Revitalizing Referrals – Hyatt Hotels
The Situation
In 2017 Hyatt International launched an internal referral program for its global sales team of 2,000+ members. While the program was successful, the hotel sought higher levels of referrals and year-over-year bookings. Hyatt hired Vertical and its partner agency Image Base worked with Hyatt to brand the referral campaign H2H (hotel to hotel). We then implemented a creative strategy that would capture the imagination of Hyatt’s entire sales team, motivate members to participate and increase year-over-year bookings for comparable hotels. But before developing a single concept, Vertical conducted in-depth research to fully understand the emotional and logical drivers of Hyatt’s salespeople.
- Hyatt
- Hospitality
- Intelligence, Branding, Messaging
- 2017
The Objectives
To achieve Hyatt’s goals, Vertical implemented a comprehensive internal communications campaign. The campaign’s goals included:
• Engaging sales team members
• Building loyalty among their group customers
• Establishing best practices
• Expanding growth with minimal investment
Campaign Elements
Vertical’s work on the Hyatt campaign was extensive and included several key initiatives. We conducted research; created a new, engaging identity for the program that captured the sales team’s imagination; created messaging, brand and style guidelines; produced compelling communications assets; utilized all appropriate internal communications channels; and established methodology for campaign evaluation.
Campaign Results
Hyatt accomplished its goal and continued the campaign the following year. Its year-over-year referrals for comparable hotels increased 20.7%. The total number of conversions for comparable hotels was up 8.65% with increased revenue for that year and the following.
