Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

Marriott Bonvoy, the newest and biggest travel rewards program in the world, does not have the recognition of other more established brands like Asia Miles in Hong Kong. To make matters more complicated, the brand would be launched locally during an event where the title sponsors message threatened to drown everyone else out. To differentiate ourselves, we had to show Hong Kongers the kind of unique experiences only Marriott Bonvoy can create. Outspent by local legends HSBC and Cathay, our work embraced the real, honest experience of being a lover, or a hater of the Sevens in Hong Kong in

Background

Marriott International chose to use their sponsorship of the Hong Kong Sevens as a way to launch their new travel rewards program. Marriot Bonvoy covers all thirty of their brands making it the biggest travel rewards program in the world across multiple types of hotels, price points and traveller audiences. Outspent by title sponsors and local icons Cathay Pacific and HSBC, they faced an uphill battle for awareness and attention in Hong Kong’s biggest sporting event of the year, famous for partying and fancy dress. The objective was to use this event to show that Marriott Bonvoy creates the most unforgettable experiences, all over the world.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Outspent by title sponsors and local icons Cathay Pacific and HSBC Marriot Bonvoy faced an uphill battle for awareness and attention at Hong Kong’s biggest sporting event of the year, famous for partying and fancy dress. If we somehow managed to break through the noise, even then we still had the problem of using a local sports sponsorship in Hong Kong to sell people on the idea of using Marriott Bonvoy for trips and travel out of Hong Kong. We were a minor, outsider sponsor of an event that didn’t seem to really fit the business challenge we had anyway. Then things got worse…

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Obviously as sponsors of the Sevens, we assumed that everyone loved the event. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Social listening revealed a city divided. On one hand, we had Sevens fans, party goers, rugby players and South Stand lunatics. On the other hand, a LOT of people hated it – the Sevens was their worst nightmare of tourists running riot in fancy dress in their home town. Since the target for Bonvoy is literally anyone that travels, we had to find a way to appeal to both groups. Our competitive advantage as the biggest rewards program in the world is that whatever you like about travel, Bonvoy has something for you. What if we embraced the fact that half the city don’t like this event? Could we use rugby icon beloved by partying fans… but also one who could sell the idea of getting away from all that

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

If you love the Sevens, party with Bonvoy, if you don’t, we will help you escape. We started by getting our spokesperson, French rugby legend Sebastian Chabal, into fancy dress. He played himself as a lover of the Sevens and himself in drag as a typical local Hong Kong ‘Tai Tai’ and debated the various merits of staying in Hong Kong to cheer on the teams (Go Fiji!) or escaping the Sevens with Marriott Bonvoy to go somewhere quiet and relaxing (Go TO Fiji!). These ads ran in the buildup to the event, culminating in an in-stadium surprise experience for the fans. The idea was popular with fans for use of a famous player getting into fancy dress, and with the disgruntled locals, by offering them a holiday escape with Bonvoy. Sponsoring an event and then explaining to people how to avoid it was something of a first!

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Our strategy of targeting lovers and haters of the 7s worked. Objective 1: Create awareness Awareness: 51% awareness for Bonvoy in HK We created familiarity for Bonvoy: 32% understood that Bonvoy is “A new name for the loyalty program that replaces the Marriott Rewards/The Ritz-Carlton Rewards/Starwood Preferred Guest program” On digital channels, we achieved: 19MM impressions 2.5 MM complete video views 1.3 MM engagements on Facebook Objective 2: Get people enrolled into Bonvoy 33% increase in enrolment over the campaign period vs. 2018 campaign Objective 3: Get people to use their reward points 23% increase in points redeemed over the campaign period vs. 2018 campaign 45% would “Utilize your reward points to redeem experiences aside from hotel stays” 44% would “Increase your stays with Marriott group of hotels in the next 12 months to earn more reward points”

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

Against big local competitors and title sponsor budgets, Bonvoy faced an uphill battle to launch in HK. Launching at HK’s showpiece sporting event, the HK Rugby Sevens, we used our sponsorship for an event that most Hong Kongers hated to create awareness in HK at large and get people enrolled. We were uniquely positioned as a travel company to get people out of town. Reaching a wider target audience, we achieved a 33% increase in Bonvoy enrolments vs. last year only targeting HK7s fans.