Marriott International's real-time command center, M Live, was up for a challenge: how to create amazing, authentic content with broad appeal while enhancing customer experience through a local lens. M Live had a great opportunity at W’s “Wake Up Call” in Dubai to do just that. W Hotels created a global roll-out of their signature music festival series and the rationale for the festival was that “Music is a universal language, one we have spoken since day one at W”, according to Anthony Ingham, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide. M Live wanted to create a unique and elevated experience for our Marriott Bonvoy members at W Wake Up Call. As such, M Live leveraged its unique capabilities to create authentic content in real-time through social media “Surprise+Delights” that were captured and produced exclusively for Marriott Bonvoy TV. Marriott Bonvoy TV is displayed in over 1 million rooms around the world and is a powerful distribution outlet for Marriott International. There was a clear need for creating high-quality, exclusive content in new and innovative ways.
In summary, the primary objectives for these “Surprise+Delights” were as follows:
To create authentic brand ambassadors through locally relevant, “Wow” experiences that enhanced our members’ experience and deepened their relationship with Marriott
To develop creative content and UGC exclusively for Marriott Bonvoy TV featuring “W Wake Up Call” and the exclusive recognition for being a Marriott Bonvoy member
$0 paid media spend
M Live scoured social media, delving through public social posts to engage our members locally in Dubai who were posting publicly on social from our hotels during this event. These Marriott Bonvoy members were “Surprise+Delighted” with access to W’s “Wake Up Call”. The Surprise+Delight activations provided value and created a differentiated experience exclusively available 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 social channels 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.
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 our content creation taking center stage for all our guests to see via Marriott Bonvoy TV. These stories were then curated and will be included in Marriott Bonvoy TV which allows these stories to continue to create FOMO and inspire other guests to post on social and have a chance at an amazing experience.
This approach created broad inspiration through powerful channels, reaching travelers via social media and in-room staying across our properties globally. In turn, this generated awareness of the unique and personalized benefits of being part of the Marriott Bonvoy program.
We successfully achieved our team’s objectives for this initiative.
M Live created authentic and bespoke interstitial featuring locally relevant and elevated member experience at W’s “Wake Up Call” Dubai to be distributed in-room on Marriott Bonvoy TV.
M Live created Brand Ambassadors in that Surprise and Delight recipients posted to their followers on their social channels via Instagram Post or Instagram Stories.
$0 paid media spend
Our Surprise+Delight recipients shared a total of 34 social posts and stories with a 13% profile engagement rate which exceeded the 2% industry’s engagement benchmark
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
