Hyatt had one goal in mind when it hired agency Carat Interactive to manage its online marketing campaigns: to increase reservations through its Web site and toll-free number.

“For Hyatt, interactive is becoming a larger part of the mix,” said Sarah Fay, president of Carat Interactive.

And it's no wonder: Clickthroughs went up from 0.26% to 1.04% during the 18 months of the campaign. Reservations increased 88% and online reservations ballooned by 161%, Fay said during a session at DoubleClick's Insight conference last month.

Carat, which handled 18 online campaigns, had a few obstacles to overcome. One was that the travel category is cluttered, so inventory is at a premium. Another is that cheaper rates often garner clickthroughs in the travel space, but Hyatt's prices weren't inexpensive.

“The idea was to leverage Hyatt's strengths in a crowded market,” said Fay about the ongoing campaign. “We decided to focus on a smaller, more targeted market.”

To accomplish that goal, Carat sponsored articles on sites like WeddingChannel.com. Links to Hyatt hotels in Hawaii were sprinkled throughout the editorial and the ads for Hyatt bordered the editorial content.

Behavioral targeting of ads through Yahoo! worked too, as Carat served ads to visitors who had in the past viewed Yahoo!'s travel areas.

Geographical targeting didn't work, Fay said. Instead, Carat turned toward using search engine marketing keywords that contained geographical locations.

Niche-oriented, high-end travel sites like Fodors.com and Concierge.com brought the best response rates for Hyatt's ads. Broader travel-oriented sites like Expedia didn't perform well. Powerful portals, such as Yahoo!, delivered volume.

In general, Fay said, long-term partnerships with high-performing sites worked best for the Hyatt campaigns.

Offers that were direct and to the point worked best. One featured a photo of a couple walking together on the beach. The copy read, “Escape together now. 25% off.”

The ads used Flash technology that provided movement. For example, the photo would appear continuously and the copy would revolve — showing first a tagline, then an offer. The ads also tended to be larger than standard banner advertisements.

Some 75% of conversions occurred some time after the Web visitor had viewed the ad. In fact, conversions peaked two weeks after the ad was seen. Cookie technology allowed Carat to track this activity.