#LEAwards 2021 highlight: Millennium Hotels' staycation bet scores loyalty points among fans

Hotels were one of the businesses most affected when the pandemic hit; it wasn’t any different for Millennium Hotels and Resorts either. To make matters worse, My Millennium, the hotel group’s guest reward programme, was still struggling to become a prominent presence in an overcrowded market and build long-term relationships with its users. Millennium then worked with MullenLowe Profero to leverage the advent of staycations to appeal to its target audience. The brand’s grit to walk the talk in offering full transparency to users who may be wary of staycations, while offering irresistible deals that garner more users, impressed the judges and secured it the Gold award for Best Regional Loyalty Campaign at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2021.

Challenges 

The My Millennium Guest Reward Programme is based on members earning My Points from every qualifying hotel stay at over 110 participating hotels and F&B spend in key gateway cities across Asia Pacific, Europe, UK, USA and the Middle East. 

The programme was later relaunched in 2019 as a single-tier platform that prioritises inclusivity, value, access, and transparency. While the relaunch saw an increase in impression share and members share of revenue on the brand website, the programme was struggling with three challenges - a lack of creating meaningful long-term relationships, overcrowding of hotel loyalty environment in providing loyalty offer and perks, and a lack of coherent strategy in enhancing value.

Given the competitive landscape in the hotel industry, Millennium had to consistently relook at the platform’s positioning and values to deliver results in the rapidly changing environment. Moreover, most people typically held multiple membership programmes for the sole purpose of enjoying exclusive member's offers with no strong loyalty; and are engaged toward any brand. 

The pandemic only worsened the situation - many hotels were suffering from low occupancy, with guests and members concerned about financial risks involved such as cancellation policy, quarantine rules, and the health and safety measure adopted by the group. 

Hence, Millennium needed to introduce an innovative and experience-led programme across various touchpoints to deepen engagement and brand loyalty with members. Thus, the brand decided to dig deep into the existing challenges and problems, find ways to readapt, innovate, enhance its offerings, and introduce a meaningful programme that could value-add to its members' stay and ever-changing lifestyle.

To tackle its challenges, Millennium aimed to build a long-term relationship with its members through engagement, offer unique and exclusive experiences through new ways of earning points through regular everyday spending, reduce the perceived financial and health and safety risk of its guests and members by rebuilding and restoring confidence, and build brand awareness for My Millennium Programme for members to recognise the tangible benefits.

Strategy 

Millennium repositioned its rewards programme with a core strategy anchored around five strategic pillars to build a meaningful and rewarding programme - value-led offers, deals, relevancy, from pints to engagement, and restore confidence. 

To ensure that its members were treated exclusively, Millennium focused on planning global offers that provided value-added benefits that were intended for members only. These value-added benefits included "Double Points for every night", "Free Breakfast", "F&B Credits", "Free Room Upgrades", and "Early Check-in/Late Check-out. This demonstrated its member-first commitment and sent a clear message on the various types of benefits one could enjoy beyond discounts. 

With the ongoing pandemic, members were not only focusing on the additional values or perks but were also more price-conscious when planning for their next trips - Many were more likely to hunt down promotions and savings actively. In response to this shift in customer behaviour, Millennium planned to offer a deeper discount on certain periods, where it would run an exclusive members sale and flash sale to help meet the needs of its members.

Millennium also understood that its members were looking for rewards above and beyond that of a typical hospitality reward programme. To differentiate itself from other hotel loyalty programmes, Millennium introduced an exciting array of rewards such as technology, dining and wellness rewards. Offering gifts and vouchers from over 100 international market-leading brands, Millennium on-boarded brands such as Spotify, Uber, Apple, NTUC, and Takashimaya into its redemption catalogues. The predictive recommendation was one strategy Millennium used to enhance its loyalty programmes offering. Through this approach, the brand looked into members' past habits and introduced points earning through F&B spend. Members can also now dine and earn points at the hotels' participating restaurants even when they are not staying at the hotels.

At the same time, Millennium had to increasingly think about new ways to help its members and locals alike to enjoy certain experiences, even when they are not physically in the hotel, as well as unique experiences during their stay. To that end, the campaigns would have to continue to satisfy consumer lifestyles and include offerings that are organised around interests and passions, such as sports, culinary, travel and shopping. 

