Title: Best Western’s 2019 Spring Promotion

Client: Best Western® Hotels & Resorts

Situational Analysis:

As part of its marketing strategy and focus, Best Western Hotels & Resorts runs seasonal promotions throughout the year to drive reservations and motivate Best Western Rewards (BWR) members to book direct. The 2019 integrated spring promotional campaign offered BWR members a free night when they completed two eligible stays at any of Best Western’s more than 4,200 worldwide properties and booked at bestwestern.com.

The campaign encouraged members to “Stay 2X and Get a Free Night” in the creative and messaging, demonstrating another way BWR members get rewarded with the ease and speed of benefits like instant rewards, points that never expire, fastest way to elite status and fastest way to a free night. The offer was promoted through an integrated marketing campaign, drawing a creative thread throughout a variety of campaign touch points to create visual continuity.

Marketing Objectives:

The overall goal of Best Western’s 2019 spring promotion was to reach travelers at multiple touchpoints to drive direct online bookings at bestwestern.com. The brand’s specific marketing objectives for the promotion included:

  • Increase loyalty and retention among Best Western Rewards members by offering them a special promotion
  • Leverage innovative marketing strategies and techniques to connect with today’s modern travelers
  • Drive enrollments into the award-winning Best Western Rewards loyalty program
  • Encourage guests to book directly at bestwestern.com
  • Drive hotel reservations during the spring season and incentivize future bookings
  • Generate awareness for BWR’s “Stay 2X and Get a Free Night” messaging campaign and educate members on the benefits of the reward’s program.

Results:

As part of the brand’s loyalty strategy, the spring promotion supported Best Western Rewards 49% contribution of brand revenue fiscal year to date in 2019. These results demonstrate that the brand’s spring campaign helped to improve the brand’s overall bottom line while also attracting loyal customers.

Best Western’s 2019 spring promotion was considered highly successful, delivering the additional results:

  • More than 44,500 gross reservations booked through bestwestern.com via digital media
  • More than 100,000 free night vouchers issued to loyal members.
  • More than 101 million digital advertising banner impressions
  • More than 15 million impressions from OTT and CTV platforms
  • More than 37 million impressions from social media platforms
  • More than 79 million digital video impressions
  • More than 15 million native advertising impressions

Digital Banners

Texting

Hotels

AAA

CAA

AARP

Retargeting

Custom Creative

Verve

Waze

TripAdvisor Video

Social Media

Facebook

Instagram

Chatbot