Leadership in Communication series
Communication strategy case study
One of the company’s major 2007 headlines–“Marriott Opens 3,000th Hotel in China”—is an example of Marriott’s communication strategy in action. What follows is a summary of the approach taken to communicate about this company milestone, along with key results.
News release
The company started with a headline about growth: “Marriott Opens 3,000th Hotel in China.” The communication team knew that Bill Marriott was planning a trip to China, so it developed a press release the team believed “sold” the story and told the story in terms of how reporters would write it.
Release distribution
The communication team posted the release to the public Marriott Newsroom. The team also “optimized” the release by tagging it with popular words and terms the team felt people would use when using Google and other online search engines, to increase Marriott’s ranking in search results.
Results:
- Within one day after the event, the press release was the 13th highest-ranking link on Google for the keywords “hotel Beijing.”
- By day five, the release moved to No. 2 on Google and No. 1 on Yahoo News.
Marriott on the Move
Bill Marriott wrote three blog posts during his Asia trip.
Results:
- Attracted 12,000 readers plus thousands more who listened to the audio version
- The communication team posted a gallery of photos from the trip on Flickr, a popular photo-sharing web site, and linked them to the blog. Note: In 2007, Bill wrote more than 70 blog posts that drew 192,000 visitors, resulting in nearly US$3 million in revenue (the blog has a direct link to the Marriott reservation system).
Media conference
The communication team created a media event around Bill Marriott’s visit to Beijing, hired a camera crew to videotape it, and sent the video back to the U.S. via satellite to edit for posting on YouTube, where the team now has its own Marriott news channel.
Results:
- The video was distributed to the media and to HQ associates less than 12 hours after the event.
Television
Results:
- Fed video to TV stations and networks
- Coverage on Bloomberg News, CNBC and local TV stations
- Reached 500,000 U.S. viewers
- In China, six TV networks covered the event.
Newspapers
Results:
- Articles about the event reached more than 1 million people.
- 20 major stories appeared in newspapers in the U.S. and China.
- These stories also appeared online and helped proliferate Internet coverage.
- Google showed 1.5 million mentions for search term “Marriott’s 3,000th.”
Marriott Global Source
Promoted the story on Marriott’s intranet, Marriott Global Source (MGS), which is the primary source for Marriott’s business tools, applications, resources and information. MGS averages more than 650,000 visits and more than 62,000 unique visitors monthly from an audience that includes associates, owners and franchisees.
Headline News/Marriott Minute
Reported highlights on Marriott's daily news channel, Headline News, which packages top headlines:
- Pushed via e-mail to 72,000 Marriott internal stakeholders: associates, owners and franchisees around the world
- BlackBerry-friendly (delivers quick blurbs with links to full content)
- Also delivers Marriott Minute, the company’s weekly video newscast
Marriott World Express
- Newsletter sent via Headline News to associates at more than 3,000 properties worldwide
- Designed for use in daily stand-up meetings around the world and also distributed at Marriott headquarters
IABC International Conference 2008 WebCast: EXCEL Winner J.W. Marriott Jr. (registration required)
“Leadership in Communication” series – Table of Contents
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