Check-in for the modern age creates buzz around Radisson Edwardian

This case study underlines how check-in technology has been used to create widespread buzz around the Radisson Edwardian hotel brand.

Executive SummaryRadisson Edwardian Hotels, a collection of 12 luxury hotels in central London and Manchester, delivers high end luxurious experiences for both the time poor corporate guests and holidaymakers. Over the past 12 months, digital agency I Spy has worked alongside the in-house Radisson Edwardian online marketing team to create and implement a robust and ideas driven social media strategy in line with the hotels core brand values; a strategy which seeks to deepen the brand’s relationship with its guests and empower employees to become ambassadors of the brand. Neither brand had any official social media presence prior to the initiatives. To date, the brand has over 12,694 Facebook fans, 7,959 Twitter followers, 252,956 YouTube video views, and over 645 blog subscribers. Two notable examples of integrating social media with other on and offline marketing activity included I Spy’s deployment of the Check in Check out Later geo-location based initiative and QR coded menus. Both campaigns were cost-effective and innovative ways to create buzz, generate widespread coverage and reward loyal customers for engaging with the brand via social media.Client ObjectivesKey objectives I Spy were tasked to deliver included:

• To become the UK’s most active and admired hotel group using social media
• To deliver innovative social media campaigns which engage the brand's digitally enlightened customer base
• Create buzz
• To be seen as innovative by its trade and consumer audiences
• To humanise the brand through social media and encourage dialogue
• To increase fan base
• To promote and increase awareness of the hotel’s restaurant offering
• To build trust and authenticity around the brand
• To maximise employee engagement
• Deliver strong ROI

StrategyThrough on-going analysis, I Spy was able to uncover a variety of trends amongst hotel visitors and find ways in which these could be used to enhance their overall hotel experience. Key trends included:

• The growing amount of check-ins on Geo location based social media such as Foursquare and Facebook
• Growing amount of business travelers eating alone in the hotel restaurants and using smart phones to keep themselves entertained
• Growing use of mobile

As a result of these trends I Spy launched the following key campaigns:QR coded menusThe first of I Spy’s key campaigns featured bespoke QR codes on restaurant menus across eleven of Radisson Edwardian’s UK hotels. Believed to be a first in the hospitality industry the campaign was created to promote the brand’s restaurants whilst engaging with their creative and tech-savvy audience. The menu QR codes provide diners with a short-cut to an online video, hosted on the brand’s website and YouTube channel, of the ‘dish of the month’ being skillfully prepared and cooked by one of the hotel chain’s highly-talented chefs. The campaign soon transformed an online approach into a viral offline PR campaign and was featured in some of the most prestigious titles (both trade and vertical), most notably The Financial Times. The codes generated hundreds of mentions on Twitter and blogs discussing the initiative. Many hotel groups are already laying the foundations to replicate the campaign. Check-in Check-out laterAimed at delivering an innovative social media campaign to which engage the brand's digitally enlightened customer base, deliver strong ROI, and create a buzz within the hospitality industry. The campaign gives digital-savvy consumers the opportunity to extend their checkout by up to two hours by ‘checking in’ to one of Radisson Edwardian’s twelve London hotels or Manchester hotel via location based social media apps. Once checked in, the customer simply has to show their smart phone at the front desk to enjoy all the benefits of a late checkout. For Foursquare, the late-check-in is promoted using a ‘Foursquare special offer’ which customers can see when they check-in on Foursquare. Radisson Edwardian used their Hotel Champions (carefully selected hotel social media ambassadors) to evangelise and educate hotel staff on the campaigns. ResultsI Spy has successfully taken each Social Media campaign and transformed these into hugely successful online pr, offline campaigns and experiences all of which successfully engage with the luxury hotels target market. One in which the entire hospitality and digital industry appreciated and admired. Key to social media is coming up with the disruptive big ideas but also seeing the results and monetising the strategy. Radisson Edwardian is now recognised as one that communicates with its customers and adds value far beyond the norm. ? QR Coded Menus

• 500+ tweets mentioning the QR coded menus campaign
• Coverage of the campaign in Financial Times Travel amongst other notable publications
• Featured on E Consultancy as one of the top 8 most innovative uses of QR codes
• Positive feedback from the diners themselves
• Engaged staff

Check In Check Out Later

• Generated over 900 tweets
• Picked up and reported on by global social media site Mashable (40 million+ monthly page views)
• Foursquare highlighted the campaign as an example of best practice in their blog post celebrating 500,000 businesses on their social network
• Provided customers with an added incentive to choose Radisson Edwardian.

The outlined strategy has been nominated in the category of Best Use of Check In/Location Based Services at the Social Buzz Awards