Insights Type: Best Practices

Corporate Social Responsibility: Rosen Tangelo Park Program

By Kaitlin Dunn, Writer, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

HSMAI’s 2019 Adrian Awards competition — celebrating creativity and innovation in hospitality advertising, digital marketing, and public relations — honored its winners at the Adrian Awards Dinner Reception and Gala in New York City on Jan. 21. It also included the Corporate Social Responsibility Award, which honors an organization using its resources to focus on issues that matter to a company’s employees, customers, and communities. Take some inspiration from this year’s CSR Award winner: Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ Tangelo Park Program. (View all of last year’s Adrian-winning submissions here.)

BACKGROUND: Harris Rosen, president and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, has contributed to many charitable initiatives through the Harris Rosen Foundation, including supporting an underserved neighborhood called Tangelo Park, which is located near several Rosen Hotels in Orlando. A first-generation college student himself, Rosen committed to providing an education to the neighborhood children, who were growing up in a crime-ridden area, with few opportunities to succeed.

CSR PROGRAM: In 1993, Rosen promised to pay the full college or vocational school tuition, including room, board, and books, for any child graduating high school, and to provide free pre-school for two- to four-year olds. Last year, he opened the Rosen Tangelo Park Preschool, a building with several classrooms where he funds the teachers’ salaries.

Rosen has continued to create opportunities for students to receive quality educations. Most recently, he implemented a similar program in the Orlando neighborhood of Parramore, committing to the same scholarships and funding the Rosen Parramore Preschool. Additionally, he funded the building of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, funds three scholarship to Rollins College, and provides free college scholarships to his employees and their children after three years of service.

RESULTS: A 2016 study showed that every dollar Rosen has invested into the neighborhood has returned seven-fold. The high-school graduation has increased to 99 percent. Many of the more than 200 students whose college education Rose funded have gone on to graduate school and enjoy successful careers as teachers, lawyers, social workers, and more.

Generation Alpha and Family Travel Trends

The Lightning Round is a signature program at HSMAI’s Marketing Strategy Conference — giving six marketing executives just six minutes and 40 seconds each to share a best practice, strategic insight, or big idea. At the 2020 Marketing Strategy Conference on Jan. 22, Derek Price, director of business development in North America for Expedia Group Media Solutions, focused on how families travel in a Lightning Round presentation called “Generation Alpha and Family Travel Trends.”

KEY TAKEAWAY: Generation Alpha is made up of kids born after 2010 — and they’re already having an impact in the travel space. According to Price, they love to travel and are actively involved in planning trips with their parents. Most families need help planning their trips, and the biggest opportunity is using appealing imagery in digital marketing which attracts Gen Alpha as well as their parents. “Everyone wants to be entertained and everyone wants to have fun,” Price said. “They’re making their decision based on the destination activities available.”

Best of Show: #JOURNEYSAFE by Super 8

By Kaitlin Dunn, Writer, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

Entries for HSMAI’s 2020 Adrian Awards are now being accepted — with a special focus on best practices, innovation, and community related to hospitality advertising, marketing, and public relations work created in response to the coronavirus crisis. Take some inspiration for next year from one of them: Super 8’s “#JOURNEYSAFE,” which was honored in the Digital Marketing/Digital Campaign/Integrated Market Campaign for Consumers (B2C) category. (View all of last year’s Adrian-winning submissions here.)

BACKGROUND: Driving when tired, or drowsy driving, can be just as dangerous as driving while drunk or distracted, with exhausted drivers being three times more likely to be in a crash than alert drivers. With more than 100,000 accidents each year caused by drowsy driving, Super 8 launched a campaign to raise awareness of this issue and position the brand as a trusted place for drivers to rest and refuel along the highway.

CAMPAIGN: The digital campaign kicked off in New York City during National Sleep Awareness Month in March 2019, with speeches from psychologist and sleep expert Dr. Janet Kennedy, founder of NYC Sleep Doctor, and philanthropist and actor Giacomo Gianniotti, who plays Andrew DeLuca on Grey’s Anatomy, calling on drivers to journey safe and pull over when they need to. The campaign highlighted the dangers of drowsy driving, pointed out Super 8’s many convenient locations that allow travelers to safely rest up, and communicated that “the safer you are, the further you can go.”

Over the following months, the campaign amped up during high-travel periods in the spring and summer via digital video, social media, website, email, and integration with the mobile navigation app Waze. The campaign targeted travelers who spontaneously (with less than three weeks) plan driving trips, drivers who are constantly on the road for business, and families who don’t take risks when they travel but also don’t plan very far in advance. All of the targeted guests are travelers who look for fair prices in a convenient location and want to keep their loved ones safe, and about half are drive-up traffic when going to hotels.

