Hotel Marketing Awards winners announced
The Hotel Marketing Association (HMA) announced the winners of its Hotel Marketing Awards this evening at the W London Leicester Square hotel.
Both hoteliers and agencies entered the 22nd annual awards to win one of the seven accolades.
Hilton Worldwide's ‘Stop Clicking Around' campaign won Best Fully Integrated Marketing Campaign. The judges said it was "a powerful campaign" and admired it for challenging the Online Travel Agents, adding that the campaign "was multi-channel and produced a significant increase in direct-web bookings".
Park Inn's ‘Trolls on the Loose' campaign won Best Partnership Marketing Campaign. The judges said there was "good alignment of brand values between both parties". They went on to say it was "a great example of cocktail marketing". The campaign excited all the judges who said the campaign "should produce longevity of brand loyalty because of its amazing engagement with children".
The Salthouse Harbour hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk, won Best Website & SEO Marketing. The judges said it was "great to see a hotel embracing their location and the importance of selling destination" and "they delivered compelling content on their new website, with a great SEO structure, which subsequently produced results above all expectations".
The Feversham Arms hotel in Helmsley, Yorkshire, won Best Use of Social Media in Marketing. The judges said the winning campaign "did an excellent job of humanising social media marketing, by bringing their team to the forefront of the business". The judges felt the campaign "demonstrated great planning, excellent execution and proved that you don't have to spend thousands of pounds to produce outstanding results and drive direct traffic to your website".
Beattie Communications' ‘The Mummymoon' for Redefine BDL won Most Creative Activity by a Marketing or PR Agency. In this fiercely contested category, the judges said: "Beattie's creative approach was not only the best, but executed with the least budget.
"The campaign was well executed from a pure PR campaign point of view, but was also able to lead into a wider content marketing strategy, to support social media, leisure package sales and gift voucher sales."
Tom Driscoll, Gough Hotels won Young Marketer of the Year. The judges said he "has a really mature approach for a young marketing professional" and went on to say his understanding and implementation of "the full array of marketing weaponry available" has been "commendable", as has his "ability to work with a budget that is far less than many" of his competitive set.
Harry Fielder of Umi Digital won the Young Agency Marketer of the Year award. The judges said he demonstrated "incredible passion for and immersion in the hospitality industry in such a short space of time, leading the process of making the agency the guinea pig for many marketing deliverables, such as live chat and whitepaper marketing, as well as taking on speaking roles at industry conferences".
Ed Purnell, chairman of the Hotel Marketing Association, said: "The breadth of this year's award entries demonstrated just how innovative marketing has become. The best campaigns were those that were creative, innovative, smartly thought out and worked collaboratively with other departments, to achieve greater brand connection with their targeted audiences."
Digital Vision Awards winners revealed >>
Cateys 2016: Best Marketing Campaign >>
Videos from The Caterer archives
