Expedia Media Solutions Announces 2011 EMEA Partner Awards at ITB Berlin

BERLIN, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Corinthia Hotels, Etihad Airways, Japan National Tourism Organization, One & Only Recognized for Innovative, Results-driven Campaigns

Expedia® Media Solutions, the media division of Expedia, Inc., announced the recipients of its 2011 EMEA Partner Awards at ITB Berlin, the world's leading travel trade show. The Annual EMEA Partner Awards recognize advertising campaigns that use original and groundbreaking approaches to generate incredible results.   

The awards endorse the strength of the innovation and success of a campaign and ultimately provide a barometer for a brand's momentum within the travel industry. As demonstrated by the winners of the 2011 EMEA Partner Awards, Expedia Media Solutions works closely with each of its partners to ensure that campaigns generate exceptional ROI and exposure.

The awards are presented to outstanding campaigns across four categories. Highlights from the winning campaigns include:

2011 EMEA Airline Campaign of the Year: Etihad Airways

Expedia Media Solutions leveraged its partner network to create a cross-brand campaign with the goal of increasing Etihad Airways' share of marketing within destinations across the UAE.  The multi-platform campaign integrated offline and online components, and featured exclusive offers, compelling fares and a dynamic landing page that was implemented across the Expedia network by Etihad Airways. The innovations within the landing page generated a 300 percent increase in traffic for the airline and an average engagement rate of over two minutes per user. In total, the campaign generated a 230 percent increase in bookings and a 200 percent increase in Etihad Airways' market share across various UAE destinations.

2011 EMEA Destination Campaign of the Year: Japan National Tourism Organization

In the wake of the tsunami tragedy, the Japan National Tourism Organization worked with airline and hotel partners to offer deep discounts and create a campaign that would revive the nation's tourism industry. The UK landing page on Expedia was one of the first to offer full Facebook integration, and Japan leveraged its popular and native anime style to create unique, uplifting ads that captured the real-life beauty the country has to offer. The campaign ran from late July through October 2011 and during that time tourism grew by more than 40 percent over an eight week period, successfully putting Japanese tourism back on the map. 

2011 EMEA Luxury Resort Campaign of the Year: One & Only

One & Only created a beautifully visual campaign that was designed to target and convert discerning and knowledgeable customers shopping for luxury offers. With impeccable attention to detail, the campaign landing page on Expedia sites resembled the luxury brand's own website which helped leverage the billboard effect. By featuring a competitive package offer that retained the integrity of the One & Only brand, the campaign converted new customers in the luxury category, a sought after audience on the Expedia network. In the end, the campaign generated a substantial lift for the brand, including a 230 percent room night share shift and a 320 percent room night growth, year over year.

2011 EMEA Hotel Campaign of the Year: Corinthia Hotels

Through a strategic campaign across multiple Expedia Media Solutions display media offerings and a compelling discounted promotional offer, Corinthia Hotels in Europe drove impressive incremental sales. The campaign generated a strong response and drove an increase in sales on multiple EMEA Expedia websites. Results ranged from an impressive 57 to 134 percent increase in room night share.

"When evaluating the entries we look for campaigns that push the envelope," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. "The winning campaigns use cutting-edge methods to leverage the global Expedia platform and produce remarkable success statistics such as the 230 percent increase in bookings created by the Etihad Airways campaign."

The brands honored by the 2011 EMEA Partner Awards worked closely with Expedia Media Solutions to ensure that they were leveraging the Expedia platform in the most effective ways. By tapping into the Expedia Media Solutions partner network, marketers can create cross-brand campaigns that use innovative tactics and drive results like those demonstrated by the winning campaigns.

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 http://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 more than 25 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Leading discount travel site Hotwire®, which offers opaque deals in nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• China's second largest booking site eLong™ 
• Leading agency hotel company Venere.com®
• Destination services and activities provider Expedia Local Expert®; and
• Luxury travel specialist Classic Vacations®

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. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at http://www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Expedia and Expedia.com are either a registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.  Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. 

CONTACT: Casey Ibbetson, +1-310-507-5320, Casey.Ibbetson@zenogroup.com