Case Study: Expedia
Challenge
As
Director of Global Marketing and Communications for
Expedia, my first priority was to help this 800 lb.
gorilla communicate effectively with its travel industry supply partners.
Though Expedia had securely established
itself as the world's leading online travel marketplace,
a recent study by Forester Research had shown that
the company's relationships with its global travel
industry partners were strained. Perceptions
of the company among hotels, airlines and others in
the industry had been damaged both by aggressive
growth strategies and by the absence of sustained
industry communications.
And so I set to work building
the company's first comprehensive B2B marketing communications
program from the ground up.
Solution
Following
an intensive research and development cycle, the complete
program eventually included the company's first
fully articulated corporate branding and consistent
strategic messaging across its family of consumer
brands (including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, TripAdvisor
and several others) and 58 national markets worldwide.
The ads pictured above were part of a pioneering advertising
strategy and campaign, which featured the success
stories of Expedia travel industry partners such as
Hawaiian and Continental Airlines, Hertz, Hyatt, ResortQuest
and others. This type of B2B outreach was an industry
first, generated a great deal of goodwill, and was a significant step in strengthening the company's relationships within the global travel industry.
Establishing
this program also involved creating a comprehensive
set of mission-critical print, film and online sales collateral and marketing communications media, such as a business
partner website, new industry print
and email newsletters (pictured at left), as well as placed editorial
columns and feature articles, which I wrote on behalf of the president. |
