The agency has received two recognitions from Google for the success story of its client, Palladium Hotel Group, and its technological solution for the travel industry, VIMANA.
The fourth edition of the Google Marketing Partner Awards, held yesterday, was once again a great success for t2ó Spain.
For the second consecutive year, the 360 digital agency has returned home with two major awards: a gold in the Digital Transformation category with its client Palladium Hotel Group (PHG), and a silver with the success story of its technological tool for the travel vertical, VIMANA, in the Scalable Marketing Solutions category.
These recognitions highlight and value the work that partners do with their clients to succeed in the marketing strategies they carry out together. In addition to the results of the cases presented, these awards also consider aspects such as the implementation of Google products, the use of advanced functionalities, and the level of involvement and commitment of the client with the projects executed.
«At t2ó, we are especially proud of this recognition from Google, BCG, and this year’s jury, who have honored us for the second consecutive year with two awards. We would also like to congratulate the other winners and finalists, as we know that the level of the 95 cases presented was very high, challenging us to improve year after year and be a clear reference in our industry.
This year, the gold came from Palladium Hotel Group (PHG) as a perfect example of how technological innovation can substantially transform a brand’s business. The challenge was to further grow direct sales; in fact, we achieved a +68% increase in revenue from non-refundable rates, improving business metrics such as ADR by +18%, and increasing bookings while optimizing costs, all through the use of advanced marketing solutions in the Google Cloud environment.
The implementation of predictive algorithms and personalized audiences based on Palladium’s 1st party data allowed us to achieve sustained growth, anticipating the future of cookieless advertising in a scalable way, to activate campaigns on various advertising platforms such as Search, PMax, Demand Gen, DV360, and YouTube. We also personalized messages with dynamic creatives and optimized overall investment through a Marketing Mix Modeling approach.»
– Alfonso del Barrio, Managing Director of t2ó Spain.
The Palladium Case, Gold in the ‘Digital Transformation’ Category
Below, we detail the Palladium Hotel Group case, which won gold in the Digital Transformation category, achieving a 68% increase in effective bookings by leveraging 1st party data and AI.
1. The Challenge
In 2023, Palladium Hotel Group achieved record figures, surpassing €1 billion in managed business volume. This represented a 16% increase in direct channel sales and a 14% improvement in revenue per available room (ADR) without significantly increasing its hotel capacity. After these historic results, we faced the challenge of continuing to grow the direct channel in a profitable, sustainable, and responsible manner, forecasting a minimum 8% increase in revenue per available room (ADR) in 2024.
2. The Strategy
Facing this challenge, we needed to develop privacy-first solutions that optimized real-time direct sales investments based on business metrics: occupancy, cancellation, enjoyed booking, and revenue per available room. We worked on a roadmap with a project plan focused on scalability, customer knowledge, and a clear commitment to artificial intelligence to ensure the company’s sustainable growth and digital transformation:
- Developing predictive algorithms and audiences from 1st party data in Google Cloud’s Vertex AI to improve business metrics by activating them in various Google advertising solutions (Search, PMax, Demand Gen, DV360, and YouTube).
- Personalizing messages through dynamic creatives developed with generative AI to respond to each user personally and in line with their journey stage using Studio, CM360, and t2ó’s AI suite.
- Creating a Marketing Mix Modeling approach that allowed us to quantify the impact of marketing channels to make more informed decisions (with Python and MMM-lightweight).
t2ó worked closely with the Palladium team to understand their business needs and create advanced technological solutions that directly impacted the company’s digital transformation, being involved in strategic definition, creation, and activation in various advertising solutions.
3. The Results
Palladium Hotel Group has managed to anticipate the cookieless environment by developing solutions based on 1st party data that allowed it to maintain direct channel growth in a profitable, sustainable, and responsible manner. This resulted in a 68% increase in revenue from non-refundable rates and an 18% increase in average revenue per room (ADR), alongside cost efficiency, as the 360º investment strategy (online, offline) responds to a global return on investment scenario.
“We are in a dynamic market sensitive to changes in commercial strategy. Having an agency that understands the business and proposes advanced and scalable solutions has been key to achieving a 68% revenue increase with an 18% ADR increase.”
– Alejandro Lazcano, Senior Digital Sales Director at Palladium Hotel Group.
The VIMANA Case, Silver in the ‘Scalable Marketing Solutions’ Category
Regarding the VIMANA case, which won silver in the Scalable Marketing Solutions category, we highlight the keys to its success, where billing increased by 90% with its predictive demand solution.
1. The Challenge
In an industry like tourism, heavily influenced by social and geopolitical factors and deeply marked by uncertainty and seasonality, relying solely on historical data for marketing strategy is insufficient. Predicting and understanding user behavior is crucial for business growth by capturing the opportunities presented by the sector’s recovery, which reached 88% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023.
2. The Strategy
We integrated Vimana as a predictive solution for traveler interests to adapt campaigns, providing hoteliers, airlines, tour operators, and agencies with key information for more efficient destination management, thus increasing the number of bookings on media platforms.
We used direct channel information obtained through Google Analytics and Salesforce to link demand behavior with bookings and thus help prioritize high-demand destinations or routes.
For demand prediction, we used Google Cloud (Vertex AI) in training models, with our AI solution called ClaudIA. For generating insights and automatic reports, we used Vertex’s Gen AI, although we validated with other LLM models like OpenAI.
Vimana insights can be automatically activated on major platforms like Google Ads through Value Rules, or Meta.
At t2ó, we have been pioneers in travel vertical solutions. With Vimana, we provide our clients with the power of data and artificial intelligence with a business focus.
- The Results
“Silver was awarded to Vimana, our solution for analyzing demand and transactions for our clients, where through predictive models we can know in advance how to optimize our digital marketing strategy. Although it is a solution with several years of track record, in recent months we have equipped it with the capability to activate campaigns automatically, which was precisely the differentiating value considered by the jury to grant us this award. Although originally the solution was very oriented towards the travel sector, its use is being exported and adapted to other sectors such as retail or energy.”
– Álvaro Sánchez, Managing Director of FiT, adtech, and data consultancy of the t2ó ONE group.
Until next year, we continue! 💪
You can also see the awards we won with PortAventura and Repsol at the GMPA 2023 😉
