Work

Every trip and traveler is unique. Best Western® Hotels and Resorts sought an innovative way to engage consumers and drive revenue through its Points Promotion Campaign, a quarterly initiative allowing customers to earn additional points for their Best Western Rewards® (BWR) accounts.

The challenge was to break from the norm with an engaging approach that helps travelers feel inspired and take action in their travel-planning journey. Sometimes, a little extra fun and engagement can give potential travelers the needed push to make their end-of-summer travel dreams a reality.  

Ideas Collide, Best Western’s longtime agency partner, worked with Movable Ink to further integrate dynamic content into the email campaigns, ensuring that promotions reflected real-time availability and adjusted once the offer expired. The ultimate goal was to drive revenue and engagement with an intuitive, engaging content strategy.

Key elements of our approach included:

• Data-Driven Content Strategy: The new creative approach leveraged insights from previous A/B testing to craft a content strategy focusing on family-centric imagery set in summer destinations and using streamlined messaging.
• Clear Instructions: Even as new interactive creative is introduced, the campaign prioritized user experience. All new creative benefited from clear and precise instructions within the emails to guide recipients effectively.
• Mobile Optimization: Content met on-the-go travelers where they find inspiration. The campaign ensured email responsiveness across mobile devices to enhance accessibility and engagement.

• Audience Segmentation: With strategically segmented audiences that tailored email content to specific consumer groups, the campaign spoke to travelers personally.
• Audience Research: The gamification element was inspired by research conducted to better understand the BWR consumer. This research drew a very strong correlation between the BWR audience and online games. The data indicated an increased likelihood to engage with, solve, and complete activities and games 2 – 3 times per month.

The campaign spanned one week and included two emails:

1. Announcement Email: Introduced the Points Promotion Campaign to consumers.
2. Reminder Email: Prompted recipients to take advantage of the offer before it expired.

The innovative use of Movable Ink’s technology played a pivotal role in this campaign. Ideas Collide dynamically updated email content based on real-time data and introduced a gamification element to engage BWR members on a deeper level.

Movable Ink’s digital scratch-off technology was integrated within the emails, creating a fun and interactive experience for recipients. The email provided customers with a “scratch-off” that revealed a bonus point offer of either 3,000 or 5,000 points per stay. 

This interactive feature helped Best Western inspire travel through unique and authentic experiences, transforming a standard email into an engaging activity that resonated with the recipients’ desire for discovery and reward.

By refining the content strategy, focusing on compelling visuals and concise messaging, and optimizing the emails for mobile devices, Ideas Collide created a seamless and engaging consumer experience. The segmented audience approach ensured the right message reached the right recipients, enhancing the campaign’s overall effectiveness.