3 Takeaways from Hilton's Vacationitis Campaign

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Does your advertising campaign need some housekeeping? Take a page from Hilton Hotels & Resorts newest promotion, the Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale.

You may have heard Hilton’s radio spots promoting its campaign. Similar to prescription-drug commercials that detail long lists of side effects, Hilton humorously tells listeners not to operate heavy machinery on their weekend getaway unless it’s a golf cart because that would be awesome. They also joke if you are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant than you really, really need a weekend getaway.

This same satire fueled the recent launch of Hilton Urgent Vacation Care Center, an interactive website featuring personal diagnoses of vacation needs and customized prescriptions urging people to take breaks, weekend getaways and longer vacations.

While Web workers can certainly use some time away from the computer screen, it’s Hilton’s innovate engagement tactics and consistent marketing collateral that should catch their attention. Here are three terrific takeaways from Hilton’s advertising campaign:

Surveys

Short and fun surveys are a surefire way to build customer engagement with your brand. Everyone loves to kill a few minutes answering questions about the last time they took a vacation, their commute and other easy-to-answer questions about themselves. Brainstorm surveys that would interest your customer base. Like Hilton, include a quick form to gather people’s names, email and physical addresses and newsletter preferences. Make sure to send these new email subscribers a custom email message to relate to how they signed up. You can use this list to target them further in the future as well.

Giveaways

Everyone loves getting something for free. As part of Hilton’s campaign promotion, it is offering a chance to win one of 15 weekend getaways between now and Feb. 28, 2013. While many ‘Net enterprises cannot afford to give away such a valuable prize, companies can get creative with prizes and how they run them. Use what you already have (e.g. extra inventory, a service you can offer for free for a month, etc.). Another way of offering a more valuable prize, is by teaming up with a complementary company - a digital gift basket, if you will.

Shareability

Speaking of teaming up, Hilton partnered with Onion Labs, the in-house creative team of The Onion, to develop humorous illustrations to run alongside each Vacationitis symptom including “Straight to Voicemailaria.” These memes can be shared on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Every digital part of your advertising campaign should offer built-in shareable features.

Three Contest Platforms to Help Brands Win

Allison Howen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:35:00 GMT

Ever passed up browsing through the pictures of an ugly Christmas sweater contest? Not many of us do, because even if we don’t enter the contest ourselves, the contest and pictures are amusing and interactive.

However, not only are contests an enjoyable pastime, but they can also be used as valuable tools for brands looking to engage their audience. Yet setting up and managing contests can be difficult and time consuming. So instead of throwing out the idea of contests all together, why not use a platform to help your business create and manage these interactive online sweepstakes?

Here are three contest-creating options to consider:

Contestcore

This contest platform for small businesses and organizations, helps its users create, manage and promote their own user-generated content (text, photo and video) contests and sweepstakes. Contest can be set up on unique URLs, but many customers use either a subdomain or vanity URL. Additionally, contests live in a brand’s Facebook Fan Page, and brands can also require users to like their fan page prior to accessing the contest. Contests are completely customizable, and Contestcore monitors all votes and users in order to protect against vote fraud.

Wizehive

Contest Manager from Wizehive helps manage Facebook, photo, video contests and more. The contest forms are customizable and can be created on a stand alone Web page or integrated into an existing website. Contest voting is also customizable, and can be configured to a user’s preferences, such as scaled rankings, randomized winners, public voting options or through a team of private judges. Brands can also generate revenue by requiring entry fees as part of the application process.

Memelabs

Create custom-built contests online through avenues like Facebook and mobile with Memelabs. This platform allows its brands to monitor campaigns through analytics and reporting, as well as reach out to a user base with a newsletter management system. Furthermore, brands can generate buzz through social media and other promotional tools from the platform, such as a custom player that encourages users to share and promote the contest. Clients of this platform include Old Navy, Levi’s, PBS and Wells Fargo.

'Net Features : contests

3 Takeaways from Hilton's Vacationitis Campaign

Three Contest Platforms to Help Brands Win