PRESS RELEASE


May 2009

TripAdvisor, the world's most popular and largest travel community, has won a gold Halo Award, American cause marketing's highest honor in the Best Use of Social Media category for their fall 2008 ‘More than Footprints’ campaign which distributed $1 million dollars between five travel-related non-profit organizations, including: Conservation International; Doctors without Borders; National Geographic Society; Save the Children; and The Nature Conservancy.

Run by the Cause Marketing Forum, Halos recognize work that advances the interests of both nonprofit partners and a business, and are judged on conceptual strength, execution, business results, and cause results.

In their winning campaign, TripAdvisor harnessed the power of the collective voice and asked travelers to democratically determine the amount of money each nonprofit would receive.

TripAdvisor members voted online and the initiative was also promoted through their popular Facebook applications–Cities I've Visited, Local Picks, and Traveler IQ Challenge–and through all Facebook communication channels, including email, newsfeeds, groups, and Facebook Connect.

Members could also earn extra votes for their preferred organization for viral promotion via send-to-a-friend and tell-a-friend features. TripAdvisor tapped into YouTube, as well, and created several campaign videos, including one that went viral with more than 1.4 million views.

The More than Footprints initiative generated more than one million votes in total, with nearly a quarter of them coming from social media outreach. Based on the percentage of votes each organization received, the final results were:

Conservation International - $70,000 based on 7% of the vote

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) - $392,000 based on 39.2% of the vote

National Geographic Society - $54,000 based on 5.4% of the vote

The Nature Conservancy - $137,000 based on 13.7% of the vote

Save the Children - $347,000 based on 34.7% of the vote


"We're honored to have been recognized by the Cause Marketing Forum for this important initiative," said Christine Petersen, chief marketing officer of TripAdvisor.

"We feel strongly that travelers can leave more than footprints behind by making a difference in the places they visit, and our campaign gave them–and their friends–the tools to do it."




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