In case you missed it, we’ve announced the finalists for our third annual eTail Best-in-Class Awards, the winners of which will be declared ever-

Bill Keen

so-soon at our upcoming conference in Palm Springs.

To get us excited about the programs for which these companies were nominated (as if we weren’t already excited), we talked to a few of them about what they did and why they did it.

To backtrack, the eTail Best-in-Class Awards were designed to honor some of the most innovative programs happening in mobile, social, email and search marketing over the past year. This time around, we’ll be honoring those folks with an awards ceremony on February 26th, during eTail West.

Here, we talk to one of our Mobile Award program finalists, InterContinental Hotels Group. Bill Keen, the Director of Mobile Solutions there, tells us about a loyalty rewards program he and the company implemented and further utilized through the mobile channel.

According to Keen, the mobile integration of this rewards program was a huge success.

As an example, Keen said there were about 95,000 sign ups through the mobile program.

What does each new member mean for IHG’s business? Big stuff.

In fact, Keen said that the company sees about $5 to $10 in incremental value that drops straight to the company’s bottom line for every single person that enrolls.

Listen to our interview to hear him talk more about the program and how it came to be a big mobile hit both internally and externally. And of course, if you aren’t signed up yet, make sure to book your ticket to eTail West so you can be there for the announcement of the winners.