Finaliste - Best Marketing Operation
Marriott Hotels
Campaign - Marriott Bonvoy Local Explorers
Cette candidature n'est disponible qu'en anglais / This application is only available in English.
Unforgettable UK family breaks at Marriott Hotels. Discover together with Marriott Bonvoy Local Explorers.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
With the United Kingdom easing restrictions in Summer 2021, and an increasingly higher demand for staycations, we identified an opportunity in the market to drive rooms and F&B revenue. By focusing on the family market, we sought to offer an enhanced package that would exceed customer expectations and give us an edge over our competitors.
Our objective was simple; to position Marriott as the preferred choice for families looking to staycation this summer.
Originally created for UK Hotel & Country Clubs (6 hotels), we designed a toolkit that could be implemented by all hotels across EMEA. Delivering a consistent experience for guests whether that be in a city or in the countryside.
CONCEPTION
We reviewed the current competitor landscape, gained stakeholder and customer feedback and reviewed industry insights to evaluate how we could elevate and execute our offering. We reviewed all operational elements from check-in experience to customer delivery, creating an exciting toolkit that would drive revenue, enhance guest feedback and drive loyalty amongst our consumers.
Led by Francesca Turner, Senior Marketing Manager F&B at Marriott Hotels, a team consisting of Marketing, Operations and Revenue worked together to launch Marriott Bonvoy Local Explorers in May to run throughout summer 2021.
Together with Eat With Your Eyes agency, we created Marriott Bonvoy Local Explorers; a fun and engaging concept that encourages and inspires families to get outside and have fun together, to enjoy nature, the lovely hotel grounds and local attractions and activities that we have on offer in our Hotel & Country Clubs.
IMPLEMENTATION
To ensure consistency across the hotels, we produced operational guidelines and sent out branded packs so that every child would receive an interactive welcome pack in a Marriott drawstring bag containing the following:
• Pocket guide map of hotel grounds with key areas and information
• Local family attractions
• VIP cards for children to use to access the activities
• Eddie the Explorer teddy bear mascot
• Children’s books (2 choices depending on age range)
• Interactive journal and colouring pencils
COMMUNICATION
We developed assets to ensure complete consistency. We created a suite of digital assets utlised across all Marriott owned channels, including Marriott.com, hotel websites and hotel social media. We distributed among OTAs and paid social channels targeting families 1 hour from each hotel. We also ran a social media competition to win a 2 night stay in one of our Hotel & Country Clubs of choice for a family up to 6 which ran over May Bank Holiday weekend.
We generated a general excitement around “Eddie the Explorer” teddy with guests and created a hashtag encouraging them to post with the bear on their visit.
We also launched a PR campaign working with blogger Alex Gladwin to maximise exposure with the right audience.
EVALUATION
We invested £30k developing the campaign and producing the assets for the hotels to implement.
The social campaign reached over 30,000 people with 80,000 impressions per site. Average click thru rate was 400 – 800.
We sold 298 packages over five months and are looking to roll out the package to Europe.
WHY WE DESERVE TO WIN
This was a collaborative effort which aligned all departments to deliver a complete 360 approach.
Working together, we were able to ensure operational consistency across the hotels and the engaging creative ideas developed an appetite to adapt across Europe.
