Marriott International's award-winning loyalty programs–SPG and Marriott Rewards–span 29 unique and iconic global brands and over 6,900 hotels. When members book their stays on Marriott.com or the Marriott Mobile app, they earn loyalty points, enjoy the advantage of exclusive Member Rates, and gain an elevated stay experience with free Wi-Fi, mobile check-in and checkout, and Mobile Service Requests wherever available. Marriott's loyalty programs serve as the connective thread across all guest communications. To emphasize this, Marriott set out to:
- Increase W Hotels brand awareness and portfolio affiliation with its loyalty programs
- Show members that whatever their passion, Marriott has a place with an irresistible experience waiting
- Provide access to music experiences members can't get anywhere else
W Hotels' Wake Up Call is a multi-day music festival exclusively for SPG and Marriott Rewards members. Marriott gave the festival experience a luxe upgrade by taking over W Hotels in Hollywood, Barcelona and Bali, getting members closer to the music with insider access to their favorite artists.
To amplify this experience to members across the world, SPG and Marriott Rewards brought hundreds of millions of viewers closer to the music through a YouTube live stream of W Hotels' Wake Up Call music festivals. These intimate, luxurious festivals attended by hundreds were transformed into a live moment for thousands of viewers across the world. YouTube, the hub of amazing live music content, was the perfect home for the live streams.
Loyalty members and guests were transported to W Hotels to watch artists like Tove Lo, Charli XCX and Martin Solveig perform live. To retain viewers between sets, Marriott captured exclusive artist interview and performances to serve as interstitial content during the live streams.
In just six weeks, Marriott executed three live streams at three music festivals in three continents. The biggest challenge was the scale and scope of the campaign. The quick turnaround between festivals meant that after each live stream, the team had to quickly optimize organic and paid media tactics to maximize reach. Coordinating with 10 artist teams, three hotels and orchestrating the live stream to complement the massive live events was a huge undertaking.
More than 13 hours of festival performances were streamed live around the world via YouTube to members and guests, generating the following results:
- 412 million people reached
- 13.1 million views
- 47,500+ hours of total view time
Viewers consumed more than 1,980 days (5+ years) of branded live stream content in only 72 hours. The final live stream in Bali is Marriott's most successful to-date enterprise-wide.
Prior to and during the live stream, a multi-channel media campaign was deployed to drive awareness and viewership of the stream. This included promotions across programmatic display, YouTube, paid search and Facebook. Alongside the Facebook activity, a Nielsen brand measurement survey ran and the results showed a +13% increase in affiliation between W Hotels and the loyalty programs.
The live streams were a key tactic responsible for driving measurable reach to members and guests at home and on-the-go while also increasing portfolio affiliation between W Hotels and Marriott's loyalty programs. The live streams also delivered on loyalty's promise to provide members with unparalleled access to experiences they can't get anywhere else.
