Decisions, decisions. Where to next? The Marriott Rewards Instagram channel is all about inspiring travel and a sense of wanderlust in its members. With the advent of Instagram Stories, Marriott Rewards was presented with an opportunity to bring its portfolio of 4,600+ hotels to life in a dynamic way.
Marriott Rewards sought to:
— Increase viewership of Marriott Rewards Instagram content by showcasing trending international travel destinations and popular Marriott Rewards hotels
— Scale content creation efforts globally, sourcing content to represent over 125 countries around the world
Marriott Rewards adopted a dual-pronged approach, assembling an internal content capture and design team and collaborating with Shutterstock Custom to tap into 135 contributors around the world to create custom content on behalf of the program. By identifying on-brand contributors, Marriott Rewards was able to scale production of content across over 80 destinations and 28 countries.
Strategically, Marriott Rewards created a series of content franchises that are easily recognizable to its members, using native Instagram functionality to resonate with viewers on the channel. By researching up-and-coming trending destinations, Marriott Rewards aims to publish Instagram Stories just as these global hotspots peak in conversation volume.
Instagram Stories are published multiple times a week, using an iterative measurement process to publish on optimal days and times. Every Story features at least one hotel point-of-interest, with a swipe-up to book call-to-action on every end card.
In 2017, Marriott Rewards captured 760 videos, boomerangs, and photos, assembling nearly 100 Stories that garnered 7.2 million unique views. On average, over half of viewers who viewed a Story organically watched the story in its entirety. The scale and volume by which Marriott Rewards publishes is virtually unmatched across the industry vertical.
The program also effectively scaled Stories across its global portfolio, featuring:
- 80+ destinations
- 30+ countries
- 6 continents
