Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog

Why Benjamin Loomis is Encouraging Experiential Travel Through “Priviliged Access” at Amble Resorts

Josiah Mackenzie — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:26:04 +0000

Transformative travel experiences are attractive for many consumers today, and I talked with Benjamin Loomis about why this led him to start Amble Resorts….

“What inspired me to start Amble Resorts was planning a trip to Thailand back in 2007, and not being able to find the type of accommodations I wanted. I backpacked through Europe in college and got a feel for what it was like to stay in youth hostels and really get immersed in a culture. Now that I’m close to 40 years old and have a different level of expectations and income, my needs are different.

Many professionals like me only have a few weeks of vacation, and don’t want to waste any of that time. I wanted to get close to the culture, and didn’t feel I would get that if I stayed at a big, branded hotel. When I looked at smaller hotels, I couldn’t quite tell just how good of an experience it would be – if it would have reasonable service levels.

There’s an emerging market for people looking for that type of immersive experience that really gets you into the place you’re at, but provides a high service level at the same time.

Providing high immersion and high service is a difficult balance.

How do you define an immersive travel experience?

It’s about really being in the place you’re at.

Whether you’re in Panama or Thailand, it’s about entering into that culture, and engaging with the reality of where you’re at. You’re always going to be a tourist at some level, but you’re at least feeling like you’re getting the same access a local would.

Why do you see immersive travel as important?

I think it’s really important for a certain type of customer, but I think that type of customer is growing. Someone who has traveled quite a few times is a little more sophisticated, and is tired of mass-market tourism. It’s a growing market. Especially among wealthy demographics.

It’s like when people have been going to regular grocery store and had 5-10 choices of cheese – but that doesn’t compete now with Whole Foods or farmers markets where you get every variety on the planet.

It’s a similar level of sophistication in travel for the intellectually curious, professional type of person who’s looking more than just being pampered and sitting on a beach all day. They’re going to expect experiences that stretch them. Seeking out this type of experience can really change perspective on things. It can open yourself up to experiencing new things. You’re in a foreign country, and it’s all of a sudden just walking down an average street can take on meaning and importance that doesn’t happen in your hometown. It’s important to go out and seek those experiences that broaden your view of the world. Look for the differences and similarities in a new culture.

From a business standpoint you’re going to be targeting a certain niche, but it’s the affluent and growing niche.

Can you give us some specifics on how to enable immersion in a limited timeframe? Can you accelerate an experience?

One of the main benefits we offer our guests is privileged access.

That can mean being geographically close to something, but also having expert advice and tours and so on. Really the only way to accelerate travel is to have that privileged access. For example, at Isla Palenque we’re located on a 400-acre private island, so 250 acres of private forest preserve behind the property is privileged access. You can wake up in the morning after breakfast, and then go for three-hour hike without having to get on a bus.

Privileged access is also about engaging with expert local tour guides that can reveal aspects of a region that you may not have known otherwise. I’ve spent a few months at each of our properties, so I’ve gotten pretty good at identifying certain species of monkeys and birds, but it’s the kind of thing that’s difficult the first time you’re out, and I still miss 90% of what a real expert would see.

So it’s really about expert guidance and special proximity that can accelerate those special kinds of experiences.

How you provide experiential travel through design?

We keep a lot of design in-house. We certainly hire locals and consultants where we need to, but our core design comes from people we have here in the Chicago office. Which means it’s able to be much more tightly controlled by the brand. Also my background is in architecture, so that enables me to direct that the way that other people would not be able to. It also comes from having our designers spend a lot of time on site, and really understanding what the site is about and what the special things are that it has to offer.

We focus on preserving key attributes and bringing them to the forefront. We work really hard to integrate nature into the buildings. Wrapping buildings around 200-year-old trees and things like that. It also means bringing the culture into the design. It’s a fine line, because you don’t want to become cheesy – I don’t want to make it look like a tiki bar – but working with local craftsmen and local indigenous groups to produce some of the artwork, amenities, and even some of the furniture that’s being used to bring some of the culture in from a design point of view.

In the marketing material I’ve seen from you so far, you seem very focused on storytelling – publishing content about your travel philosophy and what to expect at the property.

We’ve had a blog going since we started development of the project, and we recently expanded that and are bringing more writers on board. Our goal with what we do with the blog is to tell both the story about the property itself and also about things going on around the property. (So people considering visiting can get a feel for what they can expect.)

