Although rich in benefits and value to travelers, the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program can be confusing and overwhelming, especially for new members who are not familiar with the complex world of points and promotions. Marriott knew this confusion could be a monumental barrier to members engaging further with the brand—making them feel uncomfortable and sometimes even unwelcome. Marriott set out to dispel misconceptions and arm new members with education about the unknowns of the program. Marriott wanted to help members understand that Marriott Bonvoy provides unparalleled benefits, brands, and experiences.
Marriott’s goals were to reach new audiences, improve awareness and understanding of program benefits among existing members, and educate the next generation of members. They measured their success via:
Lift in brand awareness
Lift in brand familiarity and consideration
Marriott sought to help existing members feel validated in their decision to be loyal to Marriott Bonvoy and feel more confident, empowered, and in command of their travel experience by breaking down the most complex aspects of the travel program into authentic and valuable “how to” moments. For non-members, Marriott wanted to help them see the value in joining Marriott Bonvoy.
The main program messages Marriott Bonvoy selected were based on what Marriott knew their target audience would want to discover:
Marriott Bonvoy is free and easy to join
It’s easy to earn points
You can use your Marriott Bonvoy points on more than just free hotel nights
You don’t need to be a frequent traveler to earn Elite status
To achieve their goals, Marriott Bonvoy produced six pieces of social-first content across Instagram and TikTok for their first-ever member education content series. These pieces of content were designed to directly inform users about aspects of the Marriott Bonvoy travel program they might not know about and inspire them to leverage those components into their own travel experiences.
Marriott took a lo-fi, social-first approach to content creation. All content was produced in-house using associate talent or user-generated content and leaned into native social-platform features like trends, fast cuts, first-person-POV camera angles, and voiceovers. This made for highly efficient production and quick turnarounds, allowing them to turn audience insights into content quickly.
Marriott was challenged to create educational content that resonated with new or younger audiences and translate traditional loyalty program jargon into easy-to-understand, entertaining content. They sought to flip the narrative that benefits are hard to obtain or understand.
Marriott Bonvoy generated 5M views and 52K engagements on this content. A brand lift study was conducted on TikTok with the following results:
Lift in brand awareness - Ad recall achieved a lift of 6.2%, indicating that creative resonated with the audience.
Lift in brand awareness - With a consistent presence, awareness exceeded platform norms by 2.4x achieving a lift of 6%.
Lift in brand familiarity and consideration - Given the educational aspect of the content in the campaign, users exposed did become more familiar with earning and redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points, demonstrated by a 4.3% lift.
TikTok reported that Marriott was one of the first to market to present loyalty program education through a social-first lens. TikTok acknowledged this campaign as leading the industry in dedicated awareness messaging.
Often, content like this tends to skew negative or display low engagement given that the brand is telling the user information rather than asking the user for input. By creating informal content and speaking directly to the camera, content came across as less “brand-y” and more as an individual offering help and advice, which was the goal. In addition, by creating content that aligned with norms on the platform, it also was better received by a wider audience. Lastly, choosing aspects of the program that would be most beneficial to the audiences active on Instagram and TikTok further drove success.
