strategy
AA6666
Aman_ClientProposal_May2022_FINAL.docx
AMAN CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL REASOR, USING DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
HOTELS, RESORTS & RESIDENCES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction 3
a. History of Aman 3
b. Brand Identity 4
c. Corporate Goals 4
d. Purpose 5
2. Situation Analysis 5
a. Landscape Analysis 1 (Socioeconomic) 5
b. Landscape Analysis 2 (Competitive) 6
c. Landscape Analysis 3 (Brand) 6
d. Target Audience 7
3. Social Media Monitoring 8
4. Communication Goals 9
5. Campaign Proposal 10
a. Campaign Platform: Exceed Every Expectation 11
b. Campaign Objectives 11
c. Channel Breakdown & Tactics 12
6. Editorial Calendar & Metrics 14
7. Appendix 15
8. References 16
INTRODUCTION
History of Aman Hotels, Resorts & Residences
Founded in 1988, Aman, Resorts, and Residences (Aman) is a Swiss proprietor of high-end resorts, hotels, and accommodations. Known for having an exquisite level of detail toward the guest experience, the quality of service has allowed Aman to establish itself as a premiere destination for wealthy travelers and the adventurous elite.
According to the Aman website, the brand’s founding more than three decades ago was based on esteemed hotelier Adrian Zecha’s personal desire to build and operate “hotels as homes.” Having a distaste for big box commercial resort properties by larger hotel chains such as Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton, Zecha aimed to create a more intimate approach to the traveling experience and in doing so, created a brand all its own.
Today, Aman has a presence currently in or expanding to 41 resorts in 22 different countries.
Figure 1. A historical timeline of the Aman brand. (Aman, 2022)
“To create the world’s ultimate luxury lifestyle brand which transforms our guests’ perspectives and daily lives.”
AMAN MISSION STATEMENT
Brand Identity
In addition to Aman’s focus on providing an ultra-luxury experience, Aman has also made strides in becoming a true “lifestyle brand,” a brand that “attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes” (Ainslie & Rossi, 1998). With the target audience’s lifestyle being centered around wealth and exclusion (see: Target Audience, pg.7), it is imperative Aman’s brand identity reflects the innate and nuanced desires of their core audience. Should the brand effectively do so, what results is a tangible level of social currency which guests can then practice to draw further attention to the brand.
With social currency being a cornerstone of luxury brands due to the inherent talkability that comes with the amount spent on a product (Berger, 2016), Aman’s sky-high prices and maximum payoff makes social currency a key component to its brand identity. On social media, the brand’s identity manifests itself through rich colors, refined fonts, and minimal copy that play up an aura of exclusion and exotic appeal that is designed to entice potential affluent social scrollers.
Corporate Goals
The COVID-19 pandemic and related local mandates that limited international travel severely hindered the performance of luxury resorts. Impacts on the wider hospitality industry were felt most significantly in the APAC and EU regions, where resort entities suffered a decline of 29% and 68% respectively (EHL, 2021). With the APAC and EU regions serving as the markets with the bulk of Aman properties, it is imperative for the brand to lean into its social media presence to generate interest and bookings for properties in these countries.
However, post-pandemic travel is now surging, with travel to international destinations outside the United States up 29% in 2022 from 2021, and up 78% in 2022 from 2020 (U.S. Travel Association, 2022). With international travel being crucial to the company’s bottom line, the corporate goal is to tap into the surge of post-pandemic global travel to increase interest in bookings for Aman’s international properties.
Purpose
The purpose of this campaign plan is to create an approach that allows Aman to reach its corporate goal by maximizing the potential of its social media presence. By taking a honed audience-first approach to channel strategy that conveys storytelling that appeals to their interests and sentiments, Aman can then drive interest and conversions to increase bookings at the brand’s properties that have been most impacted by the pandemic in the APAC and EU regions.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Landscape Analysis 1: A World Emerges from a Post-Pandemic Stasis
As mentioned in Corporate Goals (pg. 4), interest in international travel is returning, resulting in a prime opportunity for the brand to capitalize on this interest to drive bookings for its APAC and EU properties. According to Travel Pulse (2022) interest is up 56% amongst general travelers from February 2021 to February 2022. According to the same survey, travel within the EU has increased from 46% in November 2020 to 61% in November 2021, with anticipated continued growth through EOY 2022, pending any international disruptions (i.e. Russian-Ukrainian conflict) that may result in travel restrictions.
