LONDON—For brands, telling your story is the most important aspect of marketing. With guests looking for experiences, the message must resonate with travelers, enabling them to understand what they can expect from their stay. But with the advent of technology and our internet-connected world, it’s also important that the story be told effectively across various media—including social. For Dorchester Collection, striking the right chord for its newest campaign, “Perfection just happens,” was a must.
Created in collaboration with communications group McCann Enterprise and supported by R/GA London, a full-service digital agency, “Perfection just happens” was designed to capture the spirit of Dorchester Collection. “We were looking to promote what is unique about our culture and our brand,” explained Helen Smith, chief customer experience officer, Dorchester Collection. “At Dorchester Collection, our relentless pursuit of excellence drives us to craft individual experiences for guests at each hotel within our portfolio. The campaign idea stems from this and is based on the perspective of our guests. These unforgettable moments are designed, staged and delivered by the craftsmanship and incredible hard work of the team.”
The creative campaign highlights travel moments that appear seamless. While, of course, nothing that happens in a hotel is effortless, it’s shown from the perspective of the guest, who doesn’t see the hard work that goes into perfection. Images and videos for the campaign, directed and shot by filmmaker and photographer Michel Comte, focus on six moments of perfection: a romantic break; celebrating a business win in a restaurant; reuniting with a university friend in a bar; relaxing on a family vacation; enjoying a family party; and contemplating an important meeting.
“This campaign is designed to re-enforce the standards of excellent service and to remind the audience that we are always thinking of our guests and creating experiences they will never forget,” Smith said. “We wanted to showcase how we can bring to life guests’ special moments. Having lived at Hotel Bel-Air for a number of years, Michael Comte was so excited to shoot at our hotels and wanted to ensure the moments felt as real as they could—so we re-enacted real-life events.”
While the campaign does focus on the guest perspective, the employee’s point-of-view is also included via six films. “The campaign seeks to intertwine the perspective of our guests and our employees, as they are both co-dependent on each other,” Smith explained. “It all is made possible by our employees’ tireless dedication to mastering their art and their drive to deliver. It’s what makes each guest experience seem smooth and flawless.”
The 12-month campaign will run across Dorchester Collection’s digital, social and CRM platforms. “We have ensured that all channels are connected, utilizing data to guarantee efficiency and effectiveness to enable us to have a single conversation with a consumer,” said Smith.
In partnership with Initiative, the campaign will also be augmented throughout the year across curated global print and digital publications. Initiative will also support the digital campaign across all Dorchester Collection properties to drive email sign up, raise awareness and educate consumers that Dorchester Collection has multiple properties around the world.
“Display, programmatic and mobile advertising are running across a select list of sites in order to ensure we’re reaching our guests at a time when they are consuming relevant content,” Smith said. “Our native activity and content partnership allows us to tell the ‘Perfection just happens’ story beyond our videos. Print ensures that we are in the right environments when our potential guests are looking for travel inspiration.”
The executive acknowledged that marketing in the digital age comes with challenges, and having an authentic, valuable message is what’s necessary in an age when guests avoid ads—whether that’s through pop-up avoidance methods or informing Facebook and Twitter that an advertisement is not for you.
“It is key for brands to provide value to their audience, particularly with advertising campaigns,” Smith said. “This can come in the form of information or entertainment, and we feel that the ‘Perfection just happens’ campaign does this for our guests. There has been a rise of native advertising to counter ad avoidance. We have included this in our media strategy as, in this native advertising format, we are able to tell a deeper story around our brand.” HB