Bringing Hotel Marketing to Mobile

These days our mobile devices seem to overwhelmingly be our main source of communication, so what better way for marketers to effectively deliver a message than through the mobile channel? The mobile future is now present: 91% of Americans own and use a mobile device, presenting almost limitless opportunities for marketing and sales in virtually any industry. Is your hotel missing out on going mobile?

Most hotels have embraced the online channel as a sales and marketing vehicle and a number of chains have already developed stand-alone mobile apps that allow guests to book stays and manage their loyalty programs, but this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the marketing potential of mobile. Advances in mobile technology have given marketers the ability to pinpoint a user's exact location using location-based mobile marketing. This is an exciting development that promises many possibilities for marketers to engage consumers with real-time and relevant offers, while drastically increasing their sales.
Below is a copy of my recent article in Hotel Business Review article, which looked at mobile strategies, tactics and technology that are best suited for hotels and companies working in the travel and hospitality industries.

Time to Bring Hotel Marketing to Mobile

Is your hotel missing one of the most engaging marketing opportunities of the last few decades? If it's ignoring the mobile channel, the answer is an emphatic yes.

As anyone who's walked along a city street, ridden on public transportation or killed time at an airport gate can attest, mobile devices are taking over the world.

According to market research company Gartner, sales of smartphones climbed almost 50% in just one year from the first quarter of 2009. Gartner also predicts that the total number of smartphones in use will exceed 1.8 billion in 2013, surpassing PC usage (we'll leave tablets for another time). In other words, more people will be interacting with their mobile devices for just about everything than through their computers - entertainment, shopping, education, banking, even payments. Want proof? This article was written on my contactless payment-enabled Blackberry, edited on my WiFi-enabled iPad and submitted from my laptop. I rely on my mobile device first and foremost, and chances are so do many of your hotel guests.

But mobile marketing isn't only about smartphones: 91% of Americans own and use a mobile device, presenting almost limitless opportunities for hotel marketers.

Two Years is a Lifetime in Technology

2013 is only two years away; for those who've been relying mostly or exclusively on the internet or even more traditional media to get their message across, the mobile future is coming. In fact, it's already here.
Most hotels have embraced the online channel as a sales and marketing vehicle but now, it's time for the industry to embrace the next great channel for marketing and sales: mobile.

A number of chains have already developed stand-alone, mobile apps that allow guests to book stays and manage their loyalty programs, but this is only the tip of a very large iceberg in terms of marketing potential. For example, advances in mobile technology have given marketers the ability to pinpoint a user's exact location, using location-based mobile marketing. This is an exciting development that promises many possibilities for marketers to engage consumers with real-time and relevant offers, and drastically increase their mobile marketing ROI.

Mobile Marketing is About Engagement Too: Finding a Strategy that Fits Mobile marketing is as much about increasing guests' engagement with the hotel brand - in order to make them feel comfortable making a booking decision - as it is about opening new markets and expanding marketing reach. Both are important, and both are accelerated with the right mobile marketing strategy.

So which mobile strategies, tactics and technologies are best for your hotel?

Different properties - and different hotel chains - employ different mobile strategies. Some hotels are content to have a simple mobile web presence: a mobile-optimized website with booking capabilities, not far removed from their main websites. And for certain kinds of hotels, particularly unaffiliated, standalone properties or isolated boutiques, this can be an effective strategy.

Other properties engage in a more comprehensive mobile marketing strategy. The InterContinental Hotel Group recently unveiled a mobile trivia game that links into their loyalty program, giving participants both an incentive to play and a goal to achieve. The IHG game takes advantage of one of the most significant aspects of the mobile channel: its ability to engage consumers and increase interaction both between consumer and brand and between consumers. When it comes to mobile, the social aspect to the game is nearly as important as the game itself.

Other hotels have branded smartphone apps to compliment their mobile websites. Some may even engage in SMS marketing, sending direct text messages to guests or potential guests that have signed up to receive them. Other properties participate in one or more of the growing number of location-aware social media platforms, like certain W and Omni hotels on SCVNGR . There are very few limits on the engagement that can be created by mobile marketing.