Landscape Analysis 2: A Crowded Luxury Market Steeped in Familiarity
When measuring affinity and brand recognition amongst our target audiences (see: Target Audience, pg.7), Aman sits in first and third place respectively amongst key competitors. This implies that while it may be challenging to attract new visitors to the brand, once the brand successfully does so, it’s able to effectively turn potential customers into loyalists and evangelists.
Figure 2. Average brand affinity vs. brand recognition amongst competitors
(YouGov Survey, 2022)
On social media, however, brand recognition has not necessarily translated to an equivalent follower sizing across primary channels. What results is a relatively level playing field that provides an opportunity for Aman to optimize it’s social presence to directly target and win over followers of competitive accounts, ultimately translating to a greater level of interest in bookings to support the brand’s overall business goal.
Landscape Analysis 3: Aman’s Limited Visibility is the Result of an Untargeted Social Strategy
In comparison to its competitors, brand visibility for Aman falls behind an even broader competitor set that includes larger “mothership
brands” such as Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton,
that have luxury arms such as Ritz-Carlton,
Thompson Hotels, and Waldorf Astoria
Figure 3. Average brand visibility amongst competitors.
(YouGov Survey, 2022)
respectively. Aman’s limited visibility amongst our target audience is the likely result of multiple factors, including 1) limited external advertising including high-impact media formats (OOH, TV, etc.), 2) a target audience consisting of exclusively high-income “one percent” individuals and families, and 3) a wide-reaching yet fragmented social media strategy.
With the focus of this report being Aman’s social strategy, the findings of this landscape analysis result in a recommendation to reassess the brand’s social strategy (see: Social Media Monitoring, pg. 8) in efforts to earn a larger share of brand visibility amongst the competition, ultimately driving interest in bookings to support the brand’s corporate goal.
Target Audience
As a consumer-based organization, Aman’s social presence targets two distinct audience targets: The Social Explorer (SE) and The Vicarious Dreamer (VD). These audiences were sized in YouGov Profiles to gauge their interest in Aman as well as to determine their social media channel affinities. See: Appendix I, pg. 15 for audience definitions.
The Social Explorer (US: 17MM) is a group of wealthy individuals who have the means to visit high-end properties in remote locales. They turn to social media to search and learn more about potential vacations or to share out their own experiences on occasion. In relation to their connection to Aman where they under-index for brand affinity (Target Reach: 3% / Index: 91i) but over-index for brand recognition (7% / 140i). They also over-index on social channels where Aman has concentrated much of its historical efforts including Instagram (77% / 188i) and YouTube (85% / 201i).
The Vicarious Dreamer (US: 66MM), at nearly double SE, is a broader audience of those who may not be able to afford or schedule a visit but live through the experiences through others. While a visit may be an unattainable dream at the moment, they turn to social media to learn from those who can. Regarding Aman, they under-index for both brand affinity (1% / 66i) and brand recognition (3% / 88i). Their social media affinities moderately overlap with where Aman’s social strategy is placing it’s focus, showing a preference for information-driven channels like Facebook (77% / 122i) and Pinterest (48% / 222i), but also relying on Instagram (69% / 166i).
SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING
The parameters of this audit will be focused on the disparities that exist amongst Aman’s own social channels versus comparisons to competitors due to the lack of equal comparison available. While Aman hosts its own social presence, rivals Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton funnel social media presences for their luxury brands through their mothership handles, @Marriott, @Hyatt, and @HiltonResorts, relying on the power and recognition for the larger brands to draw eyes to the more niche luxury properties. Refer to Figure 4 for a chart of Aman’s social media presence.
