THE BIG IDEA
One idea, connected across the delegate journey
For Global Revenue Forum 2026, Amadeus, Global Revenue Forum and Revenue by Design built the partnership around a genuine challenge facing hotel commercial teams: revenue managers increasingly need to understand digital media, but revenue and marketing don’t always work as closely together as they could.
That challenge became the thread connecting the partnership. A practical playbook introduced the subject, social content built interest, GRF brought the conversation to life through the main stage and breakout workshops, and the playbook remained a useful resource afterwards.
The idea also travelled across the GRF network, with activity in London, Milan and Stockholm. Rather than treating each city, channel and sponsorship benefit separately, the same central idea connected the experience.
BEFORE THE EVENT
Start with something worth talking about
The partnership began with content, not promotion.
Amadeus had significant expertise in digital media, while Revenue by Design understood the day-to-day commercial challenges facing revenue leaders. Together, they identified an opportunity to help revenue managers better understand digital media as part of the commercial and distribution mix.
The result was The Revenue Manager’s Practical Guide to Digital Media, a co-branded 14-page playbook designed specifically for revenue professionals. It explored how digital media could influence direct bookings, which metrics mattered, how performance could be evaluated and, importantly, how revenue and marketing teams could work together more effectively.
Creating the playbook also created an opportunity to take the subject further. Rather than simply giving delegates something to read, the content became the foundation for practical workshops where revenue leaders could explore the thinking, commercial case and application in greater depth.
Audience need
Playbook
Live workshop
DURING THE EVENT
Turn the content into a conversation
Having a good workshop on the agenda doesn’t necessarily mean the right delegates will find it.
At a busy conference, attendees are choosing between sessions, meetings, networking and dozens of other demands on their time. The team therefore needed to think about how the wider GRF experience could lead people towards the workshop.
Amadeus used its plenary stage presence to do exactly that.
Before lunch, Ed Lines, Regional Vice President UK & Ireland at Amadeus, introduced the subject to the wider GRF audience by asking a simple question: how many revenue leaders in the room felt they had an optimal, collaborative relationship with their marketing teams?
Only a few hands went up.
Rather than simply announcing that Amadeus had a workshop later that afternoon, Ed had given the room a reason to understand why the session might be relevant to them.
He then introduced the workshop with Jon Davis from Village Hotels, explaining that it would explore the benefits of bringing revenue and marketing together, how digital media could support direct bookings and what shifting even part of the OTA mix towards direct business could mean commercially.
AFTER THE EVENT
Make the value last longer than the event
GRF may have provided the live moment, but the playbook gave the partnership something with a much longer lifespan.
Delegates could return to the guide, share it with colleagues and use it after the event, while Amadeus retained a relevant resource around which conversations with revenue leaders could continue.
That meant the value of the partnership wasn’t confined to the people in a particular room, on a particular day. The content remained useful after GRF had finished.
