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Le Méridien Hotels spikes travel fever with Instagram contest

Le Méridien Hotels and Resorts is leveraging a social media contest on Instagram, enticing users to interact with a professional photographer to celebrate its new Follow Me video campaign in the hopes of winning rewards points for the brand's mobile loyalty platform.

The hotel chain, which belongs to Starwood Hotels and Resorts? umbrella of brands, recently rolled out the Follow Me video, featuring photographer Gray Malin?s 24-hour journey from destinations including Palm Springs and Bhutan. Le Méridien Hotels and Mr. Malin aim to engage the social community by inspiring consumers to post their travel photos for a chance to receive the hotel brand?s rewards points or prints signed by Mr. Malin.

?It?s no secret that travelers today look to mobile as a source of inspiration as well as a channel to book their travel, and it?s our goal to be where our guests are,? said George Fleck, vice president of global brand management at Le Méridien and Westin, New York. ?Increasingly, our Le Méridien guest (the creative, curious-minded traveler) is mobile-first and extremely active on social media.

?We especially believe that Instagram is a perfect platform for Le Méridien to communicate with current and new consumers who want to unlock destinations and discover new experiences. Our global destinations are diverse and exciting and it is important for us to share them in beautifully curated images -- hopefully stopping travelers in their tracks,? he said.

?Social media has the power to connect with and to delight our guests.?

Bringing inspired visions
The Follow Me video campaign is synced with the day-to-night transitions found in the Le Méridien Hub, the brand?s re-interpreted version of a hotel lobby that features striking installations such as projections, soundscapes and artwork. Le Méridien believes that its Hub environment stimulates curiosity and thinking.

Mr. Malin?s photography, which is the star of the Follow Me campaign, has taken him from the Le Méridien Ra Beach and Spa Resort in Spain to other international locales, including the Seychelles islands and Dubai. The hotels will then display the videos in the Hubs for guests to enjoy, as well as use some of the photograph prints from his journeys to showcase online and on hotel key cards.

A merchandise line featuring the brand?s collaboration with Mr. Malin will also be launched in 2015.

?It will be interesting to see how this strategy by Le Méridien plays out,? said Brennan Hayden, executive vice president and chief operating officer at WDA, a Rocket Fuel Inc. company, New York. ?On the surface, it?s not a bad way to launch a collaboration.

?On the other hand, customer responses will depend upon how well the collaboration itself is promoted, how well the contest is promoted, and if the collaboration makes news, garnering more attention than either brand would on its own.?

The brand hopes that the stunning photography will enable guests to feel as though they have traveled across the world simply by stepping in a hotel lobby, and that it may spur future travels as well.

Le Méridien is not the only hotel brand to leverage digital videos as a form of marketing. Marriott International rolled out a similar campaign recently that saw several social media influencers document their journeys at Marriott hotels worldwide by uploading videos and photos onto mobile application Snapchat (see story).

?As always in marketing, it?s a goal to be where your customers are,? said Scott Michaels, executive vice president at Atimi, Vancouver, Canada. ?Let?s make the assumption that yes, there are enough people that Le Meridian want to reach, or at least enough within the Starpoints program.

?It?s not hard to guess that a program that popular means that many types of social media campaigns are both feasible and reasonable.?

The three month-long campaign aimed to entice a generation of millennial travelers to become more familiar with the brand, and asked social media users to help the influencers plan their itineraries on Snapchat.

Social media angle
Le Méridien is kicking off the campaign with a social media contest on Instagram. Users are asked to upload an original travel-inspired photo to their accounts, and must be following @GrayMalin and @LeMeridienHotels to be eligible for entry.

Participants must also upload the image with the #FollowGrayContest hashtag. The contest is open to users in the United States and Britain.

?Hopefully the brand will use the photos beyond Instagram as well,? said Damon Ragusa, founder and CEO of ThinkVine, Cincinnati, OH. ?For instance, linking the campaign into the parent company Facebook, where they can reach a broader age and go upward on the socioeconomic scale to reach people who are more likely to be motivated by the campaign and actually have the means to stay at one of the properties around the world. 

?It becomes a great source for earned media via native content.?

Finalists will be judged by Mr. Malin for their composition and creativity on April 15. The grand prize is 250,000 Starpoints, the rewards points used for Starwood Hotels and Resorts? extensive mobile loyalty program.

Starpoints may be redeemed for free stays at Starwood properties or room upgrades, travel transportation, exclusive access to cultural, music and sporting events and donations to worthy causes.

?This campaign has a pretty decent prize, in the number of Starpoints that are being awarded,? Atimi's Mr. Michaels said. ?There will be a smaller segment that will do it based on the personalities involved.

?They also are ?doing it right? in that they are not asking for too much work on behalf of the end consumers to participate in the contest. If they are able to get the word out to consumers that this contest is happening, then they will get the participation they are looking for.?

Three runner-up entrants will receive signed photos from Mr. Malin.

?I think the campaign overall has the right intentions and has the potential to create some good engagement,? ThinkVine?s Mr. Ragusa said. ?For the traveling population, it has two great components:  the photos which complement the travel dynamic (who doesn?t take photos when they leisure travel) and a contest creates a level of excitement that can be hard to manufacturer. 

?I think within a narrow target group, consumers will respond well to it. Whether the engagement expands beyond that target group will be largely dependent on the level of execution and whether social media generates a decent echo effect and it gets good pick up in the wider press.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York