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When Hilton decided to merge its marketing and digital departments last year, and focus on driving direct bookings, that resulted in the company's largest marketing campaign ever.
Editor's Note: Following our previous CEO interview series in online travel, hospitality, and destinations, Skift has launched a new series, this time focused on Chief Marketing Officers.
To better understand the big marketing challenges facing travel brands in an age when consumers are in control, Skift's What Keeps CMOs Up at Night will talk with the leading voices in global marketing from across all the industry's sectors.
These interviews with leaders of hotels, airlines, tourism boards, digital players, agents, tour operators and more will explore both shared and unique challenges they are facing, where they get insights, and how they best leverage digital insights to make smarter decisions.
This is the latest interview in the series.
According to Hilton Worldwide, 57 billion Hilton HHonors Points went unused in 2015 because guests booked through a third party, equating to more than 1.6 million free nights lost.
Geraldine Calpin, SVP and global head of marketing & digital at Hilton Worldwide, says the reason for that is because there’s such widespread belief among travel consumers that online travel agencies (OTAs) offer the lowest prices available in the digital marketplace.
Many other hotel brands have developed different types of marketing campaigns to educate consumers that booking directly on the brand.com websites provides the greatest value, with added benefits ranging from free Wi-Fi to free breakfast. Except, those promotions have often had minimal effect because consumer behavior is so entrenched in the OTA booking ecosystem.
So Hilton launched its largest global marketing campaign ever last month, called “Stop Clicking Around.” The initiative is designed to drive Hilton HHonors membership and change consumer perception by communicating as succinctly as possible that clicking around the web for the best hotel deal is a waste of time.
The central message emphasizes that Hilton is now offering a slight discount on room rates at all of its hotels globally, below those on the OTAs, for Hilton HHonors loyalty members.
The Rolling Stones’ iconic “Satisfaction” tune is the campaign theme song to help embed the campaign deeper in the consumer psyche. The Stop Clicking Around message is further supported with a clear listing of the aut
