Customer Engagement Labs: The brief

To develop new and innovative ways of creating awareness and engagement with the Hilton Honors App, using this to drive more downloads

The customer engagement day wouldn't be anything without a brief, which came thanks to Marc Lantrok, senior Manager CRM Client Services at Hilton Worldwide.

The brief came after preparation for the creative from TMW Unlimited's CEO Chris Pearce and data from vp of client services at Emarsys, Alex Timlin.

He explained that Hilton has 14 distinct brands offering 800,000 rooms in 104 countries.

Hilton Honors is the group's loyalty programme, which is free to join and has great benefits for its 60 million members.

These include:

• Exclusive discounts that can't be found anywhere else
• Free standard Wi-Fi
• In-app check-in
• Ability to choose specific rooms
• Go stright in using a Digital Key

But ideas have to fit two criteria:

• Hilton's vision: "To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality – by delivering exceptional experiences – every hotel, every guest, every time."
• Hilton's mission: "To be the most hospitable company in the world – by creating heartfelt experiences for Guests, meaningful opportunities for Team Members, high value for Owners and a positive impact in our Communities."

"The App is a point of contact with the guest, personalised and relating to the customer," he says. "It's safe but accountable."

It has very high app store ratings, contributed a quarter of traffic and revenue to the group in December 2016, and is integrated with Uber to give customers a door-to-door experience, and has 3,600 downloads per week.

"What big ideas do you have to double or even triple the downloads?" he asks.

Rather like the DMA Awards, presentations will be judged on three criteria:

• Creative - How is the creative applied? Does it command breakthrough attention? Does it put the spotlight on Hilton Honors? Does it communicate the benefits through the story and is it memorable and sticks over time?
• Data - See evidence of data used within the Big Idea proposal, using current or proposed data sets to build strategy
• Technology - The use of technology to support the role of increasing easy app downloads and user engagement

Find out about the winning campaign here.

Don't foget to book onto Data Protection 2017, held at the British Museum in London on 27 June.