Our stories about the brand are mostly written by people who have been on site. As the hotel opens, our goal is to involve a lot of the hotel employees in producing content and telling the story–what’s going from a day-to-day point of view.

We want our guests to begin telling the stories well. While they’re down there and excited about their experience, we want them producing content that their friends can see, and really engage them in that story so that it almost becomes a full circle thing.

Anyone learning about a property now is going to go online to research, and understand the experience from what others have written. So we really want to engage with our guests online as they are on their trip. After they’ve experienced our property, we want to use social media to keep them engaged with the property.

For example, if our travel guides regularly publish about things they’ve seen on their tours, that’s a great way to stay engaged with our audience: past, present, and future guests. If you’ve got a certain employee that has a great story but isn’t a great writer, we can assist them with writing that story. But I want to see as many voices as possible in our company talking about their experiences.

When you get a lot of people creating online content, it creates a much richer narrative.

Thanks, Benjamin! To learn more about Amble Resorts, visit their website, read their blog, and connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

How John Knowles is Reinventing Retail (And New Media Marketing) at The Roger Smith Hotel with Pop+

Josiah Mackenzie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:38:34 +0000

Despite the fact that retailers and hotels could be perfect partners for lifestyle branding, it rarely works out that way. From stodgy luxury stores at downtown hotels to overpriced, kitschy gift shops at resorts, shopping at hotels has been very boring for a very long time.

John Knowles at the Roger Smith Hotel wants to change that.

The Roger Smith Hotel is often referred to in marketing circles as not just one of the most innovative hotels in the world, but also one of the most creative brands in social media – in any industry. The Roger Smith management did this largely by building an environment where “everyone is a content generator.” Marketing and creating their online presence was not just the job of a few people. “We view our hotel as a media company, and our space as a stage.” They also pioneered the concept of social hospitality that extends beyond just the people staying at the hotel, and into the extended community – which has turned the property into a hub of creativity.

Now, John and his team want to reinvent the way the hotel engages with retail and e-commerce – something they have been involved in for a while with the RS POP shop.

“The original pop-up shop concept was based on Japanese consumer culture and its devotion to rare and limited edition products,” explains S.D. Rockswell in his FreshlySerious article. “Initially, at a moments notice, customers would arrive at a clandestine location that housed a particular brand or product. Once the products were sold out, usually within a matter of hours, the store would be closed until the owner received more product and was able reopen the store again. After the first few runs the concept took shape, then evolved and took flight and landed in the mouth of corporate America.”

The RS POP space, a midtown Manhattan fixture on Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Terminal, has hosted a number of innovative brands over the last couple years. And, as the owner and director of Panman Productions, John has spent years working with innovative brands, helping them visually communicate their story through media. In the months ahead, the environment will combine these benefits to become a showcase for what John envisions as the next incarnation of retail in hospitality.

He plans to partner with a select number of brands to provide them with not only a physical display space – but a portfolio of promotional services that provide a holistic, 360° exposure to a core group of very connected, influential consumers in New York City. This will present the partners in a completely new light, and extend both brands beyond their typical audiences.

The concept: Pop+

The new concept is going to be called Pop+, based on the fact that this experience is all about the partner brand plus strategy, plus marketing, plus audience, plus community, and so on.

Providing the space with all of these additional media and PR services adds a whole new level of engagement. “We see this in the pop-up shop already, but now are offering a new kind of opportunity that’s a higher level of marketing.”

The opportunity is designed for brands that understand the environment – the social space and the marketing space – and want to test out ideas they wouldn’t be able to test out elsewhere.

“As part of your pop-up, we’re going to build you an integrated SEO program, set up a Google Plus profile, set you up with Google Wallet – or provide whatever mix of services you need. Whether it’s a content strategy or mobile initiative – we can assemble the right team of people to help you reach your goals.”

Built on partnerships

To deliver these services, and extend the whole “Pop+” concept, John will be engaging with local media professionals and other service providers to barter services that will be useful for the partner companies he’s engaging with.

“It’s creating an environment where everyone benefits from greater exposure and everyone builds into our greater community.”

When thinking about these partnerships, John wants the collaboration to fuel the marketing of his hotel as well. “We want to partner with forward-thinking companies. Collaboration is essential. Their success is my success.”

