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Archive for the ‘Conferences’ Category

Innovative Hotel Website Ideas for 2010 – O’Rourke Interview With Chris Brogan

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

‘In with the new – out with old!’ is a common phrase as the new year approaches. At O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing we believe this is especially true for hotel website design and the traditional ways of marketing.

We believe it is time to reinvent the standard hotel website, and we will begin with a quick comparison of a typical hotel website today, and our ideas of how a website should be for 2010.

A Typical Hotel Website Today:

• designed to promote hotel with emphasis on beautiful photos
• difficult to navigate, too many options, user gets lost
• static, no fresh content supplied
• designed from a template
• no links to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook
• no blog
• no video
• no division between types of travelers (i.e. leisure, business)
• no calls-to-action
• no incentive for user to supply e-mail
• no reason for user to visit your site again
• no personal profiling
• no personal communication with guest
• no reviews
• not optimized for the search engines
• no analytics in place

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InterContinental Hotels Online Videos Prove More Effective Than T.V. Spot

Friday, November 13th, 2009

At Ad Tech NY this month we caught up with Jared Simon, V.P. of Corporate Development at TurnHere Internet Video, and we asked him to share with us his case study about InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.

Rather than produce one television spot, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts chose to produce online videos which showcase more than 150 cities where their hotels are located. Working with TurnHere, they were able to produce more than 700 stunning videos for the same price it would have cost to produce just one television spot.

These intriguing videos are narrated by the concierge of the hotel who takes the viewer on a tour of the city. The videos have been extremely successful and have been used across the brand’s online marketing initiatives. The videos have also been picked up by numerous editorial sites which is free publicity for InterContinental. Below is a video clip where Jared talks about the concept, process, and result of this innovative video project.

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Sir Martin Sorrell’s Forecast for 2010, Is Your Hotel Looking Ahead?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Sir Martin Sorrell

Sir Martin Sorrell finally appeared at Ad Tech NY this year, after turning down the invitations of the last three years. He opened Ad Tech with his keynote presentation on ‘What’s coming in 2010.’ He focused on New Markets, New Media, and Consumer Insights.

Sir Martin Sorrell is the founder of WPP, one of the world’s leading communications services groups and a member of the FTSE-100, FTSE-Eurotop 300, the MSCI and BusinessWeek’s Global 1000 companies. GroupM, JWT, Ogilvy and Mather, Young & Rubicam and Grey are all part of the WPP Group. (more…)

Chris Brogan Interview – Hotels that Listen in Social Media Generate Business

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Chris Brogan was very busy running the show at the 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston, MA, yet being the cool guy that he is, he took the time to share his own insight with us on how hotels should be using Social Media.

Chris is President of New Marketing Labs, and one of the masterminds behind the Inbound Marketing Summit Conferences. He is also the co-founder of the PodCamp new media conference series. His blog ranks #1 on the Ad Age Power 150, and in the top 100 on Technorati. Chris is the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller, ‘Trust Agents,’ with Julien Smith. Trust Agents is about using the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust, as explained on the cover of the book.

Tom O’Rourke, founder/president of O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing caught up with Chris at the Summit, and asked him his thoughts on how the Hotel Industry should be using Social Media. Tom explained to Chris that many General Managers of hotels are thinking of getting into social media, but they aren’t too sure how to use it, or how to staff it. Many are not sure how it is going to help them in the business. He asked Chris what he would recommend to these general managers.

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