Aside from distinct strategy, based on topline social media monitoring and independent of the proposed campaign plan, Aman’s social presence offers three immediate opportunities for growth and optimization:
1. Resort-specific handles can help and hurt growth and engagement. While resort-specific handles do allow each property to show its strength and level of uniqueness as well as contributing to overall ecosystem community size, given it may be the same two target audiences (SE and VD) living across the ecosystem, what results is a “spread-too-thin” approach that may best be optimized with consolidation amongst the brand’s core @Aman handles.
2. Competitors can rely on the brand affinity and recognition of their larger entities. As mentioned above, the social presences for luxury sub-brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Waldorf Astoria are laddered up to their mothership brand channels, which allow the sub-brands to receive exposure via the larger familiarity and recognition around Marriott and Hilton, respectively. Being independent, Aman does not have the benefit of taking this approach to their social media presence.
3. Limited use of influencers and tagging mechanics limit reach. Despite the beauty and luxury experience of each unique Aman property, Aman’s limited use of travel influencers and other methods of expanding reach (location tags, hashtags) hinder the potential growth of the communities that live within the brand’s social ecosystem.
|
Aman Brand Social Ecosystem |
||||||
|
Platform |
Handle |
Followers |
Objective |
Cadence |
Avg. Engagement |
Engagement Rate |
|
|
@Aman* |
592K |
Engagement |
2.5 posts/week |
7.2K |
2% |
|
|
@AmanResorts |
9.2K |
Engagement |
1.5 posts/week |
440 |
5% |
|
YouTube |
@AmanResorts |
12.2K |
Awareness |
1 post/month |
41 |
0.30% |
|
|
@AmanResorts |
119.5K |
Awareness |
11.5 posts/week |
104 |
1% |
|
|
@AmanResorts |
8.1K |
Awareness |
13.5 tweets/week |
19 |
0.20% |
|
|
@Aman |
592K |
Awareness |
1.5 posts/week |
24 |
0.30% |
Figure 4. Aman Brand Social Ecosystem. Note the focus of this campaign plan is to propose optimizations for Aman’s brand channels and are not reflective of the individual pages established for specific resort properties.
COMMUNICATION GOALS
Our social media strategy and campaign plan will explore opportunities for growth and optimization across Aman’s vast but varied social ecosystem. Knowing both target audiences are extensively engaged in social media, it is crucial to set communications objectives that place parameters around what this campaign is intended to accomplish. Aman can leverage its social media presence to achieve a variety of objectives particularly with their more robust channels already reaching the core demographic amongst SE and VD who may show the greatest propensity and ability to afford international travel. With social media often being the first point of exposure for many brands (Hubspot Academy, 2022), recommendations can be made that better optimize the brand’s current approach to social media. Thus, the goals for the campaign are:
1. Raise brand awareness amongst Social Explorers and Vicarious Dreamers. Building brand awareness can help the brand breakthrough the competition and allow Aman to continue generating conversation amongst our target audiences.
2. Create interest in bookings amongst Social Explorers and Vicarious Dreamers. With awareness comes intrigue, and interest in visiting one of Aman’s locations can help support the company’s business goal of driving bookings at its locations in the APAC and EU markets.
Justification
These communication goals are justified by supporting the larger business goal of awareness and conversion, and can serve as a foundation for what is intended to be a strong social strategy rooted in tactics and intention. Without objectives, your campaign has the potential to lose focus, waste resources, and ultimately not ladder up to the business goals (Neil Patel, 2022).
CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL
Campaign Platform: Exceed Every Expectation
Titled “Exceed Every Expectation,” (#ExceedEveryExpectation) the campaign that lives across Aman’s social presence would channel the brand’s sense of high-luxury and acute attention to detail to lean into Social Explorer’s penchant for travel and Vicarious Dreamer’s desire for social escapism, all in an effort to drive awareness of the brand’s properties and ultimately bookings across APAC and the EU. The campaign would manifest itself across the brand’s core social pages, determined by those with the most sizable communities and highest engagement rate (Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest) as well as the most potent mix of international users (Weibo, Facebook). It would be evident through high-resolution video and static imagery, simple and elevated post copy, and distinctive pushes to Aman’s booking site to drive conversion (see: Channel Breakdown and Tactics, pg. 12)
Campaign SMART Objectives
The campaign would utilize two specific SMART goals to ensure guardrails and results.
Objective 1: Awareness
· Objective: To increase the amount of positive comments (as measured by a qualitative sentiment analysis), pins, likes, and shares on Aman’s Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Weibo pages by 10% by January 31, 2023.
· Business Outcome: Drive brand awareness amongst non-US travelers centered within the APAC region to generate bookings.
· Justification: Countries in the APAC region having faced the most strict and stringent of pandemic-related lockdowns. As a result, the need to drive affinity amongst international travelers is crucial to meeting the brand’s business goal, and Aman can leverage its presence on platforms with the highest engagement (Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube) and international presence (Weibo, Facebook) to directly speak to those travelers in the surrounding regions. Channeling efforts to drive positive comments, likes, and shares on this platform can move engagements from being a vanity metric to a true measure of how leaned in our core audience is, while also bolstering our presence on the platform.
· Measurement: Track comments, likes, and shares via platform-specific backend analytics platform.
Objective 2: Conversion
· Objective: To increase bookings through Aman’s social media platforms by 15% by February 28, 2023.
· Business Outcome: Lead generation of A25-54 high-income international travelers, as exemplified by Social Explorers and Vicarious Dreamer target audiences.
· Justification: To meet aggressive performance goals in 2022, Aman must aim to capture a greater share of voice and level of interest amongst an audience who has shown a willingness to travel abroad in a post-pandemic environment, along with having the means to do so. Long-lead efforts throughout 2022 must work to keep the Aman brand top of mind to drive bookings centered around the 2022-23 holiday season, justifying the end goal of this objective to be February 28, 2023 to be inclusive of both domestic and international holidays, including Lunar New Year.
· Measurement: Tracking pixels measured between now and February 28, 2023, captured across Aman’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Weibo, and YouTube accounts.
Channel Breakdown and Tactics
To best accomplish the SMART goals within the designated timeframe, we are proposing to take a honed approach to the most impactful channels while consolidating efforts around channels that are less likely to resonate with our two target audiences.
|
Channel (Post Frequency) |
Audience (Target Reach / Index) |
Channel Rationale |
Tactic |
Objective |
|
(Post 3x week) |
Social Explorers (77% / 188i) |
Channel with the greatest following with the highest opportunity to reach both target audiences. |
High-resolution video showcasing each resort with location tags and elevated copy with CTAs. |
Conversion |
|
|
Vicarious Dreamers (69% / 166i) |
|
Lean into their "follower" nature with Influencer plays and enticing Stories with the link feature to the booking site. |
Awareness |
|
YouTube (Post 1x week) |
Social Explorers (85% / 201i) |
As the internet's second largest search engine, high-indexing channel with target audiences can also improve SEO and brand awareness (Hubspot Academy, 2022). |
Long-form video showcasing each resort's unique offerings (excursions, spa treatments, etc.) with links to booking site. |
Conversion |
|
|
Vicarious Dreamers |
|
Short-form video playing up the remote nature and natural landscapes to lean into the channel's visual appeal. |
Awareness |
|
(Post 3x week) |
Vicarious Dreamers (48% / 222i) |
High-indexing channel caters to the visually-drawn VD. |
Pins encouraging shareability each with a link back to the Aman site for further information discovery. |
Awareness |
|
(Post 2x week) |
Vicarious Dreamers (77% / 122i) |
Mass-reach platform whose text-heavy UX allows for information to be delivered to both target audiences seeking more in-depth context to supplement the creative. Platform's large international audience also can bring awareness and conversion from visitors in the APAC and EU regions. |
Short-form video with more extensive elevated copy illustrating pricing and booking instructions. We do not recommend using hashtags in copy due to Facebook's lack of aggregation to measure (Hubspot Academy, 2022). |
Awareness |
|
|
Social Explorers |
|
|
Conversion |
|
(Post 2x week) |
A25-54 International |
Global audience platform with highest penetration in APAC region. |
High-resolution visuals with more overt CTA's pushing to the booking site to capture the platform's international audience with the highest likelihood to convert. |
Conversion |
|
|
Lower reach channel amongst our target audiences with low-likelihood to convert; thus this campaign proposal recommends Aman to pull back from this channel. |
Figure 5. Content Channels, Rational, Tactics, and Objectives
Sample Content
See: Appendix II, pg. 15 for content mocks.