Inspiration for the project

“My motivation is the space we have,” said John. “I see our space and recognize the opportunity. Hotels have space. Space is value. So what we’re doing is not just one piece but a combination of efforts.”

“You take the existing pop-up model that happens in the pop-up shop, and the value of corner real estate on Lexington Avenue, and the value of our services – the opportunity is extraordinary.”

The hotel used to have a shoe store in the space, but John felt they were not contributing to the larger Roger Smith Hotel brand. “So I asked myself how can we regain control of this?”

Providing urgency and a real-world presence

By design, popup offers are time-sensitive, providing a level of urgency. “We might run a two-day program for authors. Showcase a book signing. The benefits of having our interactive community bring their work forward is huge.” And this is critical in our era of always-on digital communication.

Imagine a thriving online company that is launching a major new initiative. Google. Amazon. Gilt Groupe.

Technology companies may have an online presence, but they’re missing the real world presence and interaction, so this opportunity will be helping these companies establish a physical presence and connect with new audiences. It’s additional value they’re unable to get elsewhere.

“They don’t have the opportunity of physical space, brick and mortar everywhere. It’s incredible for them.”

Time sensitivity – plus a real-world presence – is a new opportunity for many of these organizations.

Why this matters

John’s story shows us how staying at the edge of innovation is not just about creating cool hotel marketing, but innovating areas like retail and mobile communications and e-commerce. The more you can pursue projects that push the envelope, the more you’ll build buzz around what you’re creating.

“The last two years our hotel got a lot of press in the hospitality industry when it comes to customer service and new media. What I’m working on now is the story that hasn’t yet been surfaced, and is what we’ll also be focusing in the future. All of these stories are what makes Roger Smith special. We’re a community and brand that thrives on staying in the spotlight.”

—

If this Pop+ concept sounds interesting for you, email John now to discuss partnership opportunities: jknowles@panmanproductions.com.

John will be sharing further insights into the Roger Smith Hotel’s on-site mobile strategies at EyeForTravel’s Social Media & Mobile Strategies for Travel conference, March 5-6 2012 in San Francisco.

Social Hospitality Principles Defined and Explained by Chris Brogan and The Roger Smith Hotel

Josiah Mackenzie — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:42:33 +0000

Chris Brogan recently found himself exploring Oslo, Norway after a conference. He wanted to buy some gifts for his children back home, but didn’t know where to shop. So he spent much of the afternoon walking by store after store, not sure where to find the perfect item (and spend his money). Finally, one shopkeeper came out of her boutique, began talking with him, and introduced some of the things she made and was selling. That store got his business.

Become that shopkeeper

That story opened a recent strategy session with Chris Brogan and the team at the Roger Smith Hotel that I had the opportunity to participate in. The lesson is clear: we as marketers must become the “shopkeepers” of our own business.

Rather than just building a website and hoping people will come, we must go out where people are and earn the business. Look for those conversations happening around the web, and take part in them. That approach leads to the most visibility for your brand.

And that is the principle behind social networking for business.

Social media is really social hospitality

Social hospitality is all about making people feel welcomed and part of a community.

Word-of-mouth has always worked. It has nothing to do with technology, but everything to do with relationships. (When making decisions and discussing social media, it can be helpful to replace the word “social media” with “phone,” says Brogan. “It’s used the same way.”)

Increasingly, people are asking each other for advice and suggestions through social networks. Social media, when it meets e-commerce, is like shopping with 3,000 of your friends. You get instant insight and feedback from the wisdom of the crowds.

The Roger Smith Hotel achieves success by being an early adopter

This mentality of social hospitality is how Chris Brogan found the Roger Smith Hotel in the beginning. When Twitter was still new, Brogan – an early adopter – tweeted asking for recommendations for a New York hotel. The first and second people that responded were influential social media personalities, and both recommended the Roger Smith Hotel. The Roger Smith Hotel was the third to respond, with an invitation to stay at their property. (Brogan accepted, and then did what every marketing director dreams of – created a video about how happy he was with the hotel.)

The Roger Smith Hotel firmly established their brand in new media circles by being an early adopter–using networks that the most influential social media people were experimenting with–and then using it to deliver extraordinary service. (Brogan believes today that opportunity exists with Google Plus. Get in early for high-quality communications. “The early bird gets the worm.”)

