Initiative for Best Western

Executives Involved in The Campaign: Elvin Kawasaki – Account Director
Louise Nelson-Laurin – Media Supervisor
Shana Waye – Media Planner
Elliot Edgemon – Assistant Media Planner

Campaign Brief: Best Western GPS Campaign with Navteq
Submission for “Best Location Based Campaign” Category

Situation Analysis:
North American sales of Personal Navigation Devices are projected at over 200MM units by 2013. There are a few reasons for this dramatic growth:
o Consumer need for traffic information is increasing
o Consumer preference for a dedicated device is growing
o Lowering price points will help accelerate this

Marketing Objective:
Increase bookings at Best Western by providing hotel location data and special offers when and where a consumer is making their hotel decision.

Target:
The target for this sponsorship is people who travel by car who are looking for a mid-tier hotel. With over 2,200 hotels in North America, Best Western has been the hotel of choice for road travelers.

Research, Planning and Implementation - GPS Strategy:
One of our most effective strategies for driving ROI has been targeting travel planners through Maps/Point of Interest (POI) sponsorships on sites like MapQuest and TripAdvisor. In-car & personal navigation is a natural extension of that strategy. With in-car and PNDs, we can reach travelers/road warriors on the go when they are making last minute travel decisions.

Best Western, through a partnership with Navteq (the company that provides the mapping data for these devices), is sending a promotional ad offer to users of Garmin, Nextar and Motorola Navigation Devices that feature traffic data. This is currently the only such GPS Navigation Device advertising opportunity in market today. Best Western is the exclusive sponsor of the Hotels/Lodging category, blocking out all other hotel competitors from advertising on these devices.

Message:
Get more when you choose Best Western.

Results (6/4/09 – 3/31/10):
These initial results are promising as this is an emerging medium. We expect these results to grow as research has pointed to high ad recall rates (50%), with over a quarter on average interacting with these ads. The hotel category is also a popular ad offering, ranking only second to gas stations. Increasing ad enabled units within the marketplace can also help drive growth.
• Impressions: 62,006,860
• Calls to Redeem Promotion: 1,392
• Reservations: 2,221
• # of Nights: 3,810
• New Rewards Member Sign-ups: 462


Budget:
$180,200.00

Creative:

How it works:
• Uses an FM broadcast signal called RDS (radio data system) to deliver advertising to RDS-enabled navigation devices
• Users of these devices have opted-in to receive advertising on their Navigation device in exchange for free Traffic updates
• Ad will be displayed while users are:
o Navigating
o Checking traffic
o Searching for a Point of Interest (POI)

Screenshots:

Step 1: User sees the ad while searching a Hotel POI, prompting them to click for more info

Step 2: User selects from a list of nearest Best Western properties

Step 3: Hotel property details are displayed along with coupon offer

Step 4: User is taken to Coupon Landing page to find out how to redeem the offer