Experience Marriott: T3 Leverages the Power of Online Experience to Capture Hotel Clickers

After Marriott Hotels and Resorts, the flagship brand of Marriott International, Inc., re-engineered and redefined every element of their room design with their guests in mind, they wanted an online platform to reveal it to their customers. Marriott had a few criteria: the online solution needed to showcase the room’s unique qualities and enhance Marriott’s online guest experience. T3 (The Think Tank), an integrated marketing services firm with offices in Austin, Texas, and New York, was up to the challenge.

Understanding the immeasurable opportunity to engage the public through interactive media, T3 knew it had to reach beyond the standard 360-degree room tour and give consumers more. “Consumers crave an experience,” said Gay Gaddis, T3 president and CEO. “And that raises the bar for us.”

It’s very difficult to convey a physical experience online, and since most of the time the physical details are what make the feel and perception of the room what it is, T3 Labs, an innovative creative advancement group within T3, recognized a unique opportunity to create a site for Marriott that empowers the guest to experience and interact with the room’s heightened, upgraded features and details before actually being in the physical space.

“Our goal with the creative approach and strategy was to allow prospective Marriott guests to go beyond simply looking at pictures of a room. We saw the opportunity to create a site that allowed visitors to truly experience and appreciate the new room before actually being in the physical space,” said Kirk Drummond, T3 vice president of creativity and innovation and T3 Labs leader. “We have a great team at T3, and that's what makes projects like this possible.”

To get a better feel for the new design, T3 Labs sent Chad Currie, T3 Group Creative Director, with a small team to film and shoot the revamped room. Currie chose to focus on details of the room as they would be experienced in person. Avoiding broad shots of the room, the team zoomed in on the tactile. If small details were the key to making the room easier to live in and more luxurious, then they were essential in providing consumers with a taste of the new Marriott. The most interesting challenge proved to be integrating the interactive pieces into a cohesive experience. Much like filming a special effects shoot, the team shot both video and still shots separately until they could be assembled in post-production. This required carefully storyboarding each interaction ahead of time, planning each moving part and shooting them precisely. Back in Austin, the team began putting the pieces in place, remembering that close-ups were critical for the site’s success.

Brought to life through Flash animation and video, the team developed the Web site www.ExperienceMarriott.com. Experience Marriott gives visitors the opportunity to virtually interact with almost every feature in the room. Site visitors are immediately greeted with a warm, yet modern female voice that begins the experience. From there, viewers are able to fluidly explore the well-planned and executed room design. The room comes to life as viewers can turn lights on and off, set the alarm clock, close the blackout curtains, program the safe, pivot the ergonomic desk and even watch TV. The experience is designed to be intuitive and responsive to viewers’ needs – a sharp contrast to the photo galleries or 360-degree room pans most hotel sites offer. 

“What could have been points on a bullet list became engaging experiences that encourage consumers to play and explore,” said Gaddis. Visitors are offered close-ups of details otherwise left undiscovered, thus allowing future guests to envision and anticipate their future Marriott stay. The site additionally uses a strategic mix of voice, photography, design and music to leverage the pivotal, yet basic relationship between senses and perception. “We simply wanted to make the room more accessible,” said Currie. The result is a new level of online experience for the travel and leisure industry.

Importantly, T3 also built in a powerful set of Web-based analytics tools that let Marriott know how and where visitors are coming to the site, where they’re going and how long they’re interacting with each area and more. Analysis of this information is imperative in making decisions to refine and optimize the site, and is significantly advantageous in providing key consumer insights and attitudes to Marriott.

Developing the site required more than a little fortitude on Marriott’s part – and the result has been nothing short of incredible. Since the site’s launch in September of 2005, there have been dramatic shifts in overall perceptions and purchase intent. Additionally, T3 has tracked press coverage through key business publications, several blogs and other viral sources. “Word-of-mouth is how interactive thrives,” said Gaddis. “You know you’re successful when people are talking.” The award-winning site stands as a benchmark within the interactive community, setting new standards in customer experience, technology and innovation.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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