RESULTS: The campaign was a huge success. More than 49,000 Waze users navigated to Super 8 locations via the campaign, exceeding all benchmarks. Within the first month of the website’s launch, more than 13,000 visitors checked it out, while on social media, campaign videos were viewed more than a million times, with more than 20,000 engagements. More than 39 media placements delivered another 110 million impressions.

WHY IT WON: Adrians judges were very impressed with Super 8’s #JOURNEYSAFE. Here is what several of them had to say about why they thought it was the best of the best:

  • “Super 8 gets most of their stays from drive-in traffic. They know people are driving long distances and often driving when they’re quite tired. They took that and turned it into a public-interest campaign. They educated people on the stats of drowsy driving, educated them on the consequences of it, and provided a solution.”
  • “It connected a core aspect of their business, a great public-service message, and really quality creative as well. It had all the elements of a solid integrated marketing campaign.”
  • “The Waze integration, how they were able to demonstrate bookings from their target audience was a differentiator from other entries.”
  • “You could only do this in a digital context. It’s not going to work as a print campaign, or a display, or television campaign. Digital is the only way this is going to work, where you’re getting people when they’re mobile, in their car, late at night, and you give them the message in their moment of need. That was really impressive.”

A Revenue Leader’s Response & Best Practice in a Crisis

By Limin Cheng, Vice President HSMAI Asia Pacific, previously, Director of Revenue for Marina Bay Sands in Singapore

The rapid spread of the coronavirus from China and beyond has caused a rapid and sudden halt to tourism throughout Asia. Travel, as a luxury expenditure, is often one of the first things we choose to limit when a crisis hits. In times like this, the revenue leader’s response during this time could be crucial on a few different levels. The following are some simple tips and reflections.

1. Use data to tell a story to manage panic and fearful expectations

Whilst optimizing revenue isn’t a top priority during a time of rapid cancellations and widespread declines in tourism arrivals, most revenue leaders are in the position to monitor data. By the simple routine of running daily pick-up reports, monitoring booking pace and reviewing the forecast, the discipline of these reports equips us with information to understand the severity of what is happening. At times like this, it’s more important to provide context to the data. For example, noting that there are 50 cancellations a day is not as important as being able to say ‘We are observing an average of 50 cancellations a day, this is 120% more than the typical daily cancellation factor we observed. Key source countries the cancellations are coming are from XYZ.’ Accurately providing context to these figures is important to provide a succinct perspective, no matter how dire.

2. Research historical macro trends of a similar crisis

Unfortunately for the world, the coronavirus outbreak is not the first virus epidemic in recent history. SARs, H1N1, and MERs still bring back chills for countries that experienced these epidemics acutely. If you are in a country that has experienced any of these before, review the historical decline in tourism arrivals in comparison to the same time in the previous month or previous year.

As an example, during the SARS outbreak, Singapore experienced a decline of 19% year-on-year in tourist arrivals. However, they are forecasting a decline of up to 30% in tourist arrivals due to the coronavirus. These macro-tourist trends are an indicator of the expected decline you might expect for your own hotel business. It’s also important to account for variations due to impacts on different market segments – larger conventions may be canceled or shifted completely, whilst smaller meetings or independent travelers may not see as large a shift depending on their purpose of travel.

Understanding the macro-perspective may be cold comfort in the face of lost revenue, but it provides a realistic picture of performance and could be useful in dealing with anxious comments from far-away head offices.

3. Focus on cash flow, find different sources of revenue if possible

Rather than spending time clawing back cancellation fees or lamenting the loss of a great potential piece of business, it’s important to divert your sales or distribution efforts to other sources of revenue.

For groups or guests who wish to cancel, allowing a postponed trip will be helpful.

Think about the psychology of people responding to this type of crisis now. Most people are fearful of attending a large event of 100 people for fear of that 1 stranger who was unaware and has the virus. But some people are probably more comfortable meeting in smaller settings where they know there are people they can trust to be responsible.

However, in a crisis, cashflow is king. Unfortunately, it’s also time to reduce unnecessary spending to ensure the hotel is in a decent cashflow position to weather the next few months.

4. A crisis is still a moment-of-truth

In the hospitality business, we are often in the business of holidays, celebrations and great service. The crisis is the antithesis to any form of celebration, but we all need to remember that these are also ‘moments-of-truths’ that we need to manage. If we respond to a cancellation request with patience, compassion, and anticipation that they will return, your guest is likely to return when they can arrange their next trip.

