MARKETING

Mix it up

Finally, travelers can get back to collecting those miniature bottles of shampoo. 

The travel industry is (mostly) back, and Marriott debuted its biggest global campaign in more than a decade last week, reminding travelers that it has indeed survived the pandemic.

Slowly...but surely: According to industry tracker STR, US hotel occupancy was at 68% for the second week of June, down only about 10% from 2019. Customers are spending about $129 a night, down only 4.4% from two years ago.

“The world is ready for the message,” Brian Povinelli, marketing SVP at Marriott, told Marketing Brew.

A mixed bag of media

As one of the largest hotel companies in the world, it isn’t exactly surprising that Marriott and its 30 brands bought ad time during the NBA Finals and NBC’s broadcast of the Olympics. But the brand is also leaning on newer channels to remind guests of the virtues of a free continental breakfast.

Yes, that means the brand’s testing out TikTok for the first time:

• It’s running a campaign with 27 influencers—including @lianev, @visitearth, and @voyagefox—filled with all the blue ocean cliches we’re accustomed to seeing in aspirational travel advertising.
• Combined, Marriott said the 27 influencers have 34 million followers.
• Each TikTok features a music track created by Marriott, filled with breathy narration that aims to inspire other travelers to create and share their own content.

+1: It’s running an OOH activation with Pinterest in Los Angeles and New York City, which will guide travelers to an in-app quiz that’ll encourage traveling with Marriott. And there’s a partnership with Snap, which the brand has worked with before, to build a branded Marriott VR Lens. 

It’s also made a big bet on streaming services, with a native screen takeover of Amazon’s Fire TV, inventory blocks on HBO Max’s ad-supported tier, and shoppable, QR-code enabled ads on Hulu. The investments mark the first time Marriott’s using shoppable ads, which Povinelli sees as a booking vehicle. He claims the number of people booking + going on trips within a 24-hour window is up “significantly from two years ago.” 

• “People seem to be a little bit more impulsive in their purchase decisions. We wanted to test that,” said Povinelli.

Zoom out: It’s hard to show off everything from a Courtyard to a St. Regis with a billboard, and “you can only do so much in a traditional 30-second film or TV ad or a print ad,” Povinelli said. “In these newer forums, you have an opportunity to tell a broader story.”

Click here to read why media agencies think clients are spending on newer platforms.—RB

PARTNERSHIPS

Outdoor Voices calls on Lex for Pride partnership

To kick off Pride weekend, athleisure brand Outdoor Voices (OV) worked with Lex, a dating and friendship app created by and for queer, lesbian, trans, and non-binary people, to cohost community mixers dubbed “Fast Friends” on June 25.

But here’s the catch: The mixers weren't dreamed up by someone in a corner office at OV's HQ. Jen Amentt, a queer shop supervisor and events coordinator at OV’s Soho store in New York City, organized them on their own.

• Two of the mixers took place at OV stores in Chicago and San Francisco, while the third happened at a queer-owned NYC bar.
• The mixers, all of which attracted dozens of guests and hit their attendance goals, included OV product giveaways, free limited edition OV x Lex tote bags and stickers, and games like giant Jenga and trivia. 
• Fast Friends was promoted in three stores + on Lex’s Instagram account, which has 82.5K followers. 

Grassroots : Each OV store has its own events coordinator equipped with a small monthly activation budget (Amentt declined to share the exact amount). Amentt, a Lex user, suspected the app’s community would be interested in a post-lockdown mixer. They then called up allies at OV Chicago and San Fran to get those stores involved, too. “There's a fair amount of brand overlap and location overlap between OV stores and Lex user location ‘hotspots,’” Lex Marketing Manager Anita Osuala told us.

Big picture: Amentt told Marketing Brew they think the most authentic way to do Pride marketing is to hire queer people who are in the know about what their communities want during the month—and organize accordingly.—PB

SPONSORED BY FIVERR BUSINESS

Take a Load Off

Ah, remember vacation? Crystalline waters, your toes in the sand, an oversized margarita at your lips, guacamole stains on your shirt. The dream.

A dream shattered last year by—WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA SAY IT—and the backlog of work it proceeded to bury you in. But hope is on the horizon, readers—nay, it’s already here. 

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JOBS

Leavin’, never lookin’ back again

About two-thirds of marketers are planning a job or career change this year, per a recent report from We Are Rosie. Turns out there’s more where that came from. 

• This week, Ad Age said “workers and executives have had time to reevaluate their priorities, and they’re heading out the door,” noting the departures of Facebook’s Carolyn Everson and TBWA\London’s CEO, Sara Tate.
• And Digiday recently reported that “a wave of employees not getting what they want and need from their bosses are choosing to simply walk away.”

Andrew Murtagh, regional VP at staffing firm Robert Half, told Marketing Brew the “burnout is real” for creative and marketing professionals—and could be why some are heading out the (virtual) door.

“As a result, the churn has now become real. People have had an opportunity to gain perspective over the last year,” he told us. “People are definitely thinking about their options.”

Murtagh pointed to a few other reasons why marketers are leaving their current gigs. For one, companies that have leaned into remote working are hiring from all over, meaning individuals who live in historically “lower-paying markets” are now seeing new opportunities—and higher salaries—crop up. “Covid evened the playing field,” he said.

+1: According to Murtagh, employees are also looking for roles that better align with their values. “People are incredibly passionate about the type of company they work for,” he concluded.—MS

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Instagram is testing letting anyone—not just the bourgeoisie—share a link in Stories.  
• Facebook officially rolled out its newsletter platform, called Bulletin, yesterday. 
• Bumble, the dating app where women make the first move, is opening up a cafe in NYC next month.
• Magnite, a sell-side platform, is going forward with its alternative to third-party cookies, despite Google delaying their phase-out.

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AD FRAUD

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FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Cannes: A few young creatives started a free resource for seeing Cannes work, which you can find here.  

Emails: This Instagram graphic shows the best days to send promotional emails.

Influencers: If you’re dying to get in on the micro influencer trend but don’t know where to look, start here.

Engage: Thousands of top Shopify-powered brands use personalized text messaging to drive shopper engagements. We’re talkin' e-commerce big boys like Steve Madden and Olive & June. Learn what to look for in an SMS provider.*

AD FRAUD ANSWER

A CBD company couldn’t do...anything like that.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Hill House Home treats its influencers like artists—and isn’t worried about the metrics
• IBM is studying “unwanted bias” in targeted advertising
• Cannes Lions 2021: What surprised top ad agency creatives