Tag Archive for: Social Media

3 Ways Hotel Marketers can get better at Mobile

Getting Better at mobile

How often do you check your phone? A few times an hour? A few time a minute?

Like it or not, addictive mobile devices have become an important part of our daily lives.

Which is why hotel marketers need a great mobile presence.

Mobile is no longer a side dish; it’s quickly becoming the main course in terms of how people experience the Internet. In an article from hotelmarketing.com CEO of Pegasus Solutions David Millilli says mobile “has become a must for generating revenue.”

Guests aren’t just reading articles and skimming reviews either.  They are using their phones and tablets to actually book rooms. In 2013 booking.com’s mobile site had 260% more online bookings than the previous year. In  2012 bookings through mobile sources accounted for 7% of total online bookings, that number is a twelve fold increase from 2010.

Here are three ways any hotel can improve their online presence.

1. Optimize sites for mobile

If your site isn’t optimized for mobile you’re going to annoy plenty of would-be customers. Though mobile devices can navigate regular pages fine, the overall experience isn’t very good.  Full websites designed to be viewed on large displays simply don’t translate well to a tiny phone screen. Make sure that when viewers see the mobile site it’s an easy to navigate, clean and simple style.

2. Get an app

A lot of major brands have been in the news for developing apps recently. W-Hotels, Marriot, Mandarin Oriental and The Ritz-Carlton Hotels are just a few of the brands to have custom developed apps. Apps are great for a few reasons. One, custom designed apps are usually a more user-friendly experience than a mobile website. Apps also have the ability to increase brand loyalty, since the user downloads the app and will see it regularly it’s a great branding tactic.

3. Get better at social

Social media is one area that is quickly becoming more and more popular on mobile devices. In fact a 2013 survey by Adobe found that 71% of social media site users used a mobile device to access these sites. More and more users are using their phones and tablets to check their social sites. Being good at social media means being aware of how your users are consuming it.

Are you a master of mobile? Did we leave anything out? Give us your favorite strategies for having a better presence in the online space in our comment section below! 

 

Hotel Logos Re-created by 6-Year-Olds!

This afternoon we had the pleasure of hosting two guests in our office. 6-year-old-twins Calvin and Olivia had the day off school so we gave them temporary roles in the graphic-design department and asked them for their best attempts at recreating some iconic hotel logos. Having a couple of kindergarteners draw logos that we deal with every day was a fun addition to our Friday!

It was interesting to watch the creative process of the kids.  In the world of professional design the process can often become over-thought and muddled down by restrictions, it might sound cheesy, but it’s refreshing to watch someone be creative in such a free-spirited way.

Calvin Cutting

As calvin works to trim one of his pictures you can see that his creative process is a bit messy!

Olivia created this rendition of the Sheraton logo.  The choice to cut out and paste the Sheraton S emblem was surprising, and leaving the word “Sheraton” off-center added personality!

sheratonsidebyside

 

Apparently Calvin thought the lettering for the Mandarin Oriental New York would be better placed above the fan logo.

MandarinOriental sidebyside

Here’s an attempt at the Broughton Hotels of Chicago: City Suites insignia. It’s impressive that Olivia was able to achieve that shape on her first try.

CitySuitessidebyside

Once again Calvin liked the motif of keeping the name of the hotel above the image.

doubletreesidebyside

We aren’t sure if shrinking the letters “NTAL” in Intercontinental was an artistic decision or if Calvin just ran out of room on the page.

intercontinental sidebyside

Olivia decided to go with a much more minimalist aesthetic in her version of the Mission Point Resort logo.

missionpoint sidebysideThere was definitely some tracing used for these St. Regis Hallmarks but regardless of the method, the similarity to the original is impressive.

St. Regis sidebyside

It was a fun experiment to see how a couple of six-year-olds would fare in trying to copy logos!

 

Thanks for your help Calvin and Olivia! Maybe next time we’ll give you a shot at copy-writing!

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Livvy Holding St. Regis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Honoring a 100-Year-Old Coupon is Marketing Genius

Marketing Genius

Have you ever thought about the expiration dates on coupons? Are they really necessary? It’s not like someone is going to save a coupon and use it years later right…

 

Right?

Actually, a McConnell Marketing associate’s Grandmother was recently featured on General Mills’ blog by taking advantage of a coupon that was more than a few years past its intended use!

