The big picture: Publicis Groupe will now manage the media buying for all 30 Marriott brands, encompassing a total of 6,500 hotels in 127 countries, with 1.25 million rooms and over 110 million loyalty members.
- The business will be managed through a dedicated unit called Marriott One Media, serviced by Spark Foundry and SapientRazorfish.
Marriott's goal is to focus on a more data-driven paid media strategy, which is easier to accomplish when all media buying is done under one roof. Moving forward, the company says, all customer interactions — from the mobile app, to digital marketing, to in-hotel experiences — will be connected through one paid media strategy.
As Marriott's new agency of record, Publicis Groupe will be charged with creating a individually customized, two-way marketing experience that informs the customer's stay, as well its future hotel bookings. (One example: If a customer is a fan of a certain type of coffee, they could get a push notification to their phone telling them the closest coffee shop that has it.)
Marriott is undergoing sweeping changes as it transforms into a technology-driven hotel company. "We have a series of historic moments ahead, and Publicis Group's partnership will be critical to us revealing them to the world," said Andy Kauffman, Marriott's senior vice president of global marketing optimization.
For publishers looking to win Marriott's paid media business, a strong foothold in technology and individual-level audience mapping and targeting will be key.
- "We are looking to engage with partners that can identify individuals and serve up experiences across their publishing landscape," says Kauffman.
- He says Marriott will focus on pushing the envelope through dynamic creative and video.