Justification
Beginning with the campaign platform, #ExceedEveryExpectation, Berger’s (2016) point about creating content that is easily sharable and steeped in emotion lends itself most to virality. Visual-first, high-resolution video and imagery supplemented by this hashtag not only is inherently sharable due to human nature’s natural attraction to what we consider beautiful, but also #ExceedEveryExpectation is both catchy and aspirational. Second, the SMART goals are justified by incorporating HubSpot Academy’s (2022) parameters around what makes a sufficient goal. The SMART goals support the larger business goal (Conversion and Awareness), have a timeframe (conclusion of Lunar New Year), are rooted in the audiences, and are specific in measurement. Last, the channel breakdown places a priority on channels that are most likely to make an impact on the target audiences based on their preferences. By eliminating Twitter as a focus channel, the Aman social ecosystem can be consolidated and better focused, measured, and optimized towards reaching the larger business goals.
EDITORIAL CALENDAR & METRICS
Attached, please find a sample editorial calendar, metrics, and justification.
APPENDIX I: AUDIENCE DEFINITIONS
Social Explorers (17MM)
YouGov Target Definition: I consider myself a world traveler OR I enjoy recommending new places for my friends and I to travel together OR I have been to is any of: Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America
Vicarious Dreamers (66MM)
YouGov Target Definition: I consider myself a world traveler OR I hope to travel someday OR I follow my friends’ experiences closely on social media OR social media networks, member of is any of: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, Google+, Weibo, Byte
APPENDIX II: SAMPLE CONTENT
References
Ainslie, A., & Rossi, P.E. (1998). Similarities in Choice Behavior Across Product Categories. Marketing Science, 17, 91-106.
Aman. (2022). About. Retrieved from https://www.aman.com
Aman. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/amanresorts/
Berger, J. (2016). Contagious: Why things catch on. Simon and Schuster.
Dogra, S. (2021, March 21). Covid-19: Impact on the hospitality workforce. Hospitality News & Business Insights by EHL. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/covid-19-impact-hospitality- workforce
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/fourseasons/
Global interest in domestic and international travel on the rise. TravelPulse. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.travelpulse.com/news/features/global-interest-in-domestic-and-international-travel-on-the-rise.html
HubSpot Academy, (2021). “Social Media Listening and Monitoring”. Retrieved from: https://app.hubspot.com/academy/4580767/tracks/29/264/1429
Mageau, J. (2022, March 31). Monthly Travel Data Report. U.S. Travel Association. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.ustravel.org/research/monthly-travel-data-report
Patel, N. (2021, August 28). How to write perfect paid social media marketing objectives (with examples). Neil Patel. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-marketing-objectives/
Thompson Hotels. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/thompsonhotels/
YouGov. (2022). YouGov Custom Survey: 2.28.22. Retrieved from: https://www.profiles.crunch.io.
Waldorf Astoria. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/waldorfastoria/
Average Brand AwarenessRitz-Carlton (Marriott) JW Marriott (Marrott) Waldorf Astoria (Hilton) St. Regis (Marriott) Aman Thompson Hotels (Hyatt) Alila (Hyatt) LXR (Hilton) 0.31 0.27 0.19 7.0000000000000007E-2 0.06 0.05 0.03 0.02
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