The Covid-19 pandemic, throughout 2020, impacted not just our employees, guests and friends but also frontline healthcare workers in London, Paris, Rome, Milan and California.
The world of digital and social media enabled us to stay in contact with guests though social media content, aspirational messages and show solidarity with key workers. Our hotels also reinforced their position in their local communities; they are an integral part of the local neighbourhood’s heritage and the cornerstone of communal activity.
The strategy was implemented on both the Dorchester Collection’s corporate channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as across the nine hotels’ individual social media channels. The idea was to adopt a unified approach to the struggles of the pandemic, but equally allowing each hotel team to imprint their own identity into the various campaign activities.
We placed a specific focus on elevating the campaign on Instagram, particularly by leveraging Stories. Working with each individual hotel, we launched:
- ‘Back in Touch’ initiative with hotel teams across Paris, Milan and Beverly Hills. At the heart, was a dedicated landing page on the website, featuring a personal message from our CEO. This was supported by a campaign video, optimised for Instagram stories which showcased the various ways in which we were preparing for our guests’ return. This was promoted to our existing audience and included a swipe up link to the landing page to get them excited by the prospect of returning.
- ‘At Home’ campaign strand, which aimed to bring the best of Dorchester Collection straight to the homes of our followers in the form of cooking and flower tutorials and personal greetings – an extension of our physical ‘Dorchester At Home’ collection series, which provided guests with some of our favourite home comforts, including Afternoon Tea, hampers from The Grill restaurant. A percentage of proceeds from the initiative were donated to a local London primary school, Manorfield Primary, in Tower Hamlets. The central focus of our campaign took place in April 2020, during the initial weeks of lockdown in the UK, France and Italy.
- ‘Thank you’ signs. To pay tribute to the amazing efforts of NHS frontline staff across the country, we lit up the façade of our flagship hotel, The Dorchester, in ‘NHS blue’, complete with a giant heart and a ‘thank you’ message. The iconic image of The Dorchester emblazoned with the NHS logo was shared around the world, including by Hollywood legend Russell Crowe.
In the US, the Beverly Hills Hotel displayed a similar projection of their own, replacing their iconic ‘Beverly Hills Hotel’ sign for the first time in over 70 years to pay tribute to healthcare workers and write them into the hotel’s legendary history. The new sign, which read “Thank You Health Heroes”, was viewed by millions of people on social media and generated global media attention.
- ‘PEN PALS’ campaign in Beverly Hills aimed to put those suffering from loneliness and anxiety caused by the pandemic in touch with one of our hotel employees, so they could maintain human contact and stay connected. The initiative resulted in over 500 people requesting a hotel PENPAL from countries all over the world.
- “When you’re ready, we’ll be waiting”. Flowing throughout all of the above activity was a core strapline that evoked optimism, friendship and solidarity: “When you’re ready, we’ll be waiting”. The phrasing was emotive in tone and intended to serve as an encouragement for our social media audiences to look ahead to better times and dream of once again enjoying holidays, getaways and stays at DC hotels. The strapline was incorporated into all of our corporate social media channel messaging, as well as within core material on the Dorchester Collection website.
The strategy was implemented on both the Dorchester Collection’s corporate channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as across the nine hotels’ individual social media channels. The idea was to adopt a unified approach to the struggles of the pandemic, but equally allowing each hotel team to imprint their own identity into the various campaign activities.
Both the physical and digital aspects of our campaign translated into significant success across the Dorchester Collection social media channels. In total, the campaign generated:
- A cross-network impression generation of 95.96 million
- Net cross-network follower growth of 297,169
- A 25.7% increase in total post link clicks (83,758)
- A significant increase in cross-network average engagement to 4.6%
We saw particular success on Instagram, where our use of Stories resulted in significant uplift in engagement and channel activity, including:
- A 169% in Instagram Story impressions (3.64 million)
- A 188% increase in forward Story taps
- A total of 58.77 million impressions.
Beyond the above social media metrics, our physical campaigns in the form of hotel façade projects generated global media attention, including coverage by Departures Magazine, Conde Nast Traveller, Yahoo! News and The Hollywood Reporter. On social media, the campaign was organically promoted by Hollywood legend, Russell Crowe.
