The Challenge

Amidst the surge of revenge travel during the endemic season, we faced:

• CPA stagnation across SEA markets

Despite meeting standard booking KPI benchmarks, there was a plateau where higher budget did not bring about further improvement.

• Competition in an overly saturated market

With multiple hospitality brands nibbling on the recovery market share, a key challenge was to restore Accor’s revenue and acquisition performance back to pre-pandemic levels.

• Value erosion within the Programmatic Supply Chain

With multiple intermediaries in the supply chain, we needed a media solution to drive maximum performance with the media budget.

The Solution

1. Unlocking Lower-Funnel Success with Upper & Mid-Funnel Activities

Increasing lower funnel success hinges upon the strategic integration of upper and mid-funnel efforts to foster trust and awareness. A holistic approach was needed to bridge the gap between branding and conversion. 

2. Ad personalisation for Increased Relevance  

We needed a dynamic, personalised ad solution covering both social and programmatic environments through Meta Dynamic Travel Ads (MTA) and Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) through DV360.

3. Harnessing Emerging Media Trends

3.1 AI Algorithms Through Meta Advantage Shopping+ & DV360 Enhanced Automation Feature

In addition to ad personalisation, we harnessed Meta Advantage Shopping+ alongside Meta Travel Ads, to unlock advanced targeting capabilities that enabled us to connect precisely with highly relevant audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviours. Synergically on the programmatic front through DV360, enabling enhanced automation feature across our DCO campaign enables us to tap into a wealth of data beyond Accor's own advertiser signals to enhance performance. 

3.2 Video streaming (OTT) & User Generated Content (UGC)

Capitalising on these growing trends in SEA, we forged strategic partnerships and deployed solutions across The Trade Desk (TTD) and TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX), tapping on OTT buys and Travel content creators respectively.

4. Transparent Programmatic Solution through dentsu’s Proprietary Tool – Dentsu Curate

Our very own Dentsu Curate solution stands at the forefront of combating value erosion within the programmatic supply chain, paving for higher actual media budgets and enhanced performance. Using cutting-edge technology and a data-driven approach, Dentsu Curate meticulously scrutinises each stage of the supply chain, mitigating impact of intermediaries that syphon off value, ensuring Accor receives maximum investment value.

The Execution

The Results

Through an innovative media strategy, we achieved the following:

• Smashed booking targets across all SEA markets, attaining an overall 76% more efficient CPA at a 37% higher booking volume vs pre-pandemic.
• Observed significant ROAS uptick vs pre-pandemic, reaching an unprecedented ROAS of 292, marking the highest ROAS achieved for Accor.

Our holistic approach to media strategy, encompassing a 360-degree view of the landscape coupled with a full-funnel approach, has enabled us to maximise our conversions across all touchpoints.