• by Shankar Gupta , July 5, 2006

Choice Hotels International today will launch an online ad campaign to promote Choice's Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands. The campaign, created by Agency.com, drives users to a sweepstakes page, where visitors can enter to win a $1 million prize.

The campaign is running on a variety of news, travel, business, and government sites, including TripAdvisor, Weather.com, CNN Money and Military.com. The ad unit asks, "What would you do with a million dollars?" and invites consumers to submit their answers; the ads also incorporate other consumers' answers, by scrolling their responses across the screen.

The campaign is targeted at working families, said Tom Ajello, vice president, creative director for Agency.com. "If you read the small print, it's a long shot to win the million, but when you're talking to Choice Hotels' core audience--everyday Joes, blue-collar guys, families on a budget--just the thought of how one million would change their lives has to pull them in," he said.

In addition to the display ads, the promotion is also being pushed on several search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and Miva, as well as Business.com and SuperPages.com's directories. Agency.com is using Google's geo-targeting function to ensure an even distribution of clicks across the country, and targeting by demographic using MSN.

Recent Agency.com campaigns have included a Wimbledon sweepstakes run by British Airways, with which the shop has a long-standing relationship, Ajello said.