But to many, the array of mobile marketing options currently available can be confusing. Here are four ways to 'go mobile' effectively:

Make Friends with Mobile

The future of mobile marketing is inextricably tied with the mobile web. In the world of mobile advertising and marketing, the reign of the native smartphone app is waning, and the age of the mobile browser is beginning. This means that building a mobile site, or at least, a mobile-friendly site, should be the first and best step toward creating an effective mobile marketing strategy for any hotel brand. Mobile websites are specifically optimized for viewing and interacting on a mobile device. Mobile-friendly websites use coding to make display resolution viewable on any device . Both serve the purpose of establishing a mobile web presence, and both provide hotels with a platform from which to launch mobile marketing initiatives.

The Right App

Mobile apps are the current hot ticket item in mobile marketing. The Apple App Store has more than 300,000 apps available for download, while Google's Andriod app store has 100,000. Thirty-five percent of US adults have at least one app on their phone (52% of users are 18-29) . Mobile apps provide a user-friendly experience that the hotel marketer can customize to suit their needs. For hotels, apps that feature booking ability, location finders, and other information relevant to travelers are the most effective and offer the greatest ROI on your marketing dollar.

Consider Location-Based Mobile Marketing

With the amount of public space in the typical hotel and the ubiquity of mobile devices among guests, location-based marketing makes perfect sense (and dollars and cents) for hotel operations. Put simply, location-based marketing uses a person's physical location to trigger a mobile message (based, of course, on the user having given permission to the hotel to receive them). Messaging can include a discount offer, offers for in-room dining, spa-services or other revenue-generating opportunities.

Integrate Loyalty into Your Mobile Program

As evidenced by the IHG mobile game, integration of a mobile marketing strategy into an existing loyalty program can be quite lucrative, both in terms of loyalty program enrollment and loyalty unit accrual. Every chance a hotel has to engage its guests with its loyalty program should be seized upon, particularly in terms of mobile marketing. Recent research has shown, for instance, that program members increasingly prefer rewards in the digital sphere, such as music, eBooks, digital content and rich media - all of which can be accessed immediate and instantly on a mobile device. Why not engage with a guest this way? Allowing them to track their stays, points and bonus opportunities just the start; redemption opportunities can be made via mobile for products that can actually be used in that device, and used instantly. Stay a night, earn some points, redeem for the latest eBook or album... and put that album on repeat during the trip back to the airport.

This is another example of what a powerful marketing tool the mobile channel presents, one that is both low-cost and highly effective in engaging guests, providing something relevant and of value.
And speaking of engaging, mobile marketing has constantly been touted as the next great wave in consumer engagement. For hotels, that wave is here.

Ride the Mobile Wave

To get started, a hotel must assess its mobile needs, based on its audience, size, and management structure, and then attack the mobile channel in the most effective ways possible. There are many examples of how mobile marketing can work, and work beautifully. Smartphone capabilities provide fertile ground for any hotel marketer and properties, in particular, have the advantage of being able to target very specific demographics at very specific places and times to attract potential customers for a stay, and to keep them coming back.

Certainly, every hotel should be accessible through the mobile web. Other hotels may find an app strategy preferable, while others may see value in a location-based marketing campaign within the property itself. Whatever tactics or strategy a hotel considers, however, it's critical for hotels to integrate mobile marketing into their overall marketing mix and to get started immediately.

No hotel should miss out on "going mobile." Today, there's simply no excuse not to be marketing your property through the highly-effective, personal, always-on medium of mobile.

http://www.hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2463/time-to-bring-hotel-marketing-to-mobile

BELIEVING ISN’T SEEING

We like to think that we're creatures of free will. We also like to think that having more choice is better.

Freedom. Selection. Decisions. We want to own all of these things; we want the power they provide us.

Or do we? Some intriguing research suggests not. Sheena Iyegur, a professor at Columbia Business School, recently conducted a round of experiments on the subject of consumer choice. Her team presented two types of nail polish to a group of women. The brand labels were removed from the bottles. The first reaction? Indignation - the women were convinced that both brands were exactly the same color, and that the researchers were asking a trick question.

Next, the labels were re-attached and presented to the same group ("adorable" and "ballet shoes" were the brands, in case you want to try this at home). Interestingly, the researchers weren't accused of trying to fool the ladies. Instead, the test subjects picked their favorite, with the results being half "adorable" and half "ballet shoes".

The most interesting part was the last. The bottles were taken away, and presented again for choice. The women all picked the same brands. However, the researchers had switched the labels, so what the subjects chose were not the bottles they had selected in the previous round.

