‘Constantly engage with your core audience’
COVID -19 outbreak has brought evident changes in the customer behaviour, needs and expectations and we must accommodate with the guests accordingly. We saw an exponential jump towards digital engagement amongst the consumers during the lockdown. Accor has evolved marketing strategies to suit the market conditions.
We leveraged all our owned digital channels to drive customer engagement with the help of our global digital campaign ALL@ HOME. We wanted our guests to continue living their passions in the comfort of their own homes through the unique digital experiences and content brought together by ALL [Accor Live Limitless]. Accor has always had a customer-first approach and customer’s demands form the nucleus of all our marketing efforts. We have gone all out with our panel of experts to help people try new routines while they were at home. Our ibis brand launched ibis Music #GigsAtHome wherein artists performed live on our Instagram handle every Friday through the month of May.
Some of our hotels individually hosted live sessions such as Novotel Ahmedabad hosted several culinary sessions by Chef Jamal and Chef Ravi Shankar and a virtual yoga class with Camelia Oberoi. Novotel Chennai OMR also hosted virtual cooking sessions by Chef Muthu. Mercure Goa hosted a live yoga session as well.
Additionally, we are communicating about our hotels which are providing takeaway as well as delivery services through partners like Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo. Few hotels are also providing doorstep delivery and catering to bulk orders as well. Some of our properties are providing DIY kits giving guests an opportunity to explore their culinary skills with fresh and rare ingredients.
As we moved in the unlock phase, we have introduced intensified hygiene and prevention measures to ensure the safety of our guests and employees under ALL SAFE label to ensure people feel more comfortable traveling again. Our marketing teams are in the process of rolling out various stay, work and FnB offers and incentives for our guests.
We announced our first offer to provide our friends and family discount offer for healthcare professionals across our hotels in India and Sri Lanka. It is a 30 per cent discount on the usual rate of the hotel room. We are additionally offering great deals and discounts for our guests and loyalty members. Accor has also introduced ‘Holiday Plus Vouchers’, these are prepaid vouchers to welcome back our paid loyalty members. We have also launched our ‘Let Us Take Care of You’ campaign, wherein we are promoting staycations, weekend travels and relaxed holiday time.
We have forayed into newer avenues like ‘Work from Hotel’. The co-working space has huge potential in our country as many organisations find them very cost-effective and it is also an alternative revenue stream for hotels. ‘Work from Hotel’ gives you a complete change from the monotonous working from home schedule with additional benefits of being in a hotel.
At Accor, we have a detailed strategy suited for each of the phases as we slowly return or say adapt to new normal. Additionally, we are basing our approach on consumer insights.
As the world temporarily pressed the pause button during the lockdown, we aimed at being there for our guests and effectively communicating with them. As shared earlier, our global digital campaign #ALLatHome played a crucial role in this and helped us in staying connected with our guests remotely. Being a global brand, Accor is present on all leading social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc, and we utilised all these channels by fuelling them with entertaining content. Our focus has always been to constantly engage with our core audience by providing inspirational, curated and relatable content. We also see this is an important listening tool to understand the market sentiments. The hotels also utilise the platforms for driving business in their feeder markets as well as the hyperlocal markets.