Social media gives hotels, especially smaller, independent properties – an opportunity for visibility that used to be exclusively the domain of large brands. It levels the playing field.

View your hotel as a media company

What type of content should you publish to promote your hotel online? The reality is that people don’t want to be sold, they just want information to help them make better buying decisions. Even more, they want to justify their purchase.

Adopt the mindset of a media company to meet these needs for your guests and future customers. (Something the Roger Smith Hotel does so well with Panman Productions.)

On a personal level, match the type of media you produce to your own personality. If you’re shy, you may focus on written content. If you really like talking to people, you might produce more video.

Look outside your walls

For the audiences that you want to reach, the most interesting content you could publish is probably found outside your hotel. Travelers want to picture themselves in an environment – and also look for ways to cultivate their interests with an experience.

“Be a hotel in New York selling the idea of New York. More specifically, sell a version of New York that appeals to a very specific audience,” said Brogan.

For example, describe and sell a “creative person’s New York City”. Or even better, “New York City for charcoal artists.” Or host photo walks to attract photographers. (This is a huge opportunity to reach a specific audience – and also create more content on the social web.)

The more specific you can be in your publishing and content creation, the more effective it is.

Curate interesting content

If you don’t have time to create original material for the web, curating interesting content from others is also a good way to build an audience.

The key to doing this is finding interesting, quirky content that others have not noticed. If you retweet Mashable (for example), they already have 3 million people passing along their content. It won’t really stand out. So look for the obscure and valuable information that others have not seen.

Look for quirky, fascinating people. Get them to tell their story. Ask them what made them take this route–how they got into it. (“How do artists make it in New York City?” for example.) Look for stories out of the mainstream.

Give special attention to your best customers

Loyalty is critical for social hospitality. Do special things to reward your loyal customers. Spend time and money on people who already love you – even the ones who are not (yet) active in social media.

Ask these loyal fans what they appreciate most about your property–because this will become very important for guiding the ways you communicate and reach out to other similar customers. Your best customers know the “secret sauce” of your hotel – and that may be something that even you are not completely aware of.

So ask them, then listen carefully.

—

The Roger Smith Hotel and Panman Productions share content through Roger Smith Life, on Twitter and through YouTube.

Curating Cool: Sabine de Witte and Patrick Mulder reveal digital content creation trends

Josiah Mackenzie — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:54:46 +0000

Sabine de Witte and Patrick Mulder are curators of cool. Splitting time between Amsterdam, Barcelona, and other hip cities around the world, they represent the quickly growing number of young, creative “mobile citizens” made famous by citizenM. Although our schedules caused us to miss previously scheduled meetings in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York’s JFK airport, the fourth try was a success, and I finally caught up with them at New York’s Ace Hotel to discuss trends in digital content creation and curation.

We began talking about the citizenM digital magazine, one of the projects Sabine is involved in…..

Curating lifestyle content with a digital magazine

“Instead of having a blog, we created a digital magazine to share brand information and curate lifestyle content for everyone,” citizenM’s digital strategist Diego Sartori told me. CitizenMag uses themed issues to connect with the brand’s core audience.

“It had to be something different – something that could be read on your mobile phone while waiting,” Sabine said. In just a few issues, the publication has covered topics such “Beautiful” “Tasty” and “Social”. Content ranges from short-form interviews to video clips, and is very visual.

Engaging top talent

When the magazine first launched, it was easy to gather content from writers and media producers. Everyone wanted to contribute.

But the dynamics of encouraging participation always changes with time: “When it’s not brand new, you need to get creative.” With a rapidly growing subscription base, magazine contributors now receive significant visibility for their businesses and projects.

Once the theme of the issue is established, Sabine approaches writers she feels would be a good fit for the issue. Tapping into her network is important for finding the best talent, and she also encourages citizenM ambassadors to reach out to their own networks to find top talent.

Content that connects

Deep articles that go beyond “where to go, what to buy” seem to resonate best with the readers of CitizenMag. An example was an in-depth interview with the CTO of Amazon, where he shared his experience in developing the internet.

There’s a strong interest in hearing about trends – and the people who are shaping those trends. “Our readers loved our ‘day in the life’ profile story of a very famous 23-year-old fashion blogger in the Netherlands. People want to hear about more than the superficial: they want to know about other people’s lives.”

