How InterContinental Hotels & Resorts Boosted Its Brand with Outbrain
If there is a travel brand associated with luxury and quality, it’s InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. But how strong are these attributes? And how much do the company’s native ads on Outbrain drive brand consideration, particularly among affluent, frequent travelers?
These were the questions being asked by the InterContinental Group, so Outbrain put the brand to the test with True Engagement©, an exclusive brand lift study in collaboration with Nielsen, the marketing research experts.
True Engagement© measures the direct impact that content has on awareness and perceptions around brands and products, including key metrics like Brand Awareness, Favorability and Attributes.
The survey was conducted globally with the participation of 4,854 users, between December 2017 and February 2018.
How We Measured Brand Attributes
InterContinental produced captivating native content about food, drink, and culture, highlighting trends and tastemakers, and tying them to their hotels and resorts. This content was promoted on the Outbrain premium publisher network to a target audience of experienced, affluent travelers. As with all the best content, InterContinental’s campaign was designed to create emotional engagement among the audience and to drive preference and consideration for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in the future.
Next, a survey was conducted among two distinct groups: those who clicked on and engaged with InterContinental content, and those who did not, in order to compare and measure the brand impact as a result of interaction with the Outbrain campaign. The survey was presented as an engaging quiz about food trends, with brand metric questions incorporated later, in order to encourage participants to click through and participate.
The campaign and subsequent survey were conducted in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, including Australia, Singapore, UAE & Saudi Arabia, and Japan, through the Outbrain platform.
Attitude Vs Action: The Results
The survey results indicated strong brand lift and improved associations with ‘luxury’ among frequent travelers in these regions.
The highest brand consideration lift was noted in Australia and Singapore, with increases of 28% and 26%, while the highest lift in luxury associations was in Singapore with 28%, and UAE/Saudi Arabia with 24%.
The results are clear:
Native advertising on premium publisher sites across the Outbrain network achieved significant improvement in perceptions of and preference for the InterContinental brand and boosted associations with concepts such as ‘luxury’ and ‘high quality’ among an affluent, jet-setting audience.
Want to measure brand lift from your Outbrain campaigns with a True Engagement brand study? Contact support@outbrain.com to find out more.
