Marriott International's social marketing command center, M Live, was looking to enhance our Marriott Bonvoy members’ experience in real-time, while staying at our hotels, in unique and memorable ways on social media.
M Live leveraged its unique “Surprise + Delight” capabilities to identify members, stemming from public geotagged property social posts. The primary objective for these “Surprise+Delights” was to create authentic brand ambassadors through, “Wow” experiences that enhance our members’ stays, deepen their relationship with Marriott, and foster User Generated Content...all while spending $0 in paid media.
We curated these experiences and exclusive access in partnership with our Marriott Bonvoy Social, Co-Brand Credit Cards, Marriott Bonvoy Tours + Activities, and Partnerships Teams.
M Live delved through public social posts to identify and engage with members who were posting publicly on social and geotagging our hotels. The Marriott Bonvoy members were “Surprise+Delighted” with enhanced experiences through Marriott Bonvoy Tours + Activities including zipline excursions in Costa Rica, helicopter tours over Maui, and ATV tours in Aruba. Additionally, we leveraged our access to the Final Four, Coachella, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card portfolio's "Dream Party" at the W South Beach during Art Basel, and W “Wake Up Call” Dubai.
The Surprise+Delight activations provided elevated experience to our Marriott Bonvoy members. This type of activation generated above benchmark engagement rates and user generated content. Our message, enhanced experience, and access provided a story that our guests willingly and without being asked posted on their Instagram thus amplifying the value that being a Marriott Bonvoy member offers to a broader audience. When our guests posted about the experience, the @MarriottBonvoy social handle engaged with these comments to encourage the dialogue with the guest and deepening the relationship.
We captured the authentic real-time moment of our members enthusiasm and excitement without traditional influencers, actors, or paid media spend. Our Marriott Bonvoy members were the stars, and we created true brand ambassadors as a result. Our members’ experiences were elevated and some of these members’ will be featured in-room globally on Marriott Bonvoy TV. These stories were all authentically created which created FOMO for their friends, families, and followers.
This approach creates broad inspiration through powerful channels, reaching travelers via social media and in our hotels globally. In turn, this generates awareness of the unique and personalized benefits of being a Marriott Bonvoy member.
We successfully achieved our team’s objectives for this initiative.
M Live created Brand Ambassadors in that the Surprise and Delight recipient posted to their followers on their social channels via Instagram Post and Instagram Stories.
M Live developed bespoke interstitials based on the Surprise+Delight recipient’s experience at the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card portfolio's "Dream Party" at the W South Beach during Art Basel as well as “W Wake Up Call” Dubai to be distributed in-room on Marriott Bonvoy TV in Q3-2020.
$0 paid media spend
Our overall metrics for Surprise+Delight recipients were as follows:
Of our Brand Engagements with guests we received a 63% Response Rate
After the Surprise+Delight experience our guests posted 3.6 times on social
The average Engagement Rate Per member Post was 9.4% which far exceeded the industry benchmark of 2%
We created highly marketable, relevant, and authentic content that will be distributed in-room on the Marriott Bonvoy TV platform in Q3-2020 which has a global reach of:
• 4,500+ hotels
• 1,000,000+ rooms
• Featured across 28 brands