Detailed articles work well for the magazine, but for other digital publishing projects, spontaneous content seems to work really well. Patrick shot a quick video of the 5th Avenue Apple store re-opening with his iPhone, uploaded it to YouTube – and it’s received over 115,000 views to date via Huffington Post and other sites. “Sometimes something you’ve worked on for weeks will get less attention than a quick photo or video. It seems people often don’t like the over-planned content as much as the spontaneous.”

“You must live the lifestyle”

How do you identify the best topics to work on, pieces of content to use, and people to engage for your publication?

“If you’re living the lifestyle, you’ll know what type of content will connect with your audience, because it connects with you.”

Sabine began working with citizenM because she was “living the lifestyle.” This is critical if you want to create truly amazing and engaging content. Hire people living the lifestyle.

Format preferences are changing

Preferences for content consumption have changed dramatically over the past few years. With multiple screens and an exploding diversity of distribution formats, selecting the right way to display content has become crucial for maximizing the visibility of that content.

“This era of ‘there’s an app for that’ will become history,” said Patrick. “Content inside apps is not searchable and visible elsewhere on the web.” Apple and others are developing one ‘umbrella’ app to include all types of magazines and digital content, instead of every publication having an app on its own.

Zite and Flipboard are other services that provide great user experience. Distribution and coverage here will become increasingly important.

“You must promote your content”

The biggest mistake people make when publishing online? Failing to promote it.

“You can have very good content, but you still need to sell it. You must promote your content to attract readers.”

Thanks, Sabine and Patrick!

Top 10 Insights from EyeforTravel North America 2011

Josiah Mackenzie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:12:49 +0000

As I’ve done the past two years, I attended EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America event last week – held this year in Las Vegas. It was encouraging to see the best practices we identified earlier holding up with time: a focus on service, creativity, and guest-created content. Corporate executives may always remain hesitant to reveal everything in their public presentations , but one-on-one conversations are often very insightful.

A good example of this was the ecommerce manager who shared an anecdote with me over lunch: A guest had seen photos of chocolate-covered strawberries on the resort’s restaurant website – but was told they were out of stock when she arrived. The guest sent out a tweet expressing her disappointment. This manager quickly caught this message, and immediately called the hotel’s GM – asking him to send up a plate of chocolate strawberries to the guests’ room along with a note of apology. This gesture immediately won back the loyalty of the customer, and they ended up purchasing one of the timeshare units on property. Anecdotes like this demonstrate the value of monitoring the social web and responding quickly with memorable service.

I like to see hoteliers opening up and talking about what’s working and what’s not working through stories like that.

On to the top 10 list of ideas I gathered from presentations….

Top 10 Insights I Heard at EyeforTravel North America 2011

Location based services with time-sensitive offers will play a big role in revenue management in the future. Technology is increasingly allowing us to deliver content in context, and this additional relevancy increases sales.

The battle for attention is becoming more intense than ever. In the case of mobile, you battle for space on the deck of apps. (The average program gets deleted in 30 days.)

Location based service Gowalla is becoming a “social atlas” and travel guidebook that is written by your friends. (Andy Ellwood)

“Stay focused. Find 2-3 good ideas and implement them well.” – Rohit Dhawan, Facebook

Use Facebook’s API to plug into their social graph. TripAdvisor found users connected with Facebook were twice as engaged with their website.

Travelers today use social media to get the real, authentic, unvarnished, unedited preview of what to expect. (Barbara Messing, TripAdvisor)

In this Review Economy, the credibility and authority of the reviewer is becoming increasingly important. For example, TripAdvisor is placing more weight on the profile and record of the reviewer.

Personalize content on your site to increase conversion rates. Attributes to use include the referring site, keyword search phrase, date, geo-location, and visit recency.

People are far more trusting online than in real life, said Leonard Brody. This means they will likely share much more content online. Are you listening?

Interesting case study from John Peters on the power of partnerships. Rand McNally created substantial amounts of online buzz for their Best of the Road campaign created through joint ventures with Saab, Country Inn & Suites and USA Today. What partners could you be working with?

What were your favorite ideas from EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit?

Note: You can see more top tweets from this event on the ReviewPro blog….

Meet Bradley Newberger: The Guy Who Turns Music into Money for Hotels

Josiah Mackenzie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:40:57 +0000

As a die-hard music aficionado, wannabe DJ, and devoted fan of chillout music, probably the hardest part opening my hotel will be creating the playlist.

