Watergate achieves +23% direct bookings with strong paid media strategy

Simply put, the primary goal was to increase bookings at The Watergate Hotel during Washington DC’s competitive spring season (March – April 2025). In order to accomplish this goal, The Watergate Hotel needed to find a way to differentiate their marketing from many competing DC hotels and capture the attention of potential customers. But how? With a not-so-logical combination of cherry blossoms and pandas.

1. Cherry blossoms. During spring’s “peak bloom”, thousands of Japanese Yoshino cherry trees—lining the shore of DC’s tidal basin—create a jaw-dropping explosion of pink and white.
2. Pandas. That’s right, pandas—the big, cuddly, black-and-white, bamboo-munching bears. During the spring of 2025, Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Zoo was welcoming the return of giant pandas.

Armed with attention-grabbing blossoms and bears, the goal was to tap into the buzz of cherry blossom season, and the return of pandas in order to increase spring bookings.

The Watergate Hotel’s homepage hero image showcased a vintage white convertible overflowing with cherry blossoms at the hotel’s entrance. Meanwhile, paid social ads displayed stuffed panda teddy bears, panda cookies, and panda pajamas in The Watergate’s luxurious rooms and suites.

Static and carousel ads, link ads, display banners, and seasonal RSAs were also deployed, using bold imagery and luxury-driven copy to align with The Watergate’s brand voice.

Once the campaign had successfully captured attention, the next goal was to serve the target audience with mid- and lower-funnel ads highlighting high-value offers such as the hotel’s Suite Dreams and Drive & Stay Packages.

The goal was to use multiple channels to serve the target audience with bold, enticing messaging at different stages of their journey, from dreaming to booking.

In a nutshell, the primary goal was accomplished. The cherry trees blossomed, the pandas arrived at the zoo, and bookings at The Watergate Hotel increased.

In order to accomplish the goal, we implemented an integrated, multichannel media strategy to position The Watergate Hotel as the premier luxury choice for cherry blossom and panda season. This included:

• Paid social: Seasonal creatives with upper- and lower-funnel targeting
• Paid search (SEM): Responsive Search Ads (RSA) and seasonal Sitelinks to capture high-intent search demand
• Programmatic display: Retargeting with seasonal offerings
• On-property campaigns: Aligned activations at The Kingbird Restaurant, The Next Whisky Bar, and Argentta Spa

Paid Social built visibility and inspiration, Paid Search captured high-intent travelers during peak booking windows, and Programmatic Display reinforced messaging through retargeting. This layered channel mix ensured The Watergate Hotel was present at every stage of the traveler journey — from initial discovery to final booking.

We achieved a 7.1x blended ROAS across paid media paired with strong brand awareness generation and conversion-driving creatives.

From March 12 to April 27, 2025, The Watergate Hotel saw strong year-over-year gains across its website performance. Bookings rose by 23%, supported by a 17% increase in sessions and a 3% uplift in conversion rate. Revenue climbed 10%, while room nights also increased 23%, showing that both traffic quality and customer intent strengthened throughout the campaign period.

Paid media delivered equally impressive momentum. Bookings generated through paid channels grew 18%, fueled by a 73% surge in clicks and a 28% boost in CTR. Visibility expanded with a 34% rise in impressions, while check-availability actions increased 12%.

These improvements translated into a 13% increase in paid media revenue and a 32% lift in room nights, highlighting the campaign’s ability to capture demand and convert it into measurable business impact.