How Marriott generated immediate success, from high engagement metrics to millions in direct revenue and more !

‘We’re a Media Company Now’ 

 Marriott made a huge leap when David Beebe its vice president of global creative released this revolutionary announcement.

But to achieve these great successes Marriott did many great changes that i've noticed and i will state them as the following.

1) The three Cs—with an emphasis on commerce

  “Scaling content, then building a community around that content, and driving commerce.”

“We hired a lot of media, took a lot of people who were previously storytellers, turned them into marketers,” Beebe said.

“That’s really what our goal is,” Beebe said. “To take all the brand marketers, all the brand leaders and teams, and turn them into great storytellers.”

2) Be Bold & Think Out Of The Box

By early 2015, Marriott had created a successful TV show, The Navigator Live; a hit short film, The Two Bellmen; a personalized online travel magazine; and even exciting forays into virtual reality with Oculus Rift.

 The projects generated immediate success, from high engagement metrics to millions in direct revenue and even content licensing deals. Soon, the company beefed up its in-house staff, bringing in Matthew Glick from CBS as the senior director of the Creative.

“Hopefully, if we do that over and over again, they’ll think of Marriott when they go to book to stay in Paris. We created content, we created community around it, and then we’re actually driving commerce against it.” Beebe said.

Marriott’s films are driving commerce as well. The company filmed its second short, French Kiss, in Paris. The film was shot at a Marriott hotel, but there were no strong sell. Since it was released in May, French Kiss has been viewed over 6 million times on YouTube. Perhaps more impressively, a bookings promotion related to the film also drove $500,000 in revenue for the hotel.

3) Empower Your Team With Powerful Command Center

Real-Time Marketing Performance Monitoring = Powerful Results

When you walk into the ground floor of Marriott’s headquarters, you notice nine flashing screens encased in glass walls, like a TV control room that has been teleported from Hollywood to Bethesda, Maryland.

This what Marriott team named "M Live", which launched in October, has nine screens, showing everything from the social media campaigns of Marriott’s 19 brands to real-time booking information to Marriott’s editorial calendar.

 Ultimately, M Live is a reflection of Timpone’s efforts to build a global group and unify Marriott’s marketing teams, allowing them to act and react much faster on digital and experiential marketing opportunities for the company’s 19 global hotel brands.

“This is a tool for everybody to use in the building,” Beebe explained. “It’s customer-first thinking. That’s why a lot of brands can’t achieve what we’re doing. They think, ‘I can’t do that because someone over there is not going to like it.’ It gets very internal-political.”

Part of the goal of M Live is for employees to be able to jump on real-time marketing opportunities. 

“For Renaissance, for the last 30 days on Instagram alone, there’ve been just over a thousand mentions,” he said, pointing to one screen. “How that compares to the last month—a six hundred and fifty percent total increase. Twitter mentions, just over thirty-two hundred—a ninety-one percent increase from thirty days ago. There’s a lot of different info that’s coming in through here.”

4) The Board Support

After all, it’s that support from Mr. Marriott and CEO Arne Sorenson that’s pushed the ambitious content operation forward so it can keep transforming the company.

Thanks for contently and tickr teams that helped me in creating this piece of content.