Wyndham's Days Inn ran a mobile local search ad campaign that was meant to give consumers an incentive to book rooms at Days Business Alliance properties.
 
The campaign ran in the Poynt application and included graphical banner ads at the bottom of the screen that served as a direct connection to the hotel via a dedicated 800 number or as a click-through to a Days Inn mobile site. When Poynt users searched keywords such as HOTEL, MOTEL or INN, they were served sponsored text ads at the top of the application for the Days Inn hotel as well as the organic search query results.

?Days Inn was able to deliver targeted ads based on consumer?s real-time searches for hotels and hotel - related keywords,? said Shelly Lipton, vice president of marketing at Ping Mobile Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

?Days Inn knew what keyword the consumer was searching for, time of day of the search and where geographically the consumer was standing when they searched,? he said. ?This information enabled Days Inn to target ads based on several criteria, all targeted to consumers' needs.?

Targeting business travelers, Days Business Alliance is part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts family that includes Ramada Worldwide, Howard Johnson, Motel 6, Super 8 Motel, Travelodge and Knights Inn.

Ping Mobile and Multiplied Media Corp. created the campaign for Days Inn.

Poynt is a GPS-enabled application that connects consumers to local businesses, people, restaurants and movie theaters at the moment they want to buy or acquire products or services.

The Days Inn ads offered an incentive to book rooms and provided a direct clickable link to both phone and online reservations. 

Here is a screen grab of the ad on a BlackBerry device:

Here is the drop down menu, from which consumers could connect with Days Inn:

The advertisements displayed a specific promotion code, so when users called they could take advantage of the offer which was 15 percent off a two-night stay at a Days Inn hotel.

?Poynt users tend to be very mobile and when they are travelling or out of town looking for businesses and restaurants, we saw that hotels are a fairly often viewed category within the app,? said Margaret Glover-Campbell, vice president of marketing and public relations at Multiplied Media, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

?So when we gave them the numbers Days Inn saw that it was a good test campaign,? she said. 

Days Inn was not willing to share the results of this specific campaign. However, Ms. Glover-Campbell did say that the campaign performed well and results were above industry norms.

Days Inn was so pleased with the outcome that it has agreed to another ad buy within the Poynt application.

Poynt is currently available for BlackBerry smartphones in Canada, the United States, Germany, Britain, Italy, France and Spain. It is available on iPhones in Canada and the U.S.

In 2008, Days Inn partnered with Ping Mobile to build a database of mobile consumers. Travelers were asked to text DAYSINN to short code 74642.

Participants were then sent an SMS message asking them to text in to confirm that they want to join the VIP club for future promotional messages.

Consumers who texted in for Days Inn promotions were also entered into a mobile sweepstakes for a chance to win a free, all-inclusive vacation.

Days Inn publicized the text-to-win effort via room keycard sleeves in its hotels, email blasts and its Web site at http://www.daysinnbiz.com.

After just one month, the campaign generated a 40 percent double opt-in rate, according to Ping Mobile (see story).

?Mobile really is more than just travel,? said Andrew Osis, CEO of Multiplied Media. ?It is problem solving on the go.

?We have all had this moment where we need to do something but have to look something up to get it done,? he said. "Looking it up is solving it.

?We are that solution so Days Inn was able to target a demographic that fits within that box.?

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