This document summarizes a webinar about hotel marketing trends in 2015. It discusses three major trends: the importance of visual content and storytelling across devices, the rise of content marketing, and using customer data insights. Speakers from Leonardo and Marcus Hotels provide tips on developing visual and mobile-friendly content that aligns with a hotel's brand identity. They emphasize finding the core story, crafting engaging content, and sharing it across multiple online channels to differentiate hotels and drive customer loyalty.

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Copyright © 2014 Leonardo Worldwide Corporation
Big, Bold, Visual: What You
Need to Know About Hotel
Marketing in 2015
Thursday October 23rd 2014
Speakers:
Darlene Rondeau, VP, Best Practices, Online Merchandising, Leonardo
Tim Peter, Digital Marketing E-Commerce Expert and President, Tim Peter & Associates
Christine Beuchert, Senior Director, Marketing and Ecommerce Strategy, Marcus Hotels

2. Darlene Rondeau
Vice-President,
Best Practices, Online Merchandising
Leonardo
@darlenerondeau

3. Follow:
@VFMLeonardo
Tweets & Questions:
#LeoWebinar

4. Tim Peter
Digital Marketing E-Commerce Expert
and President
Tim Peter & Associates

5. Christine Beuchert
Senior Director, Marketing and
Ecommerce Strategy
Marcus Hotels

6. 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

7. Tim Peter
Digital Marketing E-Commerce Expert
and President
Tim Peter & Associates

8. Digital Marketing Directions
2015
Three Key Trends Driving Your Hotel
Marketing Next Year

9. 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

10. It’s All
E-commerce
Internet,
Everywhere
We’re All
Publishers
Now
Radical
Transparency
Deep
Customer
Insights
Disruption
& Disinter-mediation
Changing of
the Guard

11. Internet,
Everywhere
Mobiles Wearables Usables Invisibles

12. 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

13. More people own mobile
phones than own
toothbrushes
Internet,
Everywhere

14. “The web is like electricity.
It’s just there.” Eric Schmidt

15. 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

16. And if context is
queen, guess
what that makes
content

17. We’re All
Publishers
Now

18. 204,000,000 emails sent
Source: Intel
We’re All
Publishers
Now

19. 90+ reviews
We’re All
Publishers
Now

20. 100,000 Tweets
We’re All
Publishers
Now

21. 28,000 photos
We’re All
Publishers
Now

22. 208,000 photo uploads
We’re All
Publishers
Now

23. We’re All
Publishers
Now
30 hours of video uploaded

24. 2+ million search queries
We’re All
Publishers
Now

26. Content is King
• Cut through the clutter
• Create content that is:
– Snackable
– Sharable
– Sharp
We’re All
Publishers
Now

27. Snackable
Sharp
Shareable

31. Images sell

32. Next 5-10 years
We’re All
Publishers
Now
• 2+ million search queries
• 204,000,000 emails
• 30 hours of YouTube video
• 90+ reviews
• 104,000 Tweets
• 208,000 photo uploads

33. Internet,
Everywhere
Mobiles Wearables Usables Invisibles

34. 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

36. Disney MyMagic+ RFID
“tickets” and
purchasing

37. 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

38. Keys to Your Kingdom Next Year It’s All
E-commerce
Deep
Customer
Insights
Internet,
Everywhere
We’re All
Publishers
Now

39. Key Takeaways
 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!

40. Christine Beuchert
Senior Director, Marketing and
Ecommerce Strategy
Marcus Hotels

41. Why is Content Marketing Important?
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

42. Visual Storytelling

43. How-to of 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

44. What is Your
Instagram-able Moment?
Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas
Photo source: fabhousewife.com

45. Content Marketing: Hotelier Tips
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

46. The Pfister Hotel – Case Study
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

47. Importance of Mobile and Tablets
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

48. Key Takeaways
 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

49. The Ultimate Visual Storytelling Solution for
Hotels
VBrochure
BestSTART + + + + +
VScape Media
Publishing
VNetwork Analytics Customer
Success
Online
Players
Mobile
Web
Gallery
Facebook

50. ► 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

51. Copyright © 2014 Leonardo Worldwide Corporation