Echoing global trends, commitment to safety and cleanliness, and flexible cancellation policy were at the forefront of members and guests' minds. Research done by Booking.com in 2020 further revealed that 82% of Singapore travellers will take more precautions when travelling in the future, and 73% are most likely to book a particular hotel if they have clear health and hygiene policies in place. Hence, Millennium took extreme precautionary measures to ensure the safety of its members, guests, and employees; building on existing protocols and complementing exhaustive mandatory preventive measures by local governmental authorities. Millennium also took on an approach to increase transparency about its cancellation policies and was implemented on all bookings that were made directly from its website.

Lastly, when restrictions began to ease in 2020, Millennium placed all efforts in planning and launching member-first offers and flash deals focusing on staycations. The brand decided to focus its marketing efforts towards audiences aged 18 to 40 years old; by offering staycation packages that cater for couples and families with kids.

Execution

As the restrictions gradually lifted in 2020, Millennium laced all efforts in planning and launching member-first offers and flash deals focusing on staycations. As overall trends showed that Millennials and Generation Z were most likely to plan a staycation or travel domestically in the next six months, the brand's immediate actions and marketing efforts had turned towards targeting audiences aged 18 to 40 years old. Thus, Millennium began offering staycation packages that cater for couples and family with kids.

The 11.11 Single’s Day promotion was the first promotion that followed Millennium’s key strategy closely. The promotion was launched targeting Southeast Asia and China, with the objective of creating buzz and highlighting the exclusive benefits of the members; the five-day promotion offered one of the brand’s best deals - up to 41% off and exclusive early access for members.

The key messages of "high discount", "members exclusive" and "limited time only" were critical to demonstrate the value that members could enjoy when booking with the brand, as well as creating that urgency to get them to convert.

The same strategy was also adopted during the retail frenzy period of Q4 in 2020, which included Black Friday, Cyber Monday and 12.12. 

To achieve its campaign objectives and goals, a digital marketing strategy was adopted across Google, Facebook and Instagram to promote the offer. Different audience types such as in-market, remarketing, existing customers based on CRM data were used for ad targeting to drive conversions.

Millennium also launched “More. With Millennium” in early 2021, a global campaign aimed at driving awareness and consideration of its members and audiences to book directly with the brand. The word "More" was an emphasis to its guests that My Millennium aimed to provide them with “More Value”, “More Perks” and “More Fun” at every part of the journey with us – casual dining experience, family getaway or anniversaries staycation.

“More value” was the first content pillar which signified the brand’s generous discount of up to 30% off when the members book direct with the hotel group. This was the response to meet the current needs of its guests who had turned to be more price-conscious when searching for and planning their next trip in today’s environment. 

“More perks” was the second content pillar, highlighting the exclusive value-added perks that members could get to enhance their stay experiences such as bonus points, free stay for kids, and dining discounts. The value-added perks and bonus points played an integral part in the success of its campaigns and loyalty programme. Since My Millennium’s relaunch in 2019, its members have grown towards understanding the value of the points and how these points turn into tangible benefits. The brand’s consistent messaging on “earn more points = more rewards” has demonstrated the value of the programme, which has seen an upward increase of 13% in member share of revenue on the brand website and the number of rewards redeemed had increased by 30%. The intention of highlighting more perks was to continue its ongoing effort of prioritizing the member experience and sending a clear message of the various types of benefits one could enjoy beyond discounts. 

The third content pillar, “more fun”, sought to create buzz, and deepen the engagement and brand loyalty with My Millennium members. The brand had appointed an AR game developer to develop an AR game "Meet Millen, tap and win surprises”, where members simply play a game to stand a chance to win a two-night staycation and room discount codes.

Millennium also launched a “Double Points” promotion earlier this year in Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, Europe, United States, Middle East and China with the objective of highlighting its points and rewards values; it wanted My Millennium members to continue to see the tangible benefits and the value of its points. During the three-month promotion period, new members and existing members were eligible to automatically earn double points after completing a stay at any participating hotels around the world, with no cap to the number of points members could earn.

In June, one of its hotels in Singapore, Orchard Hotel Singapore, was experiencing a high click-through rate but a low conversion rate and bookings - the occupancy of the hotel was forecasted to be low for the next two months. With the use of data insights, analytic tools and Google Trends, Millennium decided to make certain tweaks to its campaign with the objective of increasing bookings and conversion rates. The brand then launched a two-day flash sale offering room rates starting from SG$100 per night.

