Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?India is a country of 1.5 billion people, hosting 10 million weddings each year (4 times the US and estimated at over $250 billion). Marriott International saw that as an opportunity for Marriott-branded hotels in South Asia to participate in this huge and lucrative market. Indian weddings are held over several days and Marriott wanted to be a partner to host all events from pre-wedding, engagement, bachelorette, main wedding, reception, and room blocks. Marriott came to Milestone with the goal of creating websites that would connect brides, grooms, and event planners with their perfect venue and marriage experience. Goal #1: Capture wedding RFP leads for searchers in the planning stages by increasing brand presence, especially in search and developing an advanced website which is easily crawlable, mobile-friendly, and found by search engines and their customers to capture demand. Goal #2: Help the betrothed and wedding and events planners pick the best wedding venue and services for the needs of the guests. Milestone was asked to capture Indian wedding demand • Build for search and wedding searcher user experience - and reinforced with social engagement to capitalize on hotels local and wedding markets. • The new site also highlights the hotel’s comprehensive amenities, dining outlets, inclusions, adult and family experiences and opportunities to book events, weddings, and honeymoons. • Create booking process for meeting and event spaces for pre-wedding, engagement, bachelorette, main wedding, cocktails, and reception • Find best offers at different locations to help guests find the right experiences • Integration with Marriott Bonvoy reward system to guest can earn their loyalty points

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)The Marriott International team came to Milestone to create a website that would connect brides, grooms, and event planners with their perfect venue. The main idea was to provide a single website that would showcase different types of Marriott hotels throughout India, and the new site is designed to make event and wedding venue planning a joy. One of the breakthrough outcomes is that Marriott ranks first for the high-volume term “shaadi wedding hotels” and 72% of traffic was driven by organic sources. Marriott team decided to build its new website with 106 hotels listed on the most advanced hospitality martech CMS platforms combined with world-class creative design and content. January 2022-September 2022 compared to prior year Website featuring 106 hotels Brand awareness and consideration results: · 78% increase in website visits · 72% increase in visits from organic sources · +88% increase in page views and +67% increase in new users · +101% increase in mobile traffic, South Asia is a mobile-first market Conversion and bookings consideration results • +79% overall increase in RFP and leads submissions More brand awareness >> More traffic >> High User engagement>> More RFP and Group Leads

Budget: Please include total budget vs. total actual cost. How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?The overall cost of the project included design, content writing, and website development, and access to Milestone SEO-first CMS platform and reporting platform. The hotel additionally spent on SEO promotion, adding microsites to promote their meetings and weddings. Additionally, the websites were built to be ADA-conforming. Implemented mobile-first design and improved website speed, which led to increases in website traffic and sessions. *Please select a budget range: Project Cost: $101k The website has achieved the key goals that the client was looking to achieve and has delivered an ROI which far exceeded the cost. Milestone’s approach is now successfully driving wedding and leisure travel resulting in a stronger presence in the many different local markets served by Marriott International.

Objective(s): What problems did the sales, marketing & guest satisfaction, or revenue optimization technology aim to solve?

Innovative use of technology: The extent to which new directions are charted or old challenges are resolved by using the technology in a new way.

Implementation & creativity: How was the technology implemented so that it was easy to use, solved a manpower problem, streamlined a function, or fueled recovery?

Results & Evaluation: How did the technology move the department or business forward to achieve goals, revenue or otherwise?

Goal: How did you demonstrate that you are committed to advancing diversity in your organization through your marketing?

Initiatives: Describe the promotion. What was your organization’s message and how does it foster diversity? How was the target audience channel developed/pursued?

Results: Please describe how your organization was purposeful in advancing diversity through this initiative. Please describe the metrics you used to judge success. What were the forecasted and actual outcomes described in your Key Performance Indicators (KPI)? What impact did the initiative have on your organization and for your customers?

Entry TitleDemand For Weddings in Huge Indian Wedding Market Was Captured and Driven to a Marriott Digital Services (MDS) Website Created by Milestone and Breakout Organic Search Successes

DivisionDigital - Web Site

CategoryDigital