Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
Sheraton Hotels sees the world through the lens of community. Building on the brand’s roots in gathering people and communities together, and its new design philosophy anchored in bring to life the brands positioning of “The World’s Gathering Place,” we provided the opportunity for online communities to foster deeper connections in real life across unique ways in the hotel’s transformed public spaces.
To showcase Sheraton as a connection point, we developed an event series that brought Creators from digital communities (specifically on TikTok) together "IRL" for the first time in Sheraton’s transformed public spaces. The weekend’s events were curated with programming that allowed the Creators to capture Sheraton’s community-centric spaces in an authentic way through short-form video; showcasing the brand through a social-first lens.
We targeted niche communities on TikTok that aligned with Sheraton’s target guest, “The Team Player”. Focusing on likeminded individuals who share a passion for productivity, nurturing meaningful relationships, ongoing personal growth, and belonging.
Our goal was to develop a Creator-led content strategy that would build awareness of Sheraton’s new positioning in an authentic way while increasing engagement with the brand via short-form video (KPI: Focused Views – 6 Seconds).
The first event brought together 7 creators from the #BookTok community to Sheraton Phoenix to meet, share and connect with each other through their unifying passion for books. Whereas our second event gathered 9 creators across 7 profiles from the #SmallBusinessTikTok community to Sheraton Denver to meet, share and connect with each other through their unifying drive for entrepreneurship.
Each Creator was contracted to create a TikTok about their experience and their content was then “sparked" on the platform which allowed Sheraton to have a presence on the App and reach new (younger) audiences without having an active brand page.
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)
Total Results (Combining Both Sheraton IRL Events):
48MM+ Impressions
6.3MM+ Focused Views
1.7M+ Engagements, 500% above benchmark
14% Focused View Rate, (compared to 11.83% average benchmark) or 18% above benchmark
100+ pieces of added value content, 10M+ incremental potential impressions
+13.2% lift in Ad Recall, +4.4% lift in Awareness - 70% higher than our traditional evergreen content
Return on Investment: How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
While the focus of the campaigns was not measured against revenue, the positive sentiment seen across customer engagement included an abundance of comments expressing consideration and intent to book. For example:
"Wow! I know where I’m staying my next phx trip”
“Cool – I'll check out Sheraton next time I travel”
“OMW to Sheraton immediately <3”
Links:
Small Business:
Sheraton Brand Owned Recap Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cthb4pRAjin/?hl=en
Caitlin: https://www.tiktok.com/@cc.campbell/video/7239024888856562950?lang=en
Andre: https://www.tiktok.com/@loungefitbrand/video/7239025381305552170?lang=en
Mackenzie: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmacksmacs/video/7239041201452764459?lang=en
Bryan & Christian: https://www.tiktok.com/@siennastudios/video/7238975322731973931?lang=en
Elyse: https://www.tiktok.com/@elysebreannedesign/video/7239486430635085099?lang=en
Tony: https://www.tiktok.com/@tonesterpaints/video/7208949579885055275?lang=en
Jen & Vero: https://www.tiktok.com/@shopjzd/video/7239054699100392747?lang=en
BookTok:
Sheraton brand owned recap:
Alex: https://www.tiktok.com/@alex.aster/video/7174143182295387434?lang=en
Hannah: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepaperbackbruncher/video/7172670581471563054?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
William: https://www.tiktok.com/@williampdozier/video/7171972319470947626?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en
Kierra: https://www.tiktok.com/@kierralewis75/video/7172160629246119210?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en
Entry Title
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts: IRL TikTok Creator Event Series
Division
Digital - Creators, Multi-media, video, and short form