That’s why when I heard about Ambiance Radio – a company co-founded by Bradley Newberger that turns background music into a science – I knew I had to learn more. His claim?

“It doesn’t matter whether you personally like the music or not”

“We’re building a 21-st century solution for background music. The fundamental way the industry thinks about music is wrong – it’s too often based on personal tastes. Personal tastes are so subjective. When you play to what the manager thinks guests should hear, the result is rarely what it could be.”

Bradley’s story begins when he was a senior student at Cornell University, working as a new manager for Taverna Banfi – the restaurant attached to the Statler Hotel (Cornell’s teaching laboratory for the hotel school). A few years ago, they completely renovated the restaurant to feel like a Tuscan-style bistro, and it looked fantastic. But the music was left untouched: a 5-disc CD changer played random tracks from Italian opera CDs. Consistently, the comment cards showed earned lower scores than any other element of the customer experience. So when Bradley became a manager, one of the first tasks was to fix the music.

He looked at the options that were available. Everyone’s first reaction is to program an iPod themselves, but this takes a really long time to do. Plus, it gets repetitive if this list never changes. A few high-end boutique firms specialize in creating playlists that reflect the personality of the hotel, but their approach is still based on personal tastes and preferences. They ask “What do you want the room to sound like or feel like,” and then a DJ will create a playlist based on these preferences.

This started Bradley on a quest to find more a more objective way to program music, which a couple of years later became Ambiance Radio.

Music can achieve business objectives

“In developing our company, we applied the findings of decades of academic and scientific research into how music affects the way people feel and behave. Time after time, researchers found that music has a profound business effect on the environment. The right music could increase F&B revenues from 5 to 20%, depending on the time of day and music tested. In a lobby, music can make waiting in line feel shorter than it actual is – or reduce the time is seems it takes to retrieve your car at the valet. Music triggers a chemical reaction in the brain that changes perceptions.

Perhaps as importantly, music plays a big role in employee performance. The brain gets most engaged when it hears different types of music back to back. Productivity can be increased with the right mix.

The missing element until now: Technology

Technology is a key part of the Ambiance Radio platform. “We looked at what types of music achieved desired effects in the hospitality environment. We developed an algorithm that factors in who is in the room, what are the psychographics – and what the business objectives are there and created a series of proprietary processes that can deliver the Right Music for each venue, varying it day by day, hour by hour as needed. We capture data for each property in an interview and then the technology take over from there. Our system creates and delivers customized feeds for each site and updates them hourly.”

Surprising opportunity: Limited service hotels

I love talking about experience design and experience marketing on this blog, but sometimes get pushback from the owners of limited service hotels. “We can’t afford to spend money on things like that!” But as I wrote in Why Hotel Design Directly Affects The Prices You Can Charge, design and experience elements are what separates a $49 hotel room from an $800 room. Music is another key element in experience design.What’s interesting is that Bradley has seen a lot of initial traction with limited service hotels already.

“Music is something you can instantly put in and change the feel of the room. People walk in and when you see their expressions, you know they had a different experience.” Many limited service hotels play TVs in the lobby – but TVs are a poor way to introduce your guests to the hotel. “Guests come from all walks of life, and when you think about the political environment of today (for example), so-called centrist news organizations can lean one way or the other, and this can cause people to be emotionally involved. Changing the soundscape to music can affect a profound change on the environment.”

“There’s a profound difference between the music you play in the foreground in your home or office and the music that is best to play in the background of a hotel. In the foreground, you’re thinking about whether you like the song. But for background music, it’s not about what you personally like. It’s about what experience is best for the demographics and business objective you want to achieve in the space.”

“Music is for the guests in the room, and not your personal enjoyment.”

–

Thanks, Bradley! For more information, visit AmbianceRadio.com

Simplifying and EyeForTravel Announce New Awards for Social Media Excellence for Hotels

Josiah Mackenzie — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:28:27 +0000

Today I’m pleased to announce our participation in a joint project with Simplifying and EyeForTravel to identify and reward the most engaging hotel brands in social media. You can see the details in this post, and then nominate your favorite campaigns.

[Update: August 30, 2011] After receiving dozens of nominations, our list of finalists is below. Vote for your favorite now:

For more details and the full contest, read this article on the Simpliflying website.

