As travel to Hawaii recovered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts / Marriott International wanted to increase awareness of their Waikiki properties as luxurious options for visitors to return to for extended stays. With a limited budget, Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts / Marriott International wanted potential visitors to embrace the transformative power of travel again to their three Waikiki hotels: The Royal Hawaiian Resort, Moana Surfrider, and Sheraton Waikiki.
Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts / Marriott International welcomed back visitors to Waikiki with a paid social media campaign on Instagram and Facebook, asking the question, “Where Will Aloha Take You?” Through alluring imagery at each beachfront property, they demonstrated the discovery, relaxation, and cultural connections visitors would experience when returning to Waikiki.
The campaign utilized a carousel of immersive images from each resort that ran on all three properties' Instagram and Facebook pages. It linked to a promotional landing page with a “Stay Longer and Save” offer featuring 15% off for visits of five nights and longer. The social campaign established an emotional sense of place amongst the timeless backdrop of Waikiki and Diamond Head.
In tandem, the campaign ran as a 3-month paid digital media buy in partnership with a leading DSP for advertisers and agencies utilizing a multi-screen display, multi-screen video, and spaceback social creative. Social media ads and a :10 video spot for each property targeted mobile and desktop users via web search who are in-market to travel to Hawaii. The contextual targeting included Hawaii travel content, flights to Honolulu, Hawaii vacations, and Waikiki restaurants in order to broaden our U.S. audience.
The campaign was a success on Instagram and Facebook, with 3,746,519 views by 1,736,861 unique users. Sheraton Waikiki ads generated the highest impressions and reached 721,095 unique users alone. Royal Hawaiian received the highest engagement with 727 reactions, 50 comments and 36 shares. The Moana Surfrider the campaign generated the highest CTR.
The 3-month paid digital buy utilizing a multi-screen display and multi-screen video overdelivered in regards to impressions with a grand total of 5,061,393. Mobile and Desktop drove the largest amount of user reach, telling us our target audience is more likely to be reached on these devices.