So the conclusion to draw from this experiment (and others like it) is that for all our talk about freedom to choose, at the end of the day we don't really want a choice. We do like outside forces to guide us, thank you very much. That's why brands have so much power over our decision-making process; consumers often allow them to do the deciding. If a label seems more familiar, comforting or inviting and attractive, it likely has the edge over any rival. Even if we know by our eyes and brain that the choices being presented aren't much different (or quite the same, as in the nail polish experiment).

Among her other credentials, Professor Iyegur was uniquely qualified to conduct this research: she is 100% blind!

Here’s a short video from BigThink with the professor talking about how too many dating choices is making us shallower.

GOOGLE GETS PETTY (AND PISSY)

A brand’s identity is much more than the image it creates in its advertising, or the buzz swirling around its products. It’s also in its collective behavior - the way it approaches its business partners and rivals, the media and the rest of the world.

On that basis, it seems Google might be taking a sharp turn towards the nasty. The firm that famously exhorted its employees, “don’t be evil”, may be abandoning that friendly approach. Earlier this month, the company jumped on its soapbox to denounce Microsoft for copying Google results in its own search engine, Bing.

The reaction to this from some in the tech community wasn’t what Google expected. There was a surprising amount of backlash critical of the search giant for picking a fight.

The criticism was justified. Leaving aside its nice-guy motto and philosophy, Google is clear and away the top search destination on the internet; as #1, it should also be clear and away from petty sniping with a distant rival. Like its foray into mobile operating systems, MP3 players and… well, anything else that isn’t a buggy PC operating system, Microsoft is a pale competitor to anyone. On top of that, their traditionally aggressive business practices and competition-choking moves have not made it a popular firm among most of humanity.

So why bother bashing them at all? The number one company should be above that, first of all, and secondly, attacking Microsoft is a simple shot at an easy target. Both make Google look petty and pissy; is that the image one of the top world-beating companies, and one of the most recognized brands, should be projecting?

I’m not condoning plagiarism here. Readers of this blog know my feelings on that subject. Plagiarizers should be called out… but only that. Attacks and denouncements on the part of the plagiarized serve only to make the offended party seem undignified and small-minded. It’s much better to fly above the controversy than slop around in the mud.

Here’s what Gord Hotchkiss of Search Insider had to say about Google last, in his post A ‘Page’ From Google’s PR Book.

Clamor for mobile marketing begins - from Mobile Marketer

Six weeks into 2011 and it is very clear that the high-stakes sprint to do all things mobile is off and running in an immense way.

If 2010 was a marathon, a long endurance race with only a few winners making it to the finish line, this year’s starting block includes marketers of every size and liquidity – aggregators, developers, networks, agencies, location-services and chancers – all clamoring to get to the front of the line.

My question is this: What took you all so long?

The short answer is a combination of marketers’ aversion to risk and a bit of follow-the-herd mentality thrown in.

While the traders over on Wall Street took risks aplenty with our money, marketers, it seems, were waiting for others to take the first few giant steps.

The long answer, below, is, well, long.

Adding new dimensions to mobile
Last year clearly demonstrated that mobile marketing was no longer a one-horse or single-dimensional player. It began to, and now is, playing a significant role in many multichannel campaigns, fundamentally reshaping the dynamics of interactive marketing in the process.

Here are some recent numbers if you do not believe me:

- Mobile marketing spend will top $1 billion in 2011, according to Forrester Research

- Nearly half of smartphone users say they have already, or soon will, use their phones to do mobile shopping. Fifty-three percent also use, or intend to use, their smartphones for mobile banking, per ABI Research

- There will be an estimated 1.8 billion Internet-enabled mobile phones in use around the world by 2013, and 91 percent of all U.S. consumers already own and use a mobile device, according to Modus Associates

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BACK TO THE FUTURE IN 30 SECONDS

After all the hoo-hah with the Super Bowl ads last week, how about a bit of nostalgia-themed advertising banter to kick off this week instead?

The retread and nostalgia business is clearly thriving. Movie franchises such as Superman and James Bond are well into their latest reboots; customers plop themselves onto the vinyl banquettes of faux-1950s diner chains for a patty melt. Everything was better, fresher and sweeter years ago… or at least we trick ourselves into thinking so.

So maybe it’s time for the ad business to hit that trend. This has been happening in the UK recently, where brands are making throwback TV spots that reference famous ads from years past, and attracting good buzz from doing so. Can the rest of the world be far behind?

