Langham makes a splash online: Big Deal

Hong Kong - Langham Hotels International has rolled out a social media campaign under the title of Big Deal aimed at driving business to its hotels and empowering guests to promote the Langham Hotel experience.

Brian Koroll, director of electronic marketing & revenue management at LHI, said the hotel group is launching a short viral movie campaign - a series of YouTube clips in a guerilla-style with gritty hand-held vision, which he hopes will catch on virally.

The Big Deal operates on the premise that Hong Kong in particular has much that's exciting to explore - a perfect blend of East meets West.

The campaign targets feeder markets into Hong Kong, particularly UK, Australia and New Zealand. Local expats are also targeted to spread the word.

Koroll said they are organically getting the message across as if you were having a face to face conversation and it's non traditional advertising in a way that drives traffic to their websites.

"It gets people talking about the Big Deal in a way traditional advertising would not and cannot possibly reach," he added.

He said marketing through social media creates a word of mouth effect for their products and offerings and allows them to talk directly to their customers in a format and arena of their choosing that they're familiar with.

Koroll made the analogy that Web 1.0 was the basic starting point with information being found online with little or no interactivity at the end of the last century.

It evolved to be web 2.0 with a "me to you" aspect - where customers could retrieve information that they wanted easily and the architecture of the various platforms allowed for a level of interactivity which users were comfortable with.

It encouraged users to add value to various applications and platforms such as a chat room, an auction site, an online forum or RSS feed.

He said in today's age, it's evolving to web 3.0 where commercial enterprises can put across a message via a social media context.

Koroll explained it's a much more collaborative process and good examples are wikis where co-operation or harnessing the WOM power of the group and content is tagged for easy search.

He warned that it's a really subtle process where you can't be blatant with offers or you'll be flamed and discredited in no time.

He said "Me to you" does not allow them to say what the advantages of the Big Deal are but it does start a conversation from the inside.

"We'll never seek to misrepresent ourselves. The best way to describe it as the after family and friends, people go online for advice and recommendations, " he added.

But how do you measure ROI for social media campaigns?

Koroll said they have a strong ROI which they need to hit in order for them to repeat these efforts.

"It's probably not above the market returns for such a campaign but it remains a commercially sensitive number for us, " he added.

The social media campaign developed by Prosperity Research, will run for eight weeks that includes banner ads, CPC and an eDM.