Brand Karma Wins Data Creativity Award for Social Commerce Work at I-COM Global Summit 2014
US$2 million in direct hotel bookings from social media impresses jury at online media measurement event
Singapore – Brand Karma, the only holistic digital marketing solution for hospitality and travel brands, has won the I-COM Data Creativity Award for the Emerging Marketing Regions. Presenting its case study, From Conversations to Commerce: How a Hotel Company Made $2 Million from Social Media, Brand Karma's entry used social media analytics to target ads on Facebook resulting in over US$2 million in direct bookings.
In 2013, Starwood Asia-Pacific approached Brand Karma with a desire to prove that social media could drive millions of dollars of hotel bookings. While many brands were using social media for "soft" results like awareness, fan engagement and word-of-mouth marketing, no hospitality brand had been able to make more than a few thousand dollars in revenue directly from social media. Brand Karma collaborated with Starwood APAC to create a simple yet focused strategy to accomplish this objective.
"Social commerce in the millions of dollars is the new standard for hospitality and travel brands," said Mario Jobbe, COO of Brand Karma. "Many hotel companies are trying to increase their percentage of direct bookings, and social media is now a credible channel to accomplish this."
The Data Creativity Awards took place at the I-COM Global Summit 2014, an international conference for online media measurement, in Seville, Spain. The entries went through two rounds of judging by a jury of over 50 brand and digital agency executives. Finalists for the Data Creativity Awards included American Eagle Outfitters, Axis Bank, Brita, Johnson & Johnson, Razorfish, and Warner Bros.
"Data driven marketing requires a new type of creativity that drives competitive advantage for marketers," said Andreas Cohen, Chairman of I-COM. "We are pleased that one of our actively engaged Partners, Starwood Asia-Pacific and their agency, Brand Karma, have been honored by our distinguished jury for their accomplishments in achieving business advantage through data. We thank our stellar Board and Jury of Data & Measurement Champions from around the world for their participation in making this competition happen", said Andreas Cohen, Chairman at I-COM Global.
About Brand Karma
Brand Karma provides the only holistic marketing solution designed for hospitality and travel professionals to attract and retain customers via social and digital media. Founded in 2006 by three friends who are former Microsoft executives, today Brand Karma provides analytic tools marketers use to audit their brand, a social CRM to manage reputation, agency services to increase social commerce and brand awareness, and consultants to form winning competitive sales and marketing strategies. Headquartered in the United States, Brand Karma has offices in France, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Singapore. For more information, visit www.brand-karma.com.
About I-COM
I-COM is a global, industry-backed community of data champions exploring measurement challenges to grow the Digital Marketing industry. I-COM works toward best practices, standardization and tripartite consensus, facilitates learning via international benchmarking and showcases state of the art developments where data is making a difference. The next I-COM Global Summit will be held on March 31 to April 3, 2014 in Seville, Spain. For more information and registration, please visit our website at www.i-com.org.
