Data shows unequivocally that offline is the best driver of online traffic to this hotel site.

John Padwick is director of marketing for Wyndham International, Inc. Wyndham offers upscale and luxury hotel and resort accommodations through proprietary lodging brands and a management services division. Based in Dallas, Wyndham International owns, leases, manages and franchises hotels and resorts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

iMediaConnection: What was your biggest online "win" this year, and how did you sell it throughout the company?

Padwick: Moving online agencies to pay per performance models.

iMediaConnection: What surprised you in the online world this year?

Padwick: Within the travel sector, the strong-armed tactics of third-party sites and the open hostility demonstrated by suppliers towards these sites.

iMediaConnection: Have you realigned internal structures and resources to simplify or increase integrated marketing?

Padwick: No.

iMediaConnection: How do you determine your marketing mix -- and how has the role of online in it changed?

Padwick: Actual sales channels drive marketing channels.

iMediaConnection: What haven't you brought into the marketing mix yet that you want to try?

Padwick: Direct mail has not yet truly been harnessed.

iMediaConnection: Have you seen specific evidence of online driving offline sales?

Padwick: Yes, we have data that shows unequivocally that offline is the best driver of online traffic to our site.

iMediaConnection: Are you using consultants, software, agencies or other tools to help with search engine  marketing?

Padwick: Yes, we use a dedicated SEO marketing group.

iMediaConnection: What do you believe is the future of ad agencies?

Padwick: Strategic guidance and marketing coordination -- mediums have gotten too technical and complex (i.e. online, direct mail, telemarketing) to allow one super agency to be able to effectively deliver expertise in every discipline. As such, the future of impactful ad agencies will be to partner on a strategic level with companies, to be compensated on a pay for performance model and to do the legwork on marketing plans.

iMediaConnection: What do we need to be doing as an industry to help you make interactive marketing a bigger piece of your marketing pie?

Padwick: I would like to have better access to industry numbers on standards, such as standard click-through rates on travel emails, standard click-to-book (purchase) numbers, etc.

iMediaConnection: Are you being affected by any consumer-generated marketing (CGM) -- blogs, user groups, etc.? Are you using any blogs or other social networking tools to market?

Padwick: Not yet.

iMediaConnection: How important is CRM in your marketing efforts? Give us an example of what's working.

Padwick: That's still in its infancy for us.

iMediaConnection: Does anything still frustrate you about what online can or can't do?

Padwick: The lack of critical thought surrounding reported numbers. for example, ad tracking vendors claim certain numbers around cause and effect (i.e. x ad caused y booking), but when you dig deeper into how they get these numbers, you realize some of the basics involved with counting are potentially flawed. I wish they would all work a little harder to be forthcoming in this information, rather than preaching as fact, cause and effect.

iMediaConnection: What are your daily "must-see" Web sites and why?

Padwick: CNN.com

iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days, other than iMediaConnection.com, of course?

Padwick: Business 2.0; Smart Money; NYTIMES