If we respond in a petty way to reject refunds or charge cancellation fees, you might get the money but you would have lost the customer forever and left a bitter taste in their mouth. Whilst saying that, I recognize that all businesses need to balance compassion and cashflow management.

I often think to myself ‘How would I respond if the person on the line is my family calling to cancel the booking?’ With that in mind, it should define the spirit of compassion we will be able to empower our front-line staff to deal with the cancellations coming in.

As much as we would like to minimize revenue loss, if there is any time we should reconsider the SOPs and break the rules, it is a time of crisis.

Visit Business Traveller for a collection of responses from hotel businesses worldwide responding to the coronavirus.

5. A time to ‘separate the men from the boys’

A somewhat less politically correct phrase coming from a female writer, but I do sincerely believe that a crisis defines a leader and separates the men from the boys. Our truest colors show under intense pressure. As a revenue leader, this is the time to show the rest of the hotel team that we are more than statistics, increased prices and overbooking levels. It’s a time to use data to paint realistic expectations, whilst strategizing for the turnaround when it comes.

It’s a time to use facts to calm panic. Or look at the data and panic first, before sharing everything in a much more composed and methodical manner.

It’s a time to show compassion and focus on supporting fellow colleagues in the best way possible.

It’s a time to learn and record down the trends and stories under these extreme circumstances because when the turnaround comes, you’ll want to be able to look back and reflect on how this process made your teams stronger and more resilient.

Finally, it’s important to remain prepared for the comeback. Fortunately for us, historical statistics also show that there is always a turning point. Although it may feel far away now in the midst of the fallout, as the team looking at booking pace and daily-pick up reports, you’ll also be the first one to be able to report the good news. Be prepared for that.

Visit HSMAI Asia Pacific to view the post and learn more about the author LiMin Cheng.

Data & Analytics for Sales Leaders: Tips for Success

At HSMAI’s Sales Leader Forum on Nov. 5–6, Dr. Kelly McGuire, principal with McRevenue LLC, presented a breakout session on “Data and Analytics for Sales Leaders.” Here is the third of four key takeaways:

In order to get into the groove of data-driven, fact-based decisions, McGuire recommends asking for proof in order to have stronger, more accurate data. “Get it built into your culture,” she said.

Second, all data is filthy. Data cleanliness initiatives take a long time, McGuire said, but you can’t wait until the data is perfect or you’ll be waiting forever. Third, get used to using visualizations beyond spreadsheets to more clearly illustrate data, especially when sharing with others.

Best of Show: Stellar Dining Series by The Ritz-Carlton

By Kaitlin Dunn, Writer, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

Entries for HSMAI’s 2020 Adrian Awards are now being accepted — with a special focus on best practices, innovation, and community related to hospitality advertising, marketing, and public relations work created in response to the coronavirus crisis. Take inspiration from one of 2019’s best: Marriott’s “Stellar Dining Series by The Ritz-Carlton,” which was honored in the Advertising/Advertising Campaign/Experimental Category. (View all of last year’s the Adrian-winning submissions here.)

BACKGROUND: Upon realizing that Ritz-Carlton is one of the luxury hotel chains with the most homegrown Michelin-starred chefs, The Ritz-Carlton embraced the opportunity to leverage this asset in a new way by creating an innovative concept that offered unique experiences to drive brand awareness and differentiation: Stellar Dining Series.

In top Asian capitals, fine dining with friends and family has become increasingly possible due to an increase in disposable income and a cultural shift favoring more social gatherings. According to a MasterCard survey, one in three millennials eats at a fine-dining restaurant at least once a month. The Ritz-Carlton also studied reports on the evolution of how consumers define luxury and travel to better understand the trends and mindset of the audience.

In 2018, The Ritz-Carlton invited guests on rare culinary journeys in food-centric cities including Singapore, Osaka, Hong Kong, and Beijing, and in 2019, the company presented events in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Guangzhou. The series will continue this year, with the ultimate goal of building Ritz-Carlton into a sought-after culinary destination.

CAMPAIGN: A series of phenomenal culinary encounters specially curated by Michelin-starred chefs and culinary talents, the Stellar Dining Series targeted potential guests in key source markets in order to broaden the awareness of the brand. Two targeted groups were “The Global Affluent Tribe,” who reside or travel in the cities involved in the campaign, and “The Editors/Influencers,” who shine a spotlight on the lifestyle and entertainment scenes in those cities. Both groups are always searching for the newest, finest, and most exclusive experiences as they collect meaningful stories and are inspired by travel.

