Hedonism II, a clothing-optional lifestyle resort in Negril, Jamaica has been in operation for 35 years. During this time, it has attracted a very niche community of repeat guests, many of whom are an older crowd of "lifestylers" (also known as swingers) who tend to keep the resort a secret. Because of this, Hedonism II developed a reputation for being salacious and overtly sexual which alienated younger consumers, especially women. Additionally, the property's logos, website and social media channels reflected these outdated perceptions which further deterred millennial guests from vacationing there.
In an effort to change this perception, Diamond Public Relations conceptualized a Twitter campaign called '#HedoCurious' to create an open, public dialogue between the property and those who may have had interest in the resort but were hesitant to show it or inquire further.
The goal was to create conversations online that allowed people to feel comfortable talking about Hedonism II and clothing-optional vacation experiences in a public forum by providing a personable, friendly voice behind the brand in an effort to position it as a fun, safe environment for women, millennials, and first-time guests alike.
Since a reported 80% of millennials access Twitter through their mobile phones at least once per day, agency selected Twitter as the platform for generating the conversations and delivering our desired message.
The campaign consisted of a one-hour Q&A session on Twitter where users were encouraged to tweet their questions to the hotel's account (@HedonismJamaica) using the designated hashtag, #HedoCurious. Users then had the opportunity to have their questions answered live during the one-hour chat event.
To provide a personality behind the hotel's account, agency enlisted the help of the resort's 'Chief Pleasure Officer', Michelle, whose immense knowledge of the property and friendly personality resonated with people of all comfort levels.
To reach the largest audience possible, agency promoted the Q&A on Twitter, and also encouraged media contacts who had been to the resort, to join the conversation on Twitter in the days leading up to the chat.
Agency also utilized hashtracking.com, a hashtag monitoring service, to provide analytics of our designated hashtag as it was used throughout the chat.
To boost promotion efforts, a modest budget of $50 was used to promote the campaign tweets.
After promoting the campaign in the weeks leading up to the chat, agency launched the #HedoCurious Twitter Q&A on Wednesday, August 24th, 2016 during peak engagement hours. Questions poured in from curious Twitter users, tagging the account with the #HedoCurious hashtag.
All questions were answered through Twitter by the hotel's representative, Michelle, in real time. Her honest and experience-based responses were provided verbally via phone, which agency representatives then turned into Twitter-ready responses that were in line with the platform's character limits.
The free-flowing conversation style in which the chat took place allowed people to feel comfortable and open in asking about things they've always wanted to know about the resort or clothing- optional vacation experiences but may not have had an outlet to ask before.
All questions were answered in a timely manner which allowed for maximum engagement between Twitter users and the hotel's account.
As a result of the #HedoCurious campaign, the @HedonismJamaica Twitter account saw a significant increase in engagement and followers, and successfully achieved the goal of connecting with an audience of new and curious users on Twitter. The chat event allowed for an open conversation by providing a friendly, knowledgeable personality to answer all of their questions and pique the interest of curious potential guests.
The chat also resulted in additional engagement from previous guests who chimed in with their own experiences to further the dialogue.
Additionally, the chat allowed us to support sales efforts by drawing attention to some of the resort's newest promotions and showcase the different offerings that make the resort unique and appealing to first-time visitors.
From an analytics standpoint, our designated #HedoCurious hashtag resulted in over 900,000 timeline deliveries and reached over 223,000 people, which was more than 25x the hotel's Twitter follower audience. The amount of tweets that used our hashtag during the Q&A was 181, resulting in the most engaging Twitter event on the channel's account all year. Additionally, the account gained 140 new followers in less than 24 hours which was more than half of the average total followers the accounts gets per month.
