EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing, Mobile & Social Media in Travel

Whitepaper Series 2014

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Case Study: Ritz Carlton’s location-based marketing strategy

For more information visit: www.eyefortravel.com/online-marketing-europe

Case Study: Ritz Carlton’s location-based marketing strategy

BackgroundIn May 2012 Ritz Carlton launched an app to capitalise on consumer desire to interact with travel brands via mobile.

Its central function, beyond providing another platform to deliver search and booking functionality, was to support the company’s luxury positioning.

In particular, the brand wanted to add value to travel-lers’ in-stay experience, extending the company’s digital interactions with consumers beyond the booking stage. To achieve this, the app relies heavily on a range of location-based content to enhance customers’ stay.

The Ritz Carlton app services include:

■ At Home and At Hotel modes ■ QR codes in-resort ■ GPS-enabled shopping and sightseeing tips ■ Ritz-Carlton World Concierge - Foursquare ■ Hotel-specific content in-property and in-locale

Customers are encouraged to download the app through marketing on social media and Ritz-Carlton websites as well as in-stay through QR codes offering location-based

tips. Customers without the Ritz-Carlton app can scan the codes with any generic QR scanner, however they are then directed to download the app to access the content.

Location-based marketing objectivesLocation-based marketing is part of Ritz-Carlton’s ongoing marketing campaign built on the tagline: “Let us stay with you” which encourages visitors to continue their relationship with

the hotel chain beyond the first stay, of which a critical part is getting customers to allow the brand to occupy real estate on their phones through the app.

Clayton Ruebensaal, Ritz-Carlton’s Global Head of Market-ing explains: “All 85 of our hotels have an activated ‘At Hotel’ feature. This displays special content as our guests use the app at a hotel like a local concierge. There are tips, a calendar of events and they can push a single button to call the operator. The hotels also feature special offers and announcements that are only accessible through the app.”

Stats:

■ 170,000 downloads: 85% iOS; 15% Android ■ 85 hotels activated ■ 568 unique global tips through FourSquare World

Concierge ■ 900 special offers loaded by all hotels so far

QR-code location-based experiences per locale

■ Kapalua – Cultural Art Tour leading them round the hotel’s art collection

■ Hong Kong – Wine pairings for meals ■ Berlin – digital scavenger hunt for children ■ Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal – videos, recipes, photos

and tips from hotel chefs ■ New York, Battery Park – recipe for the hotel’s

signature 10th anniversary cocktail printed in QR form on drinks napkin

QR code experiences encourage consumers not only to continue to interact with the Ritz-Carlton brand in-stay but with the variety of recipes and historical information available, encourage visitors to extend their experience at home, sharing information and replicating the Ritz-Carlton experience at home.

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Case study: Ritz CaRLton’s LoCation-Based maRketing stRategy | 4For more information visit: www.eyefortravel.com/online-marketing-europe

social-driven location-based marketingIntegrating social as a location-based marketing tool is critical to the way the company has chosen to build rela-tionships as well as help its customers.

“The interactions across each of the 12 social channels on which we have a presence are a natural extension of the way in which we interact with our guests in hotels,” said Ed French, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. “We seek to enrich the social media experience and to be a primary source of trusted travel information and insights for our fans and followers. The importance of each of our online channels continues to grow as our guests live more of their lives in the digital space,” he added.

Prior to the app’s launch, Ritz-Carlton was already interact-ing locally with customers via Foursquare World Concierge. Concierges from each property are encouraged to leave tips about places to see and things to do in the areas sur-rounding the hotels but do not publicise the properties themselves.

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Case study: Ritz CaRLton’s LoCation-Based maRketing stRategy | 5For more information visit: www.eyefortravel.com/online-marketing-europe

sending them an SMS or push notification with a sugges-tion to open the app and look at the special offers available.

Location-based marketing critical to global brand managementLocation marketing is critical to Ritz-Carlton because, despite being a chain of over 85 properties worldwide and growing, each property is unique. The brand takes great pains to avoid the cookie-cutter approach to marketing and while there are certain cast-iron brand values running across the chain including luxury and service, each prop-erty reflects its geography and cultural heritage.

Integrating social media, scanning facilities, email market-ing, push notifications and even SMS, the company is able to provide unique, personalised experiences to consumers on a global scale through agile app technology.

“It’s a market to market solution that each property needs to be able to manage. We asked ourselves when creating

Foursquare World Concierge is now integrated with the Ritz-Carlton app and customers can see both recom-mendations from hotel concierges as well as those left by previous visitors if they choose to check in through the app while out and about.

Location-based notificationsRitz-Carlton makes its use of consumers’ location data explicit both on the app download page and within the app itself. It does not use any personalisation data beyond the user’s location however the fact that the traveller is a Ritz-Carlton customer already places them into a certain segment for tailored offers.

If the customer enables push notifications, the app can use the phone’s GPS to identify where they are staying and deliver a variety of tips and occasionally vital cultural infor-mation particularly of use for Western customers traveling to Eastern nations. GPS also allows Ritz-Carlton to engage directly with the customer when they are close to the hotel,

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Few tips:

■ Make the location-based marketing part of the hotel stay experience: welcoming customers before they even arrive is a GPS-based automation that will still result in customers feeling surprised by the level of personalisation

■ Engage local staff to enhance customers’ stay by providing regional expertise through existing platforms such as social media that are easily integrated into a group-wide app platform

■ Encourage user generated content such as reviews that add to the repository of information available to new visitors while proving to local businesses the value of a link to the hotel brand

■ Ensure local, value-added content is only available through the native app to increase long-term customer engagement with the brand through ongoing real estate occupation on travellers’ phones.

the app – ‘are we keeping this open enough and not clos-ing doors in the future? Information about entertainment, maps, concierge services – we needed to make sure that these things are being built the right way at local level to be able to deliver on a service promise across the brand,” Ruebensaal notes.

summaryLocation-based marketing for hotels such as Ritz-Carlton is not about using apps to locate the property, it is about en-hancing the experience while in-stay. This is what delivers in-creased engagement with the brand, opening up exclusive experiences that customers expect from a luxury property.

Increasingly, encouraging mobile use in-stay has also resulted in positive, real-time feedback from customers in-corporating reviews, photographs and videos that make for much more compelling content for ‘first time buyers’ in the consideration phase. By linking location-based activity not just to in-stay needs but social media, Ritz-Carlton ensures that it targets potential customers as well as existing ones.

Although the brand itself is a globally recognised name, location-based technologies allow each property to develop its own personality and make the company more than a place to stay. Instead, from centralised technological capabilities each property can use social media, GPS and QR codes to deliver individual experiences to customers.

For more insights and case studies like this join over 200 online travel executives at EyeforTravel’s upcoming

Online Marketing, Mobile & Social Media in Travel Europe 2014

1-2 October, Novotel Tiergarten Berlin

The conference will bring together senior executives from the travel industry to discuss effective mobile &

marketing strategies which will ensure growth in 2015

Top speakers include

Kenny Jacobs, CMO,

Ryanair

Vicki Fernandez de Larrea, SVP Marketing,

Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Marco Ryan, CMO,

Thomas Cook

Claire Bilby, SVP Marketing,

Disneyland Paris

Alex Gisbert, CMO,

Low Cost Travel Group

Dean Dacko, SVP Marketing,

Malaysia Airlines

Daniel Kerzner, VP Marketing & Loyalty, Starwood Hotels &

Resorts

Isabelle Birem, SVP Direct Sales & Loyalty,

Accor

For more information visit www.eyefortravel.com/online-marketing-europe