To amplify the flash sales promotion, a digital marketing strategy was adopted and anchored most of its budget on remarketing to visitors who had visited the page and abandoned their cart, and in-market audiences. The campaign had helped the brand to achieve its objectives and had been set as a tactical promotional strategy that could be activated anytime when it faces a similar situation in any of the hotels globally.

Additionally, Millennium Hotels and Resorts partnered with Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) in August 2020 to offer its guests and members a personalised experience. The partnership offered specially curated staycation packages for guests and members with personalised experiences at WRS’ wildlife parks. It allowed the hotel group to engage its guests and members with personalised experiences and aligned its goal with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to encourage Singaporeans to embark on a mini-holiday - their own Singapoholiday.

The staycation packages included: Millennium Wild Experience with Orangutans, Millennium Wild Experience with Pandas, Millennium Wild Experience at Singapore Zoo, and Millennium Wild Experience at Night Safari. Both WRS and Millennium Hotels and Resorts promoted the collaboration through various media channels, including digital media, print, working with key opinion leaders, social media channels and EDMs.

Millennium also brought the wildlife experiences to its Stay-Home-Notice (SHN) and quarantined guests by providing guests with WRS’ “Hello from the Wild Side” virtual programme. The programme was hosted by WRS’ animal care team, and allowed SHN and quarantined guests to virtually interact with WRS’ animals and get a unique glimpse into the animal care team’s routines and enrichment activities from an insider’s perspective. The virtual sessions received close to 80% attendance from guests who had expressed interest and RSVP-ed.

Another curated experience - Yacht-cation Escape - was launched in October last year. The experience allowed its guests and members to go on a luxury yacht ride during their stay to explore the Southern Islands of Singapore and enjoy water activities such as swimming and fishing. The package was launched to offer something different with a “wow-factor” targeted towards travellers who were looking for their own Singapoholiday. It also adopted an integrated marketing plan, from mainstream media to online and social media platforms, to promote the package. The package had generated over SG$250k in just one month from the date of launch.

Furthermore, Millennium continued to monitor its cancellation data closely, especially after the sudden announcement on travel restrictions imposed on the country. By leveraging off its CRM capabilities and monitoring the search queries using Google Trend on staycation and hotel accommodations, it was able to plan our communication strategy and speak to target audiences at the right time with the right message.

Due to the Phase Two Heightened Alert on 16 May 2021, Millennium saw high cancellations and, based on Google Trends, the interest over staycation fell. However, it also saw an increase of interest over takeaways. Therefore, Millennium shifted its ad budget and focused its effort from getting room bookings, to F&B.

“Order Food Online” was launched during the Singapore Phase Two Heightened Alert, focusing on the takeaway and delivery services of its restaurants. During that period, members could enjoy an additional 15% off, double points with every F&B spend and a chance to win a one-night staycation and dining vouchers.

A series of EDMs and socials ads were launched to feature family bundles, signature dishes, and seasonal menus like dumplings, mooncakes and Father’s Day to drive awareness and conversions. Leveraging its data insights, Millennium 

By leveraging our data insights, we could identify members who had cancelled their bookings due to the Phase 2 Height Alert and retarget them to rebook. With the help of Google Trends, it monitored the interest of staycation closely and was able to retarget that group of customers with a special offer: reaching them through customer match on Google and creating a customer audience list on Facebook for its ads; sending a dedicated EDM through its email marketing platform.

To gain the interest of existing members and potential loyalty members, Millennium prioritised experiences and engagement over the traditional limits of points or focusing on guests’ stay. Therefore, its focus was to find new ways to engage its members to enjoy exclusive experiences even when they were not physically at the hotel.

In partnership with Chelsea FC in the 2020-21 season, Millennium designed a series of exclusive virtual events to engage our members. The activities involved an exclusive, intimate virtual Christmas with Chelsea FC Legend – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, and two virtual Q&A sessions to find out behind the scenes and the daily lives of 2020-21 Season’s captain César Azpilicueta and Chelsea FC Legend Carlo Cudicini.

