hospitality powerhouse with 16 brands across every chain scale segment. The 2019 Amazon Fire 360 campaign aimed to showcase Best Western’s evolution and encourage bookings by: -Driving brand-building messaging via 360-degree video engagements featuring newer brands such as Vib and Glo. -Engaging users with virtual reality experiences of beautiful, modern hotels -Showcasing “Today’s Best Western” and the brand’s diverse portfolio Through the campaign’s 360-degree video, travelers could experience “Today’s Best Western” – a brand infused with innovation and excitement, consistently achieving its strongest performance for the past three years. Viewers were given a glimpse into the results of this legacy brand’s full refresh, including renovations at every hotel that reflect a modern design, expansive promotional offers and generous loyalty program

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.This innovative campaign was the result of Best Western’s long-standing relationship with Amazon, which opened a door to be the first travel brand to deliver 360-degree content through its platforms. Amazon’s modern advertising models served as a perfect platform to position Best Western as the best booking choice for today’s travelers. Preliminary results showcase that the brand’s risk-reward strategy in implementing forward-focused media are delivering valuable return on investment in reaching and engaging prospective guests. Campaign-to-date results include: - The Amazon Fire TV homepage banner to video is performing 8% better YOY and at 99.8% VCR is above current benchmark of 97% - More than 40,000 engagements since launching in June 2019 - Averaging a CTR of 3.39% which is higher than Amazon's top 10% percentile for performance for this placement

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 Amazon Fire 360 Campaign

DivisionDigital Marketing

Sub-categoryDigital Campaign

CategoryNEW: Experiential

Classification