BERLIN, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of global online travel leader Expedia, Inc., announced the recipients of its 2012 EMEA Partner Awards at ITB Berlin, the world's leading travel trade show. The EMEA Partner Awards are presented to original and groundbreaking campaigns as a nod to the exemplary innovation and success in digital marketing and advertising.  

To ensure campaigns are at the highest standard, Expedia Media Solutions consults with each partner to develop solutions that effectively leverage the Expedia platform and partner network. By tapping into Expedia Media Solutions' expertise and reach, marketers can create cross-brand campaigns that use innovative tactics and drive impactful results like those demonstrated by this year's EMEA Partner Awards winners.

"Working collaboratively to develop innovative and creative campaigns is just one of the ways we help our partners meet their objectives and move the needle," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. "Our digital marketing consultants leverage their deep travel marketing experience and work directly with our partners to build exciting campaigns that resonate with the target audience and deliver proven results." 

The annual awards recognize campaigns across four travel marketing categories. This year's winners include:

2012 EMEA Innovative Campaign of the Year: Canadian Tourism Commission

To help broaden consumer perceptions of Canada in France and Germany, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) and its agency partners turned to Expedia Media Solutions to develop a multi-platform campaign. The aspirational Upgrade campaign was developed to inspire and drive consideration for Canada, and showcased real consumers on holiday in various regions of the country. The largest ever campaign on the Expedia Germany and France points of sale, Upgrade was brought to life in rich-media units, custom itinerary pages, experiential marketing and social media. Not only did the campaign deliver on the CTC's primary objectives – creating new Canada advocates and driving engagement – but it also drove traveller growth in the key markets. More than 19,000 total users visited the promotional pages on Expedia points of sale in France and Germany during the fourth-month campaign, and time spent on the page exceeded the site average. In Germany, year-over-year hotel bookings and flights sold increased more than nine percent and 12 percent, respectively, and edged out Canada's competitive markets. France saw an 11 percent increase in year-over-year travellers during phase two of the three phase campaign, driven primarily by room night bookings, up 32 percent year-over-year.   

2012 EMEA Airline Campaign of the Year: Lufthansa

Expedia Media Solutions leveraged its partner network to create bundled Flight + Hotel travel deals that would differentiate Lufthansa from its competitors and increase market share on routes to and from the Berlin Airport. Hosted on Expedia points of sale in multiple European countries, the campaign highlighted a single destination – Berlin – and incorporated hotel deals to provide competitively-priced vacation packages. The two-month campaign results were strong; packaged travel offerings saw high click-through rate (CTR) and on certain Expedia European points of sale, Lufthansa's year-over-year ticket sales increased by 200 percent, growing share for Berlin tickets by almost 42 percent.

2012 EMEA Hotel Campaign of the Year: Accor

As the world's leading hotel operator and market leader in Europe, Accor wanted to increase awareness and reinforce brand presence in major markets. To help Accor effectively promote their worldwide hotel properties, Expedia Media Solutions implemented image-rich creative and custom pages across Hotels.com and Expedia points of sale in Australia, Europe, India and United States, and Expedia.com homepage takeovers. The comprehensive campaign delivered phenomenal results, including a 16:1 return on investment (ROI). Click-through rates (CTR) on all points of sale exceeded Expedia campaign benchmarks by as much as 129 percent and drove Accor to see incremental revenue growth as a result of the strong campaign performance.

2012 EMEA Destination Campaign of the Year: VisitBritain

With the Summer Olympics and Queen's Jubilee in 2012, destination marketing organization (DMO) VisitBritain wanted to raise awareness for Britain as a holiday destination and increase bookings and subsequent visitor numbers during the year, as well as generate demand for 2013. Using a mix of Expedia onsite ads and co-branded offsite advertising in Britain's key global markets, including Europe and North America, the campaign communicated VisitBritain's core pillars: countryside, culture, heritage, sport, music, food and nature – and was timed around key events, including the Olympics. Throughout 2012, the campaign served more than 53 million ad impressions and increased visitors and room nights in target markets. It has been so successful that VisitBritain is extending the campaign into the Chinese market, making it the first DMO partnership with eLong.com.

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 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 30 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 11 countries on its ten sites in North America, Europe and Asia
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLong™, the second largest online travel company in China 
• Venere.com®, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, one of North America's leading retail cruise vacation experts

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. (NASDAQ: EXPE) For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

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