American advertisers have dipped their toes very carefully in the water. Two Super Bowls ago, Coke did a parody/update of its classic Mean Joe Greene ad. The old fogies in the audience will remember the spot featured the gruff Pittsburgh Steelers lineman hobbling away from a tough game, being offered a cold bottle of the soda from a young fan, rejecting the offer… then finally accepting it and tossing the kid his game jersey as a thank-you. The updated version featured current Steeler Troy Polamalu, with the twist of an obnoxious adult fan grabbing the kid’s Coke Zero before Polamalu can accept it… and getting convincingly tackled by the football player for his effort. The ending has Polamalu claiming the drink, then ripping the would-be-thief’s shirt off and throwing it to the kid for a souvenir.

Like most Super Bowl ads, though, that was essentially made as a one-off, something to provide a surprise and a chuckle. Perhaps that’s the fate of nostalgia ads in the US – expensive single commercials that mine a classic only as a source of parody.

It’s a shame to limit them so narrowly. The little kids who laughed at TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s are now an attractive demographic group with significant spending power, so a well-made, at least semi-reverential spot could stir their emotions and score fresh brand awareness.

It could even make a lot of that demographic, myself included, feel young again - even if only for half a minute. Now that’s a jersey worth tossing their way.

FRIENDING AN EXCUSE, OR TWO

Marriages fail for a number of reasons. Couples drift apart, one of them cheats, a spouse discovers that the magic is gone or that her partner is a cross-dresser, and so on. These are all painful developments that can only be dealt with through maturity, understanding and time, and maybe a few bouts of binge drinking. Eventually, the pain fades with time and the injured parties go their separate ways to, hopefully, find other and more suitable mates.

Or, alternatively, they could just blame Facebook.

That’s right, the world’s top social networking site is also fast becoming one of its most popular scapegoats for the demise of marriage. Late last year, Churchgoers were warned by their pastor “Thou shalt not Facebook”, who feared Facebook was ruining the marriages of his congregation.

Maybe he was right...

“Facebook ruined my relationship!” pages are springing up faster than Farmville followers, in which bitter sad sacks detail how spending time on the site has led to the breakdown of their relationship, and/or divorce.

Awwww, can you hear the violins?

It’s hard for some people to take personal responsibility, but come on people. Facebook? If someone can’t own up to their or their marriage’s failings, they can at least come up with a more creative excuse than Facebook. Perhaps an inappropriate astrological configuration, the fact that AC/DC isn’t doing a reunion tour in 2011, lack of affection for your mate’s pet Kimodo dragon… anything, really, that shows a spark of intellect and humor. What’s next, blaming your health problems on Twitter?

It seems that some people apparently forgot that social networking, by its very name, is a public phenomenon. Anyone in the social networks’ tangle – well, those curious enough to look at such pages, at any rate – can see a name and a face attached to the whines and complaints on “Facebook (name your grievance here)”. It’s already pathetic that someone is scapegoating Facebook for their marriage breakdown; doing it in public is just humiliating and embarrassing.

Why not simply run into the middle of a crowd, scantily clothed, perhaps downtown Manhattan at midday, and start yelling about how the chosen scapegoat has made your life miserable? Screaming is far more therapeutic than typing a wall post will ever come close to. There’s more bang for the buck right there, plus maybe the local news crews will discover you and you’ll become famous for a few minutes – or even longer like Kate Gosselin.

Ha, that could be a new fan page right there! “Facebook turned me into a screaming weirdo humiliating herself in public, and I got a reality show.”

Wow, social media really can be useful and instructive, don’t you think?

PR In The Age Of Plagiarism

You know that a journalist has hit rock bottom when he or she starts copying another journalist/media outlet verbatim.

That's what happened two weeks ago when one of Britain's top newspapers, The Daily Mail, lifted entire sections of a story that ran only four days earlier in The New York Times.

In our "Age of Information," how could any journalist be deluded enough to think they could get away with plagiarism of that scale? Google Alerts, hello?

The original Daily Mail rip-off had the byline not of an ambitious rookie journalist looking to make a quick splash in her career, but of a seasoned reporter for the paper -- which makes the move even more astounding. If ever a journalist was considering cut-and-paste "reporting," the last place I would recommend for material is The New York Times. Not that I am recommending doing that at all.

Copying Is Not A Form of Flattery
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