How to book a Dorchester hotel

If you work in the travel industry, you use a bit of software called GDS to search for places your clients might like to stay. And you use certain codes for certain sorts of venue - like luxury hotels, for example.

All this arcane information is therefore enormously important for companies like the Dorchester Group. If travel agents aren't using the right code for your hotel, you'll never pop up on their screens.

Recently, the code for the Dorchester Group changed - to DC, as it happens. So they needed to make very sure everyone knew about it. The answer was a major online campaign, focused around one of the best prize draws I've ever come across. The winner got three nights in the very best suite of whichever Dorchester Group hotel they fancied. Along with Business Class flights and limo transfers. Very nice ideed.

Working alongside online agency CTS, I developed a theme for the campaign that hammered home the DC message. Emails went out at regular intervals, each bearing a new headline that reminded its audience of the message:

• A MARKED CHANGE
• BOOSTED COMMISSION (There was a limited period when agents got extra commission for booking a Dorchester hotel)
• CHANGED CODE (On the day of the changeover)
• and, as a reminder: ENTERED COMPETITION?
  

Fiendishly clever, isn't it? The Dorchester loved it, and the entries are pouring in.