As online becomes a greater piece of the budgetary pie, this VP Electronic Distribution & Marketing is trying new things, like gaming.

Sandy Heilman is Vice President, Electronic Distribution & Marketing for La Quinta Corporation. She is responsible for the development of marketing, ecommerce and channel management strategies to boost market share and revenue through online distribution channels for La Quinta Corporation. La Quinta owns/manages or franchises over 500 hotels in the continental United States including La Quinta Inns, La Quinta Inns & Suites, Baymont Inns & Suites and Woodfield Suites.

iMedia: How has the media mix changed for you over the last few years? Is online still "an afterthought" or are campaigns, for the most part, conceived of in an integrated fashion from the get go? Or are you somewhere in between?

Heilman: As a company and certainly within the Marketing Department, online is a key consideration. The overall national promotional dollar allocation to online activities has grown substantially in the past couple of years. Online activities/opportunities are always discussed and evaluated as a key component in support of national promotion/campaign activities. We are not there yet -- offline continues to command a much higher percentage of the spend, but, we are moving solidly in the right direction.

iMedia: What was your most successful online or integrated campaign recently and what made it successful?

Heilman: We ventured into online gaming as a component of the online efforts in conjunction with our National Summer Campaign. The game was promoted via POP at 300+ hotel front desks along with in-room collateral pieces directing customers online. Banner ads promoting the game (free night instant win) achieved higher than average click-through. Game registrants who noted that they had stayed at La Quinta 0 to 2 times received a $10.00 off coupon in support of the offline promotion. We received "better than average" response and customer data files allowed us to bump up against subsequent stay data allowing a more effective comparison on our ability to influence future behavior and conversion. The viral aspects of running the game proved valuable as well.   

iMedia: What is the greatest benefit of online advertising? The ability to measure? Precisely target? Gather data? Something else?

Heilman: All of the above! The ability to quickly identify effectiveness and real-time capability in optimizing creative, positioning, audience, etc. is huge! Offline campaign analysis is completed three to six months after -- online is about today and three to six months from now we are already using the lessons learned to improve positioning and representation.

iMedia: What still frustrates you most about online advertising? What can be done to improve the situation?

Heilman: Probably the various metrics or lack thereof, involved in attempting to evaluate effectiveness over the long term.

iMedia: Are you doing any behavioral targeting? If yes, please describe.

Heilman: Yes, based on an aggressive channel management strategy, we are testing incentives to our best customers -- our Returns loyalty program members -- to shift purchase behavior online.   

iMedia: 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?

Heilman: Not just yet, although that may be because we haven't dedicated resources to pursue intelligence in this area. As an industry, the concentration has been based on consumer ratings and commentaries via numerous third-party and online travel sites. Actual blogs and user groups go beyond this and, we need to become much more aware of what's out there and what the opportunities may be.

iMedia: Have you found agencies to be able to handle your changing interactive/integrated needs? What could still be better?

Heilman: It has been frustrating. We have found that we often are much more knowledgeable than the online groups within the agency related to both online media placement and the technology required to track. We recently signed with a new agency and are very optimistic/excited with their level of expertise both offline and online. They appear to understand the complexities and key variables related to offline/online campaign integration. As well, we will be pushing a much stronger brand message going forward which, itself, assists in aligning offline/online messaging. 

iMedia: Have you done much with wireless, iTV or other emerging mediums?

Heilman: We're working on a number of initiatives generated through other areas within the company that may now provide marketing opportunities. It's primarily wireless, although we have partnered with in-room systems to market as well.   

iMedia: It's the beginning of a new year. What do you hope to accomplish this year?

Heilman: Creatively position and market, LQ.com, baymontinns.com and woodfieldsuites.com -- clearly differentiate each brand, drive traffic, improve conversion, experience and establish loyalty through communicating the value-add online. Continue to seek and deliver new technology to improve customer experience online (some great stuff in the pipeline) and test news ways to communicate it.