Hotwire

1 UX Designer, 7 Marketing + Data Managers, Director of Engagement Marketing, Copywriter, UX Design Manager

UX/UI Design - Research and User Mapping, Campaign Development, Branding, Visual Design

1 year (1 campaign/month)

Hotwire, the last-minute online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, wanted to raise their app conversion rate while retaining active app users in order to increase the percentage of transactions completed in the app. They aimed to position the app as more valuable to users than web/mobile web. This consistent Engagement Design priority to drive app downloads and gain loyal customers was largely powered by the steady messaging of app-exclusive perks + promotions.

Hotwire’s business model is unique - users book 4 or 5 star hotels for a fraction of the retail price, but hotel names are only revealed after the bookings are completed. The hidden names allow high-end hotels to fill last-minute, unsold rooms. These deals are called Hot Rate Hotels, and they are always cheaper in the app.

Hot Rate Hotels are great for those who understand the perks: easy, cost-effective travel will likely encourage more frequent travel. However, our research showed that many users hadn’t been fully educated, and therefore lacked knowledge and understanding of how to benefit from the app. These users were less inclined to book on Hotwire and/or use the app.

Many users turn to Hotwire looking for last-minute deals and don’t have time to look at benefit details; they will abandon to book on a more standard site. This also applies to users who’ve used the site once but did not entirely understand how it worked, and in turn were less likely to become repeat customers.

These findings indicated that quickly educating users while building their trust regarding quality and savings was highly necessary.

Increase app download rates through a continuing Engagement Design initiative of refreshed, strategically-placed, cross-channel designs that educate customers on the app’s value to encourage confidence in their booking options + savings.

The main desired outcome was an increase in the percentage of transactions completed in the app (goal of 50%, then-current rate of 38%), with the secondary desired outcome being that users would feel educated and become repeat customers.

This project series targeted a few user groups - first-time, occasional, and repeat users.

• First-time users arrive at the Hotwire site through an ad, link, or their own research. With this project, they would quickly see an educational design placement, be driven to the app store, and download the app prior to completing their booking in order to get a better deal.

• Occasional users who have previously used the site (even if only once) and were satisfied enough to return - they may be browsing or have returned through a marketing email link. They would also benefit from quickly seeing an educational design that drives them to the app store to download.

• Repeat users who are current app users. Whether they’ve used it once or multiple times, this project would encourage further education on perks + savings to help retain them as customers.

The scope of this project series was to create one campaign per project and then assess its success. This typically included time for A/B testing.

Our main constraint was the area size we were designing for, as many of them were small mobile web pop-ups, in-app banners, etc. that needed to contain enough information to effectively communicate the Hotwire app’s value props.

The process for these app conversion + retention projects was the same across the board. I would attend a design kick-off meeting as the Lead Designer, accompanied by my copywriter counterpart. These were led by Marketing/Data teams to thoroughly discuss previous outcomes and the user’s journey when interacting with the new creative. This helped contextualize the desired experience.

Hotwire featured a specific gradient for app-related content that I incorporated into many projects, and some designs utilized prior work that needed refreshing. However, for the most part, these were unique, net-new campaigns and I was granted a lot of creative freedom to design for app, web, and email. I leveraged competitive research and proposed new design ideas, typically met with approval for performance and/or A/B testing. This helped find what our users interacted with most and what could be improved.

I would present my findings and mid-fi or hi-fi mocks to the stakeholders in a review session. The copywriter and I would take their feedback into consideration for revisions, and if there were none, would prepare the campaign for handoff.

This process was seamless - the Design + Engagement Marketing teams were highly collaborative in the quest to meet our collective goal of driving app downloads and converting app users into repeat customers. We worked hard to create varied campaigns to avoid repetitive content and to ensure we had a good balance of marketing strategy + data, design logic, and visual design.

This initiative was overall successful. Although we did not receive a full EOY look at the data due to a company-wide reorg in which Hotwire was dissolved into the larger EG company, there were numerous indicators of the series success:

• Percentage of app share transactions increased from 38% to 42%

• App engagement rate increased by 33%

• “Appy” Hour deals campaign increased daily active users by 29% (all-time high)

• “Price Watching” smoke test had 6x more engagement than saving a search for future browsing