NAVTEQ Scores with Best Western LBS Campaign

NAVTEQ, the global provider of maps, traffic and location data, has released the results of its first location-based mobile advertising campaign in Germany. The campaign featured ads from global hotelier Best Western, delivered via NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising to mobile German consumers using Nokia Ovi Map-enabled smart phones. 

Currently available in the US, and successfully deployed in trials in other parts of Europe, NAVTEQ’s LocationPoint Advertising harnesses the company’s location content and capabilities to pinpoint where mobile consumers are, deliver ads and calls to action within close proximity to advertised points of purchase, and then guide them to the merchant’s doorstep. The ads feature built-in calls to action, including ‘click to call’, ‘click to web’, and ‘click to map’.

The month-long campaign, the first of its kind in Germany, featured Best Western ads sent to consumers with Nokia Ovi Map-enabled phones as they approached one of Best Western’s 180 properties throughout Germany. The ads enticed consumers with an offer to receive a 30 per cent discount when the user booked early at a Best Western property. The campaign generated a clickthrough rate of 1.44 per cent, which NAVTEQ notes is more than seven times the 0.19 per cent average of online banner ads, according to Forrester Research. 15 per cent of all consumers who clicked on the initial ad requested mapping information to the local Best Western property.

“Hotel users by definition are in areas with which they are not familiar,” says Alexander Birk, manager e-commerce, for Best Western Hotels Germany. “NAVTEQ LocationPoint provides an effective advertising channel to target those mobile consumers when they are looking for accommodation in unfamiliar areas or are within a short distance of a Best Western property. It’s an elegant way to extend a more personal, relevant invitation for those consumers to become our guests.” 

Christopher Rothey, vice president, advertising, at NAVTEQ, adds: “One of the reasons traditional brands have been slow to embrace new media like mobile is because it has been difficult to prove ROI.” “This Best Western trial validates the promise of NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising to bricks and mortar businesses, such as hotels, retail stores and restaurants, which seek to drive consumers through their doors - and do it in ways which can be measured to show proof of return on investment.”