Big, Bold, Visual: What You Need to Know About Hotel Marketing in 2015

Copyright © 2014 Leonardo Worldwide Corporation

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Big, Bold, Visual: What YouNeed to Know About HotelMarketing in 2015Thursday October 23rd 2014

Speakers:Darlene Rondeau, VP, Best Practices, Online Merchandising, LeonardoTim Peter, Digital Marketing E-Commerce Expert and President, Tim Peter & AssociatesChristine Beuchert, Senior Director, Marketing and Ecommerce Strategy, Marcus Hotels

Technical Difficulties?Contact

Citrix GoToWebinar1-800-263-6317

support@citrixonline.com

Darlene RondeauVice-President,

Best Practices, Online Merchandising

Leonardo

@darlenerondeau

Follow:

@VFMLeonardo

Tweets & Questions:

#LeoWebinar

Tim PeterDigital Marketing E-Commerce Expert

and President

Tim Peter & Associates

Christine Beuchert Senior Director, Marketing and Ecommerce StrategyMarcus Hotels

The Most Important Hotel Marketing Trends of 2015

► The importance of visual storytelling in the online shopping journey

► The rise of content marketing► The power of video ► Multi-screen, multi-device

connectivity

Tim PeterDigital Marketing E-Commerce Expert

and President

Tim Peter & Associates

Digital Marketing Directions 2015Three Key Trends Driving Your

Hotel Marketing Next Year

These are “the good ol’ days”

• Occupancies and rates at record highs (STR)

• New inventory lagging demand (STR)• 2015 presents the opportunity to be a

great year• But only if you take advantage of trends

It’s All E-

commerce

Internet, Everywh

ere

We’re All

Publishers Now

Radical Transpar

ency

Deep Custom

er Insights

Disruption &

Disinter-mediati

on

Changing of the Guard

Internet,

Everywhere

Mobiles Wearables

Usables Invisibles

Source: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco-connections-counter/

• Almost 13.4 billion Internet-connected devices in the world

• Roughly 2 Internet-connected devices for every man, woman, and child on the planet

More people own mobile phones than own toothbrushes

Internet,

Everywhere

“The web is like electricity. It’s

just there.” Eric Schmidt

Context is Queen• Segment

customer behaviors by context

• Observe, measure, and learn your customer’s pain points in each

• Improve by aligning customer experience with context

Internet,

Everywhere

And if context is

queen, guess

what that makes content

We’re All

PublishersNow

204,000,000 emails sent

Source: Intel

We’re All

PublishersNow

90+ reviews

We’re All

PublishersNow

100,000 Tweets

We’re All

PublishersNow

28,000 photos

We’re All

PublishersNow

208,000 photo uploads

We’re All

PublishersNow

30 hours of video uploaded

We’re All

PublishersNow

2+ million search queries

We’re All

PublishersNow

Content is King• Cut through the clutter

• Create content that is:–Snackable–Sharable–Sharp

We’re All

Publishers Now

Snackable

Sharp

Shareable

Images sell

Next 5-10 years

• 2+ million search queries

• 204,000,000 emails• 30 hours of YouTube

video• 90+ reviews• 104,000 Tweets• 208,000 photo

uploads

We’re All

Publishers Now

Internet,

Everywhere

Mobiles Wearables

Usables Invisibles

Data is the Crown Jewels• Highlights

customer behaviors, wants, and desires

• Leads product, promotion, placement and pricing decisions

• Cannot be easily duplicated by competition

Deep Customer

Insights

Disney MyMagic+

RFID “tickets” and

purchasing

Data is the Crown Jewels• Be willing to start

small• Anticipate, analyze,

and adapt to changing customer needs

• Protect the crown jewels: Privacy and security matter; Protect your customers’ information like your business depends on it

Deep Customer

Insights

Keys to Your Kingdom Next Year

It’s All E-

commerce

Deep Custom

er Insight

s

Internet,

Everywhere

We’re All

Publishers Now

Content is king

Use snackable, sharable, and sharp content to attract interest and action

Context is queen

Help your customers meet their needs where they are, not just on which

device

Data is the crown jewels

Use it to gain a competitive advantage, and to rule next year!

Key Takeaways

Christine Beuchert Senior Director, Marketing and Ecommerce StrategyMarcus Hotels

The hotel industry is changing faster than ever. Keeping up is a matter of survival.

• Avoid commoditization of our product

• Combat trend of declining organic search

• Customers expect readily available product information

Content Marketing can help hoteliers thrive, not just survive.

Great content leads to:

• Product differentiation

• More inbound website links

• Websites that are sticky and convert at a higher rate

• Engaged customers and an increase in customer loyalty

• Ability to leverage social media channels

Why is Content Marketing Important?

Visual Storytelling

• Sell the experience with a consistent story• Segment customers• Make pictures easily viewable across

different devices• Incorporate video to engage customers

(keep it short for mobile users)• Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are

terrific channels for photos. Create a YouTube channel

How-to of Visual Storytelling

What is Your Instagram-able Moment?

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas Photo source: fabhousewife.com

Find Your Story

• Make it authentic

• “Lean In” to your DNA

• Experiential service and programming

Craft Your Story

• Develop content strategies by customer segment

• Create engaging and useful content

• Plan for how and when to create content

Share Your Story

• Deploy across many channels

• Keep visual content updated across the web

• Encourage interaction and social sharing

Content Marketing: Hotelier Tips

Unique Selling Point: Historical hotel with a large collection of Victorian era art

• Found their story

• Built on it

• Played a part of the community

• Got internal team excited

• Involved the Audience early on

• Distributed everywhere

• Expanded on the story again and again

• Found new angles

The Pfister Hotel – Case Study

Mobile users…• Frequently use tablets to plan their travel• Often abandon non-mobile optimized websites (61%)• Frequently use their smartphone for last-minute

bookings• Include business travelers (32% book via mobile)

Which is why it is important to design for mobile and tablets• Leverage unique capabilities – swipe, zoom and pinch

features• Make it easy with features like click to call and

interactive maps• Mobile-optimized booking engine is mandatory

Importance of Mobile and Tablets

Lean in to your DNA

Buy-in and help to create stories

Use many pictures and video

Develop plans for content creation

& distribution

Optimize for mobile; go responsive

if possible

Key Takeaways

The Ultimate Visual Storytelling Solution for Hotels

VBrochure

VScape Media Publishing

VNetwork Analytics Customer Success

BestSTART++ + ++

Online Players Mobile Web

GalleryFacebook

► About Leonardo

► Invitations to upcoming webinars●November’s topic is What Every Smart Marketer

Must Know About Hotel Web Marketing

► Recording of this webinar●Share it with your colleagues

It’s a Wrap

Copyright © 2014 Leonardo Worldwide Corporation