Expedia Media Solutions Announces 2013 North American Partner Award Recipients

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of global online travel leader Expedia, Inc., announced the recipients of its 2013 North America Partner Awards at the Expedia Inc. annual partner conference. The North America Partner Awards are presented to original and groundbreaking campaigns in recognition of the exemplary innovation and success in digital marketing and advertising.  

To ensure campaigns meet the highest standard, Expedia Media Solutions consults with partners to develop solutions that effectively leverage the Expedia platform and vast partner network. By tapping into Expedia Media Solutions' expertise and reach, marketers can create cross-brand campaigns that use innovative tactics and drive impactful results like those demonstrated by this year's North America Partner Awards winners.

"Our consultative approach to partner relationships helps us develop innovative campaigns that effectively deliver against brand objectives," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. "Leveraging their travel marketing insights and experience, our digital consultants strategically build cross-platform campaigns that reach target audiences and move the needle for partners."

The annual awards recognize campaigns across four travel marketing categories. This year's winners include:

2013 North America Airline Campaign of the Year: China Airlines
China Airlines was the supporting advertising partner behind "Find Your Spontaneity," a cross-platform campaign that leveraged the broader "Find Yours" initiative and was designed to showcase the Expedia mobile app.   The airline brand signed on to work with Expedia Media Solutions and supported the campaign, which included a Trip a Day Giveaway sweepstakes, because it was looking for an out of the box way to differentiate itself from other Asian airline carriers in its competitive set. Traditionally, China Airlines had only participated in point-of-sale placements on the Expedia, Inc. site network, but after reviewing the creative concept and strategy behind "Find Your Spontaneity," signed up as the supporting partner.  China Airlines received a 15-second pre-roll ad in the Expedia.com video unit, placement in national TV and digital ads, as well as ad units on the Expedia Trip a Day Giveaway landing page, all of which contributed to a lift in brand recognition. The two-month campaign delivered excellent click-through rates (CTR) of .83 percent and served two-million impressions, while also driving transactions and bookings directly from the ad units on Expedia.com 

2013 North America Hotel Campaign of the Year: Marriott International
With more than 3,400 properties in 68 countries and territories, Marriott International wanted to drive awareness for its U.S. hotels across growing international markets and turned to Expedia Media Solutions to leverage the extensive Expedia, Inc. brand portfolio and points of sale.  To effectively promote Marriott's worldwide properties, Expedia Media Solutions developed a six-month campaign that would maximize exposure in key markets through highly-targeted placements across 14 points of sale – more than any other campaign at the same scale – and incorporated a media match from Brand USA. Through the campaign, Marriott was the first North American company to advertise on Expedia, Inc. property eLong, a leading online travel company in China. A one-day hotels tab takeover on seven points of sale included three syncing placements showcasing the new Marriott brand voice, and drove awareness and bookings in emerging markets like Mexico and Brazil.

2013 North America Destination Campaign of the Year: Mexico Tourism Board
Facing stiff competition from Hawaii, the Caribbean and Europe, the Mexico Tourism Board turned to Expedia Media Solutions to help increase market share and raise awareness for the diverse travel experiences available in Mexico. Expedia leveraged its unique relationships with hotel and marketing partners to develop "Cinco de Mayo," a campaign that invited consumers to "Find Your Fiesta" and experience one of Mexico's many destinations. The call-to-action was inspired by Expedia's broader "Find Yours" messaging and was the first of many successful "Find Yours" partner campaigns. The campaign included home page takeovers, targeted email marketing and multiple display placements on Expedia.com, as well as comprehensive partner integration across Expedia's social pages. During the first week in May, Expedia rebranded its Facebook page as "Find Your Fiesta" to align with Cinco de Mayo and featured exclusive deals and discounts, trip giveaways, and themed social content. Beyond driving social engagement, the campaign led to tangible year-over-year business results. Gross bookings on Expedia.com to Mexican destinations grew 17.1 percent and produced a 21.7 percent increase in passengers traveling to Mexico, and during the promotion, hotel room bookings skyrocketed at a 57 percent increase for participating hotels versus those that did not participate, despite the average market decline of seven percent.   

2013 North America Innovative Campaign of the Year:  Travel Alberta
Building on its traditional objective of growing booking numbers over prior years, Travel Alberta approached Expedia Media Solutions to generate aspirational video content that would increase consumer awareness of Alberta and drive consumers to engage and interact with the brand on social media.  Expedia Media Solutions developed a comprehensive custom campaign that combined high-impact and tactical brand placements on Expedia.com and Expedia.ca with social media, and Travel Alberta became the inaugural brand partner for the Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog. The team sent top travel bloggers to Alberta and produced video content around tourist destinations, which served as a Viewfinder vlog series and pre-roll within home page video units. During the two-month campaign, display media spurred the number of travelers to Alberta from the U.S. and Canada – more than 133,000 passengers – and resulted in more than 81,000 room nights and 22,250 airline tickets booked – and drove traffic to the Viewfinder videos. On social media, more than 4.1 million impressions were delivered across Facebook, Twitter and Google+. 

About Expedia Media Solutions
Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia's network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.

About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world's leading online travel brands, including:

• Expedia.com®, the world's largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 31 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 13 countries on its 12 sites in North America, Europe and Asia
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLong™, the second largest online travel company in China 
• Venere.com™, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• trivago®, a leading online hotel search company with sites in 39 countries
• Expedia Local Expert®,  a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, one of North America's leading retail cruise vacation experts

The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network.  (NASDAQ: EXPE)  For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.  © 2013 Expedia, Inc.  All rights reserved.  CST: 2029030-50

SOURCE Expedia Media Solutions

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