Kimpton, Marriott and Four Seasons Named Top Hotels in Online Charity Auction Environment

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. March 26, 2010

MARCH 26, 2010 - BiddingForGood, the leading cause-related e-commerce platform connecting affluent consumers and marketers to online fundraising auction events announced the top performers in the hospitality category. Hospitality continues to be the leading category in the $16 billion charity auction market.

Some of the top hotel brands on BiddingForGood include Kimpton Hotels, Marriott, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Intercontinental Hotels, Ritz-Carlton and Hilton. These brands, which are featured in a trusted online environment, have helped support thousands of causes and helped the company reach $80 million in merchandise sales supporting non-profits and schools across the U.S.

Charity auctions reach the nations most affluent consumers through their trusted causes just as they are making purchasing decisions in specific categories, such as travel. These consumers are educated females who, in bad economic times, retain the buying power for luxury items. Many of the BiddingForGood consumers hold a net worth of $1 million plus and studies show that 89% of them plan to travel domestically this year with 47% of them planning on traveling internationally.

Hospitality has proven to be the largest transaction volume category overall in online charity auctions with 6 of the top 10 overall performers being hotel brands. Dining, entertainment, sports, heath/spa and fitness, and unique experiences round out the other categories.

Top Ten Performing Brands Across the Auction Platform by Total Units Sold Are:

1. Hilton family
   
2. Marriott family
   
3. Starbucks
   
4. Starwood Family
   
5. Nintendo
   
6. Apple
   
7. Mary Kay
   
8. Four Seasons Hotels
   
9. Ritz-Carlton
   
10. Cheesecake Factory
    

( Note; company initiated donations are confidential )

Within the hotel category, Intercontinental Hotels received the highest amount of consumer interest (measured by bid volume) with an average of 7.9 bids per item. The Mandarin Oriental Hotels led with the highest sell-through rate of 96% followed by the Intercontinental at 93% and Kimpton at 91%. Four Seasons and Starwood Family came out on top with highest sales.

As socially responsible consumers are becoming more prevalent, marketers are seeking more ways to engage consumers in a cause based environment. Numerous studies from Cone and others are showing that consumers are positively influenced when a brand supports a cause.

Now that charity auctions are moving online, its extraordinary level of consumer engagement is measureable with the average consumer having over 20 page views per online session and spending an average of 30+ seconds on each item page. “In today's time compressed world where attention spans are rapidly shrinking and brands struggle to break through, we think this high level of engagement amounts to a virtual trial”, says Carson.

BiddingForGood works with marketers to better harness the marketing benefits of this channel to reach affluent donors. “As more and more marketers see the measureable value that can be extracted from online charity auctions, we expect to see more and more brand names getting involved”, says nationally recognized hotelier, Robin Brown who is on the company's board.

In 2010, BiddingForGood was selected as one of the OnMedia 100 winners. Inclusion in the OnMedia 100 signifies major developments in the creation of marketing tools, services, venues, and advertising, and branding campaigns. Recipients of this award are considered to be the disruptors of traditional marketing and branding methods with past recipients including Gilt, Facebook, and Technorati.

About BiddingForGood
BiddingForGood is the leading cause-related e-commerce platform connecting consumers and marketers to non-profit fundraising auction events. BiddingForGood is approaching $100 million generated for non-profit organizations by allowing them to expand their bidder universe and access a new source of items. Clients can secure more items by delivering a stronger and more measurable marketing value to item donors to ultimately raise more money from more participants as well as BiddingForGood's donated item program. The company works with dozens of brand marketers through a unique product advertising program to enable them to efficiently reach affluent donors just as they are spending in a trusted environment. This cause marketplace can be experienced at www.BiddingForGood.com.