The Ritz-Carlton developed an integrated marketing strategy across consumer funnels and leveraged OTVs, digital banners, and the WeChat mini app to drive traffic to a mini-site with inspirational content. To amplify the campaign, Marriott used social media in several phases of storytelling creative, and invited pan-regional and local media to the events to drive PR and online buzz. For the broader public, strategically produced sleek content conveyed the uniqueness of each experience, in partnership with respected publications and influencers. The Ritz-Carlton also used its loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, to amplify the campaign.

RESULTS: Over the course of 14 days in 2018, the Stellar Dining Series hosted more than 50 luxury dining sessions and generated total revenue of $503,000, with a 57-percent YOY increase. The campaign was also a huge success, with 112 premium media attending the premiere events in 2018, generating more than 170 clippings that drove nearly 750 million PR impressions. Publications such as the Michelin Guide, Condé Nast Traveler, and GQ ran positive reviews of the experiences, which along with the social and digital campaigns delivered above the expected KPI a total of 78 million impressions, 0.45% average CTR, and more than 3 million social media engagements, and contributed to all of the Stellar Dining experiences becoming fully booked.

WHY IT WON: Adrians judges were very impressed with the Stellar Dining Series by The Ritz-Carlton. Here is what several of them had to say about it why they thought it was the best of the best:

  • “I liked the fact that it was very true to the Ritz-Carlton brand, but it represented the brand in a contemporary, fresh context. I thought the whole alignment, bringing together chefs from around the Asia-Pacific capitals and the reference point done digitally in an elegant, sophisticaed fashion, worked digitally and through videography. It created a cool experience for those who had the opportunity to consume the experience, but for those who didn’t, it created some fascination with respect to what a Ritz-Carlton experience from a dining perspective is all about. It created an immersive experience as well as an aspirational one that made me want to stay at a Ritz-Carlton and have that experience.”
  • “It was super seamlessly integrated, so you could easily consume the content from your smartphone.”
  • “I think they did a great job of creating an emotional connection with the target audience from within three seconds of the video starting. The narrative felt very compelling throughout. They were about to thread many of the aspects of the campaign in a very interconnected and consistent way. It felt very aspirational and highlighted one of the key differentials of the Ritz-Carlton — the F&B component.”
  • “People who stay in hotels know you don’t eat in hotel restaurants, and this is taking that convention and turning it upside down.”

8 Strategies to Prep Team Members for Different Economic Conditions

By Juli Jones, CAE, Vice President, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

How are you, as a revenue leader, coaching team members on how to deal with a potential downturn in the market, which many of them have not faced? HSMAI’s Revenue Optimization Advisory Board (ROAB) tackled that question at its annual retreat and identified 8 strategies that they are employing in their own businesses:

  1. Define and differentiate between an economic downturn versus a decline in demand.
  2. Increase communication both internally and externally by defining KPIs and knowing the source of your information in order to know how much to trust it.
  3. Provide a guide for best practice levers you can pull once you’re sure it is a downturn.
  4. Look beyond pricing to manage through a downturn (i.e., find new business).
  5. Read case studies and white papers based on the past.
  6. Train employees — focus on influencing, storytelling, instilling confidence, and making strategic decisions going forward.
  7. Use new metrics — don’t chase an index that might not be truly valuable.
  8. Plan for different scenarios.

The advisory board also discussed emerging trends. These issues and more will be addressed at HSMAI’S ROC on June 16-17, 2020 in San Antonio, Texas.

Innovation Case Study: YouTube Director Mix

Innovation in Hospitality Advertising, Digital Marketing, and Public Relations is a new HSMAI Special Report that profiles Gold winners for Innovation in the 2019 Adrian Awards competition. Their work will be honored at the Adrian Awards Dinner Reception and Gala at the New York Marriott Marquis on Jan. 21, 2020. Excerpted below is one of the Innovation profiles from the Special Report:

ADVERTISING | BEST WESTERN HOTELS & RESORTS

GOAL
In 2018, Best Western partnered with Google to leverage an innovative, personalized video program, YouTube Director Mix, and sought to build off the success of its first year in 2019. YouTube Director Mix allows advertisers to easily create a high volume of customized videos at scale, reaching prospective customers in a meaningful way. Best Western sought to deepen customer engagement and increase awareness, as well as position the company as an industry leader.

INNOVATION
The campaign promoted Best Western’s summer offer with each video ad to “Get a $20 Best Western gift card after their first stay” by personalizing the ads based on users’ specific interests. Best Western’s 2019 YouTube Director Mix campaign used contextually relevant messaging and video variation to bring awareness to Best Western and the summer promotion.