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will get a free pass to attend the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on October 10 in Amsterdam. The winners will be announced at this event.

“Everything You Do Is Reputation Management” (A Tnooz-TripAdvisor Webinar Summary)

Josiah Mackenzie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:00:25 +0000

I want to keep the majority of articles we publish here focused on case studies, but today I’ll make an exception. This morning, I participated in a webinar with Tnooz and TripAdvisor about the future of reputation management.

Adele Gutman of HK Hotels told the story of how she obtained what other marketing executives only dream about – putting all four of her properties in the top four positions of TripAdvisor’s New York hotel ranking. By obsessively focusing on creating a remarkable experience for guests – and viewing service as marketing – she now earns more than 50% of revenue through direct website bookings. A few good quotes:

“Reputation creates demand.”

“Everything you do is reputation management: from hiring and training staff to the type of linens you order for the guest rooms.”

“Imagine the reviews you want, and then become the hotel that inspires them.”

Brian Payea of TripAdvisor shared some fascinating data related to how consumers view management responses to reviews. According to Forrester research commissioned by TripAdvisor:

When considering two properties, travelers say the presence of management responses would sway 68% in their favor

79% say a management response to a bad review reassures them

78% say a management response to a good review makes them think highly of the hotel

And then I presented some ideas on how to generate more direct bookings with reviews and user-generated content:

How to optimize your website for sales using customer reviews
View more presentations from ReviewPro

For a more complete summary of the event, keep your eyes on the Tnooz and ReviewPro blogs….

The Ritz-Carlton introduces World Concierge on Foursquare to engage mobile travelers

Josiah Mackenzie — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 07:00:38 +0000

Recently, The Ritz-Carlton introduced World Concierge on Foursquare as a way to extend their brand to a mobile audience. I talked with The Ritz-Carlton team to understand the purpose and process involved.

What The Ritz-Carlton was trying to accomplish

The goal was to accomplish what The Ritz-Carlton staff does on a daily basis with new audiences: To further connecting with existing guests and new consumers. The concierge team at Ritz-Carlton properties are some of the best in the business, bringing exceptional knowledge of their local areas. Given the adoption rate and availability of location-based services, they saw this channel as the perfect way to share their internal knowledge with the world. Travelers would be able to “carry the collective wisdom of The Ritz-Carlton staff in their pockets.”

What they built

Their project was a simple concept: taking internal knowledge and making available it outside four walls of hotels. The team collected the knowledge and the tips from concierges at each property, and collected it all into central account. The goal of building this database was not to be a one-time effort, but rather an ongoing process. The campaign launched with specific tips, but each week new tips are added.

They got the whole team to contribute through close collaboration between the agency, brand, and staff at each property. There are 76 Ritz-Carlton locations around the world – representing a huge infrastructure of knowledge – so it was just a matter of collecting this and putting it online. Acquire raw knowledge and putting appropriate form for the channel (a location-based service in this case).

Travelers have two ways to access this information. The first is to follow The Ritz-Carlton on Foursquare, where you can see every new tip that is published. The other way is through traditional check ins. The program was designed to not be exclusively about The Ritz-Carlton, and you don’t have to be a guest to engage with the brand. For example, if you are at the Red Square in Moscow, you might see tip or something special about the neighborhood. Promotional messages are not the priority.

Initial results

The Ritz-Carlton initially had 300 Foursquare followers on the launch of this project, but now this number has risen to over 1,300. Initial press reception from social media world was impressive: Mashable, Gadling, and many other publications covered the launch. There was a strong response from travel professionals massive response on Twitter.

The Ritz-Carlton team is still analyzing internal performance numbers, and it will be interesting to see the full business impact over months ahead. As more and more people use location-based services as they travel, this could be a strong opportunity to connect with travelers, raise brand awareness, and drive revenue growth.

Michael Nurbatlian’s Facebook Photo Contest Gained 2,000+ New Fans in 2 Weeks for Indigo Pearl Resort

Josiah Mackenzie — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:39:14 +0000

In the past 2 years, Indigo Pearl Resort witnessed a clear shift in its market mix: Growing from a heavy reliance on tour operators to direct bookings and online channels. Micheal Nurbatlain and the team at Indigo Pearl led this growth by developing a presence in a variety of channels, with Facebook emerging as one of the biggest successes. In just one year, Michael grew the resort’s Facebook fan page to more than 8,000 followers. This case study shares the lessons learned from this process.

