Marriott International's real-time command center, M Live, wanted to attract a NextGen audience by reaching out to them where and how they wanted to connect with brands - on social media and specifically on Instagram. M Live was looking to bridge the digital divide between Instagram and event activations. As such, M Live partnered with W Hotels and the Marriott Bonvoy Social Team to Surprise+Delight members, publicly posting to their geotagged social handles, to deliver elevated experiences at exclusive events.
The W Dubai–The Palm, hosted “Wake Up Call”, which is W Hotel brands’ signature music festival, with access to music artists, top food & drink vendors, and specially curated activations. M Live leveraged its unique capabilities to create authentic content in real-time through social media “Surprise+Delights”.
In summary, the goals for this activation were as follows:
To leverage Instagram in real-time to create authentic brand ambassadors through locally relevant, “Wow” experiences that enhanced our members’ experience and deepened their relationship with Marriott
To develop UGC to be shared among friends, families and followers
To amplify the social media content via Marriott Bonvoy TV, in-rooms globally, featuring “W Wake Up Call” and recognizing Marriott Bonvoy members
To garner awareness on Instagram of the exclusive benefits of being a Marriott Bonvoy member
$0 paid media spend
M Live scoured Instagram, delving through public social posts to identify and engage with Members in Dubai who were posting publicly on Instagram geotagging our hotels. The Marriott Bonvoy members were “Surprise+Delighted” with exclusive access to W’s “Wake Up Call”. The Surprise+Delight activations provided value and created exclusive access to our Marriott Bonvoy members. 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 offered, 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.
How were the Surprise+Delights brought to life?
A M Live Surprise+Delight Specialist identified Marriott Bonvoy members posting on Instagram via their public accounts
The M Live Specialist reached out via the @MarriottBonvoy social handle to engage with the member on Instagram and invited them to attend Wake Up Call Festival at the W Dubai - The Palm
The member attended the exclusive concert and willingly shared their experience via Instagram Stories/Instagram Post
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 the members themselves became the heroes of the story taking center stage for all our guests to see via Marriott Bonvoy TV. On Marriott Bonvoy TV, these stories will continue to create FOMO and inspire other guests to post on social with the hope of having a similar, amazing experience.
This approach created broad inspiration through powerful channels, reaching travelers via social media and staying across our brands 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 developed bespoke interstitials based on the Surprise+Delight recipient’s experience at W’s Wake Up Call in Dubai to be distributed in-room on Marriott Bonvoy TV (MBTV).
M Live Surprise+Delighted members with access to the W Wake Up Call Dubai and will be featuring the members in our MBTV spot.
M Live created Brand Ambassadors in that the Surprise and Delight recipients posted to their followers on their social channels via Instagram Post and Instagram Stories.
$0 paid media spend
Our Surprise + Delight Recipients generated a prolific amount of socially shareable content on Instagram:
32 Instagram Stories
2 Instagram Posts
A combined profile engagement rate of 13% which is more than 6 times the engagement 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
