W Hotels

Boosting Brand Favorability with Xbox

How We Did It

Engaged music, gaming and fashion enthusiasts

Targeting high-travel-intent millennials

Increased brand alignment with “exclusive & innovative” experiences

By promoting W Hotels “New/Next” destinations, wellness and music content

Spread awareness of “Wake Up Call”

A W Hotels Music Festival

We pushed for new, innovative media formats. That’s important for W Hotels, given our culture of innovation and our consumers’ constant curiosity for what’s new and next.

Nicolette Harper, Global Vice President of Media, Marriott International

Background

Reaching millennials

Inspired by the open-minded culture and non-stop energy of New York City, W Hotels fuels their guests’ lust for life. Their audience is highly engaged online and always looking for a taste of the incredible. Knowing that a single, focused partnership would garner greater impact, W Hotels partnered with Yahoo. Together, we launched the “New/Next” campaign, designed to drive brand awareness and affinity with millennial luxury travelers.

Solutions

Showcasing the best

“New/Next” showcased the very best of W Hotels: new properties, the brand’s FUEL wellness offering, and unique experiences like “Wake Up Call,” W’s take on luxury music festivals. Audiences had the opportunity to enter a W Hotels sweepstakes by watching a 30-second video, which led to a wealth of additional branded content. Through Xbox, W Hotels also beamed their brand into living rooms, forging even more intimate connections with consumers.

Results

Massive engagement

With high-energy content and innovative formats, W Hotels reached quality connections at scale and delighted young disruptors on Xbox. The customized, exploration-driven experience led to a 3-minute average engagement time, and boosted brand favorability by 11.6%.

Integrating with Xbox was amazing because we literally beamed into people’s living rooms. People use Xbox as a home entertainment device, so the reach is really quite broad.

Carly Van Sickle, Sr. Director, Global Brand Marketing, W Hotels