First, a little background

The Indigo Pearl Resort is an independent, luxury design property located in Phuket, Thailand. Michael joined the resort as a sales manager, but this role quickly expanded to include managing digital marketing, e-commerce, and social media.

While Michael is running a number of interesting projects right now, we decided to focus on his work in Facebook for this case study . “While Twitter is beginning to gain popularity here in Asia, Facebook has nearly complete market adoption with our customers.”

Indigo Pearl Resort’s Facebook page

The Facebook page for Indigo Pearl Resort uses a mix of custom design and standard pages. Note the little details in how they engage with their fans:

But what really makes their Facebook presence stand out is their approach to special promotions.

Facebook contests: the key to growth

“Last September we wanted to give something to our Facebook fans,” said Michael. At the time, they had about 3,000 fans, and decided to create a photo contest around what symbolizes Indigo Pearl.

Fans were asked to post pictures, and then vote on their favorites. But Facebook contacted them, saying the contest setup violated terms and conditions. This forced them to setup an independent voting scheme allowing their fans to vote, which worked even better in the end. The contest generated great interaction among existing fans, strengthening their online community. Additionally, the contest generated a couple of hundred of new fans – which was a considered a great success at that time.

Latest Facebook contest: Ultimate holiday package

This year’s idea was to setup a new system. Rather than just asking fans to submit pictures, they wanted to add another layer of involvement. Michael and Indigo Pearl Resort asked fans to design their dream 3-day holiday package. What would they like to do in Puket? They were not very strict with the guidelines, so that if someone wrote some poetry about the perfect holiday – for example – it was still accepted as an entry.

“I imagined Mercedes running a promotion around designing your dream car. Although I’m a big fan of cars, I wouldn’t know what horsepower to put in or the details of the engine. While our guests travel a lot, they are not hoteliers, so it would be somewhat difficult for them to come up with a breakdown package of all the amenities – so we left it very open.”

They didn’t buy any Facebook ads or spend much time promoting the contest. Micheal worked a bit with the local media to get mentioned on their websites, and sent out some tweets to promote it. But no other PR or press releases – everything was done though Facebook.

“Within days we had 10-15 entries, and then we started to get a snowball effect from there.” They asked fans to send in their pictures, screened them, and placed the photos in the album called “Ultimate Family Package.” Once the photo was approved, the contest participants could ask their friends and family to vote on their entry.

This is what created a viral marketing effect for the resort – one photo had over 1,000 likes. “It surpassed our expectations and we could hardly believe it!”

Lessons learned from the contests

It’s all about planning. “Have a solid plan when it comes to Facebook, and create an editorial calendar. Be very strict about creating and following deadlines.” Too many people just wake up in the morning and try to create content on the fly. “If there is no solid plan for 3-12 months, it’s difficult to consistently deliver good quality results.”

Always respond and interact with your online community. Don’t get arrogant and forget to thank fans. “I think you should thank every single person who contributes to your Facebook page or Twitter account – whether than have 5 friends or 5,000 followers. Each fan is an immense asset to your community.”

Have more than one prize. Last year the prize was a 7-night stay in a suite. “But if one guy in the contest has 1,000 votes for his entry, other people could be discouraged from participating.” This year, having two good prizes encouraged more people to enter the contest.

An “economy of photos” and additional thoughts

Photos are the lifeblood of Facebook. As Guy Kawasaki says, Facebook is a pictures economy. “Often I just put a picture of our sunset or property, and it gets me a few hundred Likes and 30-50 comments. A few times I’ve spent hours creating a huge post, and it doesn’t get nearly the same levels of feedback as that beach picture gets. Sometimes the easy route gets the best results.”

Avoid constantly bombarding fans with Facebook promotions. For every 20 posts, put only one promotional post if you must include sales messages.

“Instead, develop the art of soft selling. Create and share images, experiences, smells, and tastes that represent your brand.”

Act as an online concierge on Facebook and Twitter, helping people by providing answers and suggestions.

Try to reflect the hotel’s personality without being too flamboyant. There has to be class, but presented in a very accessible way.

Thank you, Michael!

Become a fan of Indigo Pearl Resort on Facebook, follow @_IndigoPearl_ on Twitter, and connect with Michael on LinkedIn here.