Company: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Atlanta, GA
Company Description: IHG is the world’s largest hotel company measured by number of rooms, with hotel brands in nearly 100 countries and territories. Brands include InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, and two new brands, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE™ Hotels & Resorts.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Online Marketing Campaign of the Year

Nomination Title: IHG's 'Best Price Guarantee' Online Marketing Campaign

Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 500 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:

As part of IHG’s priority to drive more Direct Channel Revenue, IHG launched the Best Price Guarantee - "the most powerful website guarantee ever by a global travel company”.

In September 2011, IHG launched the Best Price Guarantee which is a part of the broader Book With Us Advantage web value proposition, encouraging consumers to book direct on IHG brand websites for the guaranteed lowest available rate and other benefits only available when customers book direct. This built upon our legacy of innovation and “firsts” in the travel industry.

What is it?
Best Price Guarantee: Customers will find the best price on our branded websites, or their first night is free and the remainder of their reservation will be adjusted to the lower price found.

This Guarantee is part of our new “Book With Us Advantage” web value proposition, that highlights the other benefits of booking direct:

• A guaranteed room
• The best hotel rewards program, Priority Club Rewards
• Secure and safe transaction
• The ability to book most available room and rate types
• No booking fees
• Complete and comprehensive information about our hotels

Why did we do it?

Research shows that price is the #1 most important thing to customers when booking a hotel. Our previously existing Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee (LIRG) & Book with Confidence programs, which were developed in 2002, were outdated and subpar vs. our competition. Furthermore, our customers were under an erroneous belief that they can get cheaper rates on OTAs. In an effort to combat these misconceptions, the program was developed to re-educate our customers on the value of booking direct with IHG. We developed the first night is free concept to create the most powerful guarantee ever by a global travel company.

How did we execute it?

We designed nine different variations of our creative to fit with each of our hotel brands, in 10+ languages. We also developed extensive merchandising throughout our websites to ensure we communicated the value propositions at each point in the customer’s journey. There was also extensive work put into the backend operations to make the program function within a 4,500+ hotel company.

Has it been successful?

Yes. Best Price Guarantee has significantly outperformed the previous Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee program it replaced, and has had a measureable impact to our web revenue.

• IHG has received tremendous accolades from the press and industry with the launch of this program - generating 1 billion+ impressions at launch
• Twitter campaign resulted in 88% increase in followers
• 1 billion + online media impressions
• Customers interacting with Best Price Guarantee across our websites convert 12% higher and spend 9% more per session
• Online ads marketing “Best Price Guarantee” outperform other ads, some showing as high as a 143% increase in return
• Since launching the Best Price Guarantee our awareness by customers has increased by 28%

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief biography of the leader of the team that planned and executed this marketing campaign (up to 100 words):

Maggie Tucker is the Director of Web & Interactive Marketing at Intercontinental Hotels Group in Atlanta, Georgia (Americas office). Maggie leads a global team responsible for driving web channel bookings & revenue for all nine of IHG’s brands and their Priority Club Rewards program. She oversees IHG’s search engine optimization strategy, web content strategy and website merchandising, with a focus on maximizing revenue and improving web channel contribution