intercontinental hotels: our transition to real-time marketing by charlie aspey and nick worth

InterContinental Hotels: Our Transition to Real-Time Marketing Charlie Aspey | Email Marketing Manager, Europe | IHG Nick Worth | CMO | Selligent

YET CEREAL SALES ARE DECLINING

THE ENTITLED CONSUMER

en·ti·tled inˈtīdld, enˈtīdld/ adjective believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment

CONVENIENCE EXPECTATIONS

•  90% EXPECT REAL-TIME CUSTOMER SERVICE

•  89% EXPECT TO SCHEDULE A SERVICE WHENEVER THEY NEED IT

•  78% EXPECT AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS AND CHECKOUTS

•  79% EXPECT SAME-DAY DELIVERY WITHIN 5 YEARS

Harris Poll, 2000 US Adults, 2014

PERSONALIZATION EXPECTATIONS

•  53% EXPECT SERVICE PROVIDERS TO LEARN THEIR TASTES AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS

•  48% EXPECT THAT THERE WILL BE A SERVICE THAT SHIPS PRODUCTS BEFORE THEY ORDER THEM

Harris Poll, 2000 US Adults, 2014

PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES WIN

THE MORE WE HAVE, THE MORE WE WANT

Millennials and Gen Z are hard coded to expect more

•  Expect brands to know them not as a segment but as an individual with specific interests

•  Less concerned about privacy •  But want brands to use data to

provide a customized experience in return

AGE OF EXPECTATION

ENTITLED CONSUMER HARD TRUTHS

Convenience

Value

Relevance

ENTITLEMENT IS NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM

Hyper-connectivity and Low cost digital communications

Are making consumers harder to engage than ever before

2015: 5000

1970: 500

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAILY MARKETING MESSAGES PER CONSUMER

CURRENT AVERAGE HUMAN ATTENTION SPAN

LESS THAN GOLDFISH

ENTER: Continuous Partial Attention (CPA)

WE LIVE IN MOMENTS

INTENT

CONTEXT IMMEDIACY

MICRO- MOMENTS

INTENT

CONTEXT IMMEDIACY

LOYALTY TO

NEEDS

FORGOT GIFT FOR SON

YOU NEED A PLAN B

BRAND LOYALTY

DECLINES

Loyalty to

NEEDS.

v

THERE NEEDS TO BE A MINDSET SHIFT

MARKETING IS STUCK IN THE LAST CENTURY

•  Chasing bygone behaviors

•  Amplifying channel centricity

•  Over-indexing on advertising

•  Promote a false sense of precision

•  Don’t account for complex human nature

CONSUMER-FIRST PRINCIPLES SHOULD GUIDE DECISIONS

Identify & Recognize – in real-time & across channels

Insight-Driven – predictive & contextual

Relevant – channel-flexible & touchpoint-agnostic

Appreciated – valued & respectful

THE VOYAGE TO “CONSUMER FIRST”

•  Rethink how you identify and recognize consumers

•  Leverage predictive and contextual capabilities

•  Build permission and earn your consumers’ attention

•  Seek to become appreciated and valued by consumers

•  Start small and build

MEETING EXPECTATIONS

WHO WE ARE?

•  IHG is one of the world’s leading hotel companies

•  We have more than 5,000 hotels and nearly 754,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries around the world

•  Our hotels are both managed and franchised

•  We have more than 130 million guest stays with our brands annually

OUR BRANDS

IHG REWARDS CLUB

•  The worlds largest hotel loyalty programme

+94m members

CUSTOMER FOCUS

“IHG uses customer insights to strengthen its existing brands, inform new ones,

and understand the key role technology has to play in shaping and delivering personalized brand experiences to consumers at all stages

of the guest journey.”

THE DISTANT PAST

WHERE WE GOT TO

EARLY ON…

•  Engage members early on •  Early engagement

programme designed to inform and educate members about the benefits

•  Develop long-term relationships

•  Remind and educate members of the benefits

TRANSACTIONAL PROGRAMME

•  One single template drives over 95,000 different emails

•  Reservation, Pre & Post stay, cancellation, modifications

•  Provides personalised upselling opportunities

•  If we have a logo change – not a problem

•  Less calls to the hotel and call centres as all relevant details are included in email

PERSONALISED EXPERIENCES

•  Adding in functionality to align with our objectives – rewarding relationships

•  To learn more about our guests •  Actively asking members to let us

know their preferences •  Preferences flow down to hotel level

and allow a personalised check in •  Allow opportunities for cross sell

EVOLUTION

•  We doubled click rates with live forecasts projecting the weather for an upcoming stay

•  We can also add in countdown clocks to help limited time offers / sales

PERSONALISED OFFERS

USEFUL DATA

WHAT IS COMING NEXT?

LEARNINGS

•  Customer Insights: Use the data you collect

•  Marketing operations layer: invest in a platform that is integrated with your systems

•  Executive buy-in: Initiative focused on customer obsession driven from the highest management levels throughout the organization

•  Continued Optimization: Look for ways to improve and innovate

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