Influencer Marketing for Hotels has become popular among the best hotel brands. Many top hospitality chains have leveraged the development of digital marketing to push their influence marketing campaigns.
Moreover, the travel and tourism sector has improved tremendously with the rise of social media trends. Here is a guide to what influencer marketing is and the top most popular brands for influencer marketing for hotels.
About influencer marketing campaigns
Influencer marketing campaigns refer to when an influential individual helps promote some products and services. This concept started with celebrity endorsements and has expanded to online audiences, social content creators, and other people.
In 2021, about 52% of US and French marketers spend more than 15% of their budget on Influencer Marketing.
The report further opines that more than 76% of customers say that clients, leads, and traffic from influencer marketing is more genuine than those gotten from other sources.
Top 4 Brands involved in Influencer Marketing
Here are the top four brands known for influencer marketing for hotels’ campaigns:
Starwood Resorts
Starwood Resorts are one of the biggest brands when we talk about the hospitality sector. They have been using social media platforms like Instagram since 2015 for marketing purposes. When you check their profile you will find more than 5 travel-based Instagram influencers.
Moreover, these influencers are used to help advertise and promote several new apartments in Paris, Ontario, and Le Metropolitan. The influencers will create content and post pictures about their time in the hotel.
Immediately after a post is liked, a link will be sent to the person who will document booking information and all you need to know about the place. Due to these campaigns, Starwood has more than 600, 000 followers on its Instagram pages and are hoping to earn a thousand more with the influencers’ help.
Marriott
Marriott is a household name when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns. The social media they focus on the most is Snapchat. In recent times, Marriott made a marketing campaign using their Moxy brand. They employed the services of popular comedienne Taryn Southern.
This collaboration brought about the seriousness of Do Not disturb videos. The videos have become popular on Instagram and Snapchat, appealing to thousands of people.
In addition, Marriott brought about full Snapchat takeovers and left it with several social influencers. The popular influencers that help the Marriott brand are Sara Hopkins, Tom Jauncey, and Diipa. Khosla. Each of these influencers regularly creates videos of trips to top European cities like Seoul, Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, and New York. They were encouraged by Marriott to share their stories via Snapchat and promote Marriott promotional rewards.
While many people are scared of giving up their social media handles, it has its merits. What we will suggest is to use a credible influencer and know their style.
Hilton Hotels
Hilton Hotels is an excellent hospitality brand that offers top services to its customers. It has tapped into the frenzy of Gen Z and Millennials with its Hilton@play scheme. This scheme offers musical events at many Hilton apartments across Canada and the United Kingdom. However, not everybody can enjoy this scheme, it has its target audience. It is open specifically to honor rewards members with an expected number of points.
Hilton allowed top artists such as Nick Jonas to a comprehensive live stream on periscope. This implies that people who aren’t Honors members can still visit all Hilton properties. Hilton gives members some points and also engages their customers via live streams.
The Ritz Charlton
The Ritz Charlton is one of the major resort brands in the world. This luxury brand looks at social feeds and sends invites regularly to visit some of its properties for free. What they ask for in return is just to post one or two of their pictures daily to advertise their brand.
Their marketing team looks for Internet influencers with thousands of followers and who have active engagement. When they find you, they will book you for a week’s stay in any of their hotels and pay for everything.
Other Top brands who participate in influence marketing
Aside from the top brands mentioned above, some other less-known brands are crushing the game:
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines is another top brand that started a trendy influencer contest on Instagram called #SouthwestPassport#. This hospitality brand has sent about 13 influencers to different locations to promote its brands. Influencers used are popular and have great content on Food, travel, tourism, and wellness.
What makes your Southwest campaign interesting is that it doesn’t just reach millions of their influencers’ followers. People who hear about it can enter a contest and win A Gift certificate. However, to qualify for this contest, you have to hashtag them.
Airbnb
Airbnb is another top brand which is in the hospitality industry. Since 2008, it is seen by many had an ideal alternative to staying in Hotels. Airbnb is popular among young and carefree people who see it as a better alternative to traditional hospitality brands.
With social media, it has become a treat to all hotels and resorts. In 2015, they employed Mariah Carey to help bush their brands. She was allowed to stay in some apartments for free while she took pictures and posted them on her handles.
Influence marketing for hotels is a necessity for many hotel chains because many clients are active online. Their strong presence on social media makes driving engagement and getting more followers easy.
Why do major hotel groups continue to make collaborations with influencers? Read our article to know more about it!