Furthermore, a campaign “Nominate someone to win a message from a Chelsea Player” was launched with the objective of signalling the synthetisation of a hospitality loyalty programme and lifestyle brand. The intent of the campaign was to lift engagement rates, drive awareness and considerations of the brand, and further identify the members that are interested in Sports. That would allow the brand to reconnect with them in the future with the right message based on their interest in sports.

“Nominate someone to win a message from a Chelsea Player” was an exercise to get Millennium’s audiences to submit a personalised message for someone they love and choose the Chelsea player they would like to relay the message to the nominee. Two lucky winners would be selected at the end of the contest, and a pre-recorded video message from the Chelsea player they selected would be sent to the nominee. To amplify the awareness of the campaign, Millennium ran a series of MPU ads across multiple placements within Chelsea FC’s websites, EDM, Facebook, and Twitter ads for six days to reach out to its key target audiences in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. It helped the brand achieve its objectives and the campaign drove over four million impressions, 42,000 clicks and 1,200 sign-ups.

Additionally, a virtual masterclass was designed and introduced to engage My Millennium members in a new way. In May 2021, the brand launched a pasta-making virtual masterclass with its hotel’s restaurant, Grissini, head chef Kenny. The online masterclass saw a 100% attendance and it was hosted over zoom, where members learned to make traditional Italian dishes like Tagliatelle & Tortellini from scratch using a simple recipe. To ensure that the members had the right ingredients for the class, the team prepared a list of ingredients and delivered them directly to the members’ houses. 

To top it off, members who presented the best dish were awarded an SG$100 dining voucher, redeemable at Grissini. Other virtual masterclasses such as cocktail making, sushi making, dim sum making and coffee art workshops were also planned out in Q3 to Q4 2021.

Booking a stay was complicated, as guests were consistently concerned about the health and hygiene policy of hotels, cancellation policy, and points status.

To tackle those issues and to restore the confidence in its guests, Millennium launched a global safety and cleanliness commitment, “We Clean. We Care. We Welcome” in March 2020, where it committed to placing guests’ safety and wellbeing as a top priority. Its commitment was built on existing protocols and complements exhaustive mandatory preventive measures by the government authorities. Furthermore, it partnered with industry-leading companies – Ecolab, Syntech, and Hygiene Academy, to help deliver a cleaner stay for our guests.

One of the best ways to fight the spread of viruses was to control the occupancy in an enclosed space and to adhere to social distancing guidelines. Therefore, Millennium adopted a max capacity of four persons, depending on country guidelines, in its elevators. A notice was placed at all levels to ensure that guests maintain a social distancing. As an extra measure, a door hanger and seal on the door served as an indication to guests that their room had not been accessed by anyone ever since the room had been cleaned and sanitized thoroughly. 

Planning for a trip early was a difficult task, as the social guidelines were constantly changing. Therefore, Millennium took on an approach to increase the transparency of the rates cancellation policies and ensure that all rates that were sold on the website had its cancellation policy stated clearly.

For individual reservations, Millennium allowed guests who had made existing bookings to modify their reservations free of charge or receive a full refund for cancellation, where applicable. As for new reservations, the brand offered flexible rates and special rates which allowed cancellation up to 72 hours prior to arrival. For Group Reservations, Millennium allowed groups who have made existing bookings to modify their reservations free of charge, as long as the new booking took place within 12 months from the original booking date. This was to ensure that it lowered the perceived financial risk and assured its guests to plan ahead and book with confidence as it offered flexible cancellation for stays.

After the fact that travel may not return as quickly in 2021 as many had hoped, My Millennium had implemented a series of adjustments to provide more value for members while travelling remains limited. These included extending points that were scheduled to expire between March and December 2020 by an extra year, and allowing members to earn points whenever they visited any of Millennium’s participating restaurants and bars, even when they are not staying at the hotel.

Results

Millennium saw its member’s share of revenue grow by 13% in 2021. This greatly validated and affirmed the brand that the member-first offers and flash deals have created great responses. It also saw its member’s share of revenue on brand website achieve as high as over 90% during promotion periods such as 11.11, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and 12.12. 

My Millennium also managed to achieve an 11% growth in its membership base in 2020 despite the pandemic. It also saw an average growth rate of 23% month over month growth in 2021. Lastly, the number of room and third-party catalogue redemptions using points increased by 32% from January to June 2021, compared to the same period last year.