 

The Story

In 1984 Laurine Williams found an interesting piece of her mother’s old book collection, an original 1910 Gold Medal Flour Cookbook. On the last page of the book was a coupon for another free copy of the book, presumably so you could share with a friend. Williams wrote a letter to General Mills asking if she could redeem the coupon pointing out that it had no expiration date. Unfortunately, Williams didn’t send the letter immediately and it ended up lost.

Fast forward to 2012. Williams rediscovered her old letter and decided to send it in; at this point the offer for a free copy of the cookbook was over 100 years old! General Mills honored their original offer and sent Laurine a reprinted edition of the 1910 book. The company had actually begun reprinting the book because of situations like Laurine’s.

There is one significant change to the reprinted version of the book however, the word VOID is very clearly marked over the coupons in the back!

 

Old Coupons and Brand Equity

From a marketing perspective, the way General Mills handled this scenario is interesting.

They could have easily brushed the whole situation under the rug and no one, besides William’s would have noticed. Even then it’s hard to imagine that she would have been too upset with the company for not honoring a century’s old offer.

Really this story isn’t about General Mills honoring a coupon. It’s about the company going the extra-mile for a customer.

By putting in the time and effort to make sure that situations like Williams’ were handled appropriately, General Mills showed that they cared, something that can go a long way for a brand. Establishing trust with a customer base takes a lot of work, but the payoff is worth it. Which is why General Mills did what they did.

 

Word Travels Fast 

Laurine Williams is likely to be a loyal General Mills customer as a result of what happened, but in today’s world of social media and viral information spread she’s not the only one who will have a changed opinion of the brand.

General Mills didn’t just gain one loyal customer; they likely increased trust and brand equity with everyone reading this story!

The takeaway from this for businesses shouldn’t be, “Hmmm that’s a quirky thing that company did”. It should be how can we go the extra mile for a customer, How can we gain trust through care! What is our 100-year-old coupon!?

So think about it. Has a company honored a 100-year-old coupon for you? Has your company done something unexpected for a customer?

Give us your examples in the comments below!

Content Marketing—a Common Marketing Tool in 2013

Original Source: The Wishpond Blog

Content is fire, social media is gasoline. –Jay Baer

Interesting fact: Companies that blog have 55% more traffic to their websites. According to The Wishpond Blog, “Content marketing is fast becoming a regular marketing tool (marketers now spend 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing.”

Take a look at Wishpond’s Infographic—you’ll quickly realize that content marketing has a huge impact on how consumers view and interact with the companies they follow. Other findings include: brands that blog generate 67% more leads per month; 68% of consumers spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in; 90% of consumers find custom content useful.

Check out the full State of Content Marketing 2013 Infographic here:

Infographic_content_marketing

 

Do the brands you follow have good content marketing? How do they use it? Let us know!

Video Comes to Instagram

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It’s only been released for a mere 24 hours, but if you’re up-to-date with social media, you’ve probably already heard the news—photo-sharing app, Instagram, released a video feature yesterday. Described as “everything you love about Instagram—and it moves,” Instagram Video will support 13 custom filters just for video. (Mashable)

What does this mean for the fairly new video-sharing app, Vine? Like Vine, recording time is limited—but instead of a six-second limit, Instagram’s time is limited to 15 seconds. But that’s not the only difference. Stephanie Buck of Mashable shared key Instagram Video features that are noticeably absent from Vine:

1. Clip Editing: With a simple click of the delete button, Instagram users can edit frames out of their videos to remove certain segments of footage.

2. Cover Frame: “It wouldn’t be Instagram without a beautiful photo to entice users,” Buck wrote. Users are encouraged to pick a splash photo that appears in a person’s newsfeed as a preview to your video.

3. Filters: What’s an Instagram photo without a filter? While Vine keeps video basic, Instagram provides 13 different filters to give your video clips a vintage effect.

4. Tap to Focus: Tapping the screen on Vine just allows you to record. When you tap your phone screen when filming a video via Instagram, you can tap within the frame to focus on your depth of field.

5. Image Stabilization: When introducing the new video feature, Instagram also introduced the “Cinema” mode, which is meant to smooth shaky footage for a more stable, streamlined video.

Instagram Video is available for Available for iOS and Android. To find out more, check out Buck’s full artcle on Mashable.

So what do you think of Instagram Video? Do you think Vine will be making major updates? Let us know!