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.
Kenny Jacob's vision of the Ryanair friendly/edgy hybrid is walking a fine line on brand, but he seems to have a very grounded perspective of how to manage it. When we think of Ryanair, "uninteresting" is not an adjective that comes to mind.
Staying at an economy hotel used to mean that every aspect of the stay was "economical." Red Roof Inn looked at its product and saw that while guests expected rates to be low they still wanted modern rooms with fast Wi-Fi, for example. Recent brand-wide renovations also led to a facelift with its content marketing which it's seeing successful results from.
Amadeus has taken a more diverse marketing approach than the other travel technology giants, experimenting on different social media channels that are usually used for consumer marketing.
What does today's top-notch marketing organization need? A blend of hundreds or thousands of data geeks coupled with legions of creative types who aren't afraid to make big bets. Campaigns need to blend global learnings and local insights. For Booking.com, having the clout to work closely with Google product managers to drive product changes doesn't hurt either.
Hyatt, like other travel brands, is going for a radical rethink of how hotels market and distribute their product. We'll watch closely to see how their plans shake out.