Expedia Facebook FriendTrips Honored with "Best of Show" at 2012 HSMAI Adrian Awards

BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of global online travel leader Expedia, Inc., today announced that its Facebook FriendTrips campaign was named Digital Marketing "Best of Show" at the 56^th Annual Adrian Awards competition. Hosted by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the Adrian Awards honor those who have created exceptional advertising, digital marketing and public relations campaigns in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries.

To build out the Expedia® brand presence on Facebook, the company partnered with nine travel brands and 13 destination marketing organizations (DMOs) for the FriendTrips campaign.  Featuring dedicated destination pages, prominent placements on Expedia's Facebook site and fan incentives, the FriendTrips social game allowed users to pilot a virtual plane to any of the participating destinations for a chance to win a "trip of a lifetime" and other prizes, totaling more than $1 million. 

"We're constantly developing innovative ways for our partners to reach consumers and leverage the breadth of Expedia's audience, especially given that some of our partners don't have the necessary resources to carryout campaigns of this scale," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions.  "Working cooperatively, we brought FriendTrips to life for the Expedia brand and our nine partners, and it became the biggest sweepstakes in Facebook history." 

Through extensive online and offline promotional tactics, the FriendTrips game increased Expedia's Facebook fan base from 130 thousand to more than one million, and proved wildly successful for the nine sponsoring travel brands.

"The bar is continuously set higher each year in regard to the quality of Adrian Awards submissions we receive," said Fran Brasseux, HSMAI executive vice president. "This year's winners in travel advertising,  public relations, and digital marketing exemplified marketing innovation that led to outstanding results, and demonstrated the power of marketing integration across all channels."

HSMAI received more than 1,200 submissions attained on a worldwide scale for the 2012 Adrian Awards. Among them, Platinum winners were selected from the entries seen as the most superlative Gold winners, and the highest show merit, Best of Show, were chosen from the Platinum winners and went to the recipients in the advertising, digital marketing and public relations categories.

Expedia Media Solutions received a Bronze award for the innovative MGM Resorts Las Vegas Vacation Planner, a custom microsite that gives users a unique and engaging way to plan a trip to Las Vegas from beginning to end. Designed in conjunction with Seven 2, the Vacation Planner allows MGM Resorts to cross-sell its large portfolio of Las Vegas hotels and features lodging, dining, entertainment and activities. The microsite also features social integration – once the Vacation Planner has been populated, users can share it with friends via email, Twitter and Facebook, expanding the potential audience for MGM Resorts.

For more information on Expedia Media Solutions, please visit www.advertising.expedia.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 nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe
• 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. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

About HSMAI
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners, and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals & their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as HSMAI's MEET, Adrian Awards, and Revenue Optimization Conference. HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at www.hsmai.org, www.facebook.com/hsmai, www.twitter.com/hsmai and www.youtube.com/hsmai1.

SOURCE Expedia Media Solutions