Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
Microtel by Wyndham is an award-winning chain of more than 340 hotels ranking #1 in the J.D. Power 2023 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index. Consistently over-delivering on both guest and owner expectations, Microtel is the only all new construction hotel brand in the economy segment. The modern design delights with every space feeling consistent, fresh, and purposeful offering an array of complimentary amenities including free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, meeting rooms, fitness centers, and swimming pools along with the ability to earn and redeem points with the Wyndham Rewards® loyalty program. Every detail of the hotel is designed with the guest in mind – a well-designed hotel at a well-designed price.
While Microtel delivers high guest satisfaction, brand awareness is low compared to its competitors. Therefore, we conducted a survey of over 400 respondents to better understand the perceptions and expectations of the brand resulting in a brand-new campaign designed around this incredible key insight: Guests who stay at Microtel love it and are likely to return, but not everyone knows about the brand.
This year we positioned Microtel as the “best-kept secret guests love to spill”, featuring guests boasting about why they love staying with the brand and why they choose to come back. The main objectives we strived to achieve with this campaign were:
• Launch a new brand campaign across high reach digital channels designed to increase brand awareness while positioning Microtel as guests’ best-kept secret that people must check out.
• Elevate brand awareness in order to help drive familiarity and consideration.
• Educate travelers that Microtel is a reliable, attainable, well-designed hotel brand designed for them in mind with key amenities.
• Reinforce Microtel as being one of 24 trusted brands in the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts portfolio and drive loyalty association with Wyndham Rewards.
• Drive brand website traffic and bookings.
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. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)
Microtel’s “The Secret’s Out” digital marketing campaign successfully launched in the spring of 2023 across connected TV and digital video on YouTube and social media on Facebook & Instagram. Creative assets included one 30-second video, one 15-second Wyndham Rewards video and nine social media videos.
The hero 30-second video features our key target audiences – traveling blue-collar worker, leisure traveler, and Wyndham Rewards member. Each traveler boasts why they choose to stay with Microtel whether it’s for our friendly service, consistent modern rooms, or all the freebies and loyalty perks. The social videos dive deeper into key differentiators whether that’s earning free nights, enjoying the unique window bench, or being able to recharge with conveniently located outlets.
What makes these spots so impactful is that they are rooted in research and created using approachable people that actually reflect our guests. Plus, they are intriguing, and after watching them you want to know what everyone is talking about. Everyone loves a good secret!
Campaign effectiveness and success was measured by impression delivery, brand lift, and website traffic. The results of our campaign are:
• Across Connected TV and digital video, we delivered over 24.3MM impressions (38% above forecasted), 18K site visits (54% above goal) and delivered an SVR 21% above benchmark.
• YouTube saw an Ad Recall Lift of +9.4%.
• +3.4% Awareness Lift, 62% above YouTube’s Travel Benchmark.
• +2.5% Consideration Lift, 3.6x above YouTube’s Travel Benchmark.
• Those who were exposed to the YouTube ads were 164% more likely to search “Microtel by Wyndham” and 154% more likely to search “Microtel”.
• Social media delivered over 11.4MM impressions, 2.9MM engagements, 182K site visits and an SVR 657% above the brand benchmark.
• Website bookings were up 16% during the same time period YoY.
Please view the campaign overview & creative assets here: https://whg.box.com/s/ivbtf4dpfyk5b0dgbr3vunx2kw89jujp
Return on Investment: How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
Please note that the campaign budget and revenue is confidential; however, this campaign’s measure of success was optimized for brand awareness and site traffic delivering results that exceeded forecasts and goals. In fact, we surpassed our anticipated goals within three weeks of the campaign launching and was able to extend the flight further into the summer months.
Entry Title
Microtel by Wyndham "The Secret's Out"
Division
Digital - Video Multiple Channels