RESULTS
Using a mix of targeting and retargeting tactics, the campaign delivered 40 video variations to users based on real-time data and contextual relevance to their online habits. Video completion rate was at the high end of the travel benchmark.

HSMAI SPECIAL REPORT: Innovation in Hospitality Advertising, Digital Marketing, and Public Relations

Every year, HSMAI’s Adrian Awards competition honors hospitality brands and agencies for creative excellence in advertising, digital marketing, and public relations. A relatively new addition to our program is the Innovation category, which spotlights work in all three areas that is doing something new, different, or both.

In this HSMAI Special Report — made possible with the support of HSMAI’s Organizational Member companies — you’ll find short profiles of Gold winners for Innovation from the 2019 Adrian Awards. Our hope is that they’ll inspire you not just with their imaginativeness and originality but with their frequently modest size and scope. You’ll see that innovation can happen at any level and any price, and often blurs the lines between traditional advertising, marketing, and PR.

Congratulations to all of our 2019 Adrian Award winners! It’s thanks to you that we keep finding new ways to tell the story of hospitality.

HSMAI Special Report_2019 Adrian Awards Innovation

Custom GIFs and Other Secrets of Hospitality Marketing Innovation

Custom GIFs and Other Secrets of Hospitality Marketing Innovation

Hospitality marketing has always been a fast-moving game. To help the industry stay ahead of the curve, HSMAI created an Innovation category in its Adrian Awards program, which honors creativity in hotel advertising, digital marketing, and public relations. A new HSMAI Special Report profiles this year’s Gold winners in this category, offering insights and best practices for hospitality marketing professionals at every level. Here are three — one each for advertising, digital marketing, and PR:

ADVERTISING: Pushing out a survey.

Partnering with AFAR travel media platform, the Aruba Tourism Authority surveyed visitors on what makes them happy — so it could make them happier and increase visitation, particularly among an affluent base in key U.S. markets. The Travel Happiness Survey launched with newsletters, emails, social media, and website takeovers. More than 15,000 people took the survey, the results of which were revealed on Afar.com and in AFAR magazine’s 10th-anniversary “Happiness Issue,” with an Aruba sponsorship print ad introducing the results spread.

The project exceeded benchmarks in many categories, including 30,000 page views, 15,000 entries, and five minutes or more spent on the survey page. Email blasts were 69 percent higher than the AFAR benchmark, while newsletters were 99 percent higher. A total of 12,000 emails were added to the Aruba database, and Aruba has used the survey results to better target visitors — and as a result, U.S. visitation is up by 9 to 10 percent in 2019, RevPAR is up 7.8 percent, and on-island spend is up 5 to 6 percent.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Having fun with social media.

In 2018, W Hotels partnered with GIPHY to create W-themed GIFs, reaction GIFs, and GIF stickers. Building off that work, in 2019, W and GIPHY created GIFs to drive awareness for Wake Up Call (WUC), a W Hotels music festival, and distributed them via GIPHY Search Keywords, Search Categories, and Trending Rotational placement — capitalizing on search terms related to “wakeup calls,” music, and key emotions related to WUC, namely excitement. W and GIPHY also engaged VIP festivalgoers by allowing them to produce their own personalized GIFs and GIF stickers at WUC.

W’s 133 GIFs have amassed 1.5 billion organic views across GIPHY and its API partners, including Instagram, Snapchat, FB Messenger, and iMessage. The campaign’s paid media component generated 27.3 million views of WUC-related GIFs and drove a 3.5-percent engagement rate on GIPHY Search (compared to W’s 1.89-percent benchmark), and a Nielsen Brand Lift Study showed lifts across all attributes.

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Making beautiful music.

Travel Michigan created Pure Sounds of Michigan, an ambient album, to showcase the sounds of Michigan through its state parks and inspire travel to these locations by highlighting diverse elements of the Wolverine State, including local artists. Produced with Assemble Sound, a Detroit-based media company, Pure Sounds of Michigan spawned three singles that were promoted via outlets including Billboard magazine and the website Stereogum, with paid audio ads on streaming platforms used to drive traffic to michigan.org.

After debuting at number nine on Billboard’s New Age chart, Pure Sounds of Michigan has been streamed/downloaded more than 88,000 times on Spotify and Soundcloud, while paid campaigns on Soundcloud, Pandora, and Spotify delivered more than 3 million impressions. More than 190 media placements led to an additional 10 million impressions, with social media posts producing another 4 million.

Download Innovation in Hospitality Advertising, Digital Marketing, and Public Relations, an HSMAI Special Report, here.