Building Brand Awareness with Barceló Hotel Group

Recently, Barceló Hotel Group, one of the world’s leading global hospitality brands, expanded and rebranded. In addition to the group’s original brand, Barceló Hotels & Resorts, three new distinctive brands were introduced to the Barceló Hotel Group collection: Royal Hideaway Luxury Hotels & Resorts; Occidental Hotels & Resorts; and Allegro Hotels. The new multi-brand structure was designed with today’s traveler in mind, making it easy for guests to select the type of resort experience they want with an appropriate price point to match, all while visiting some of the world’s most desirable destinations. TURNER was tasked with raising awareness among media, consumers, and travel trade

Strategy, Tactics & Results

MEDIA RELATIONS: TURNER launched a strategic, results-oriented, national PR campaign aimed at direct flight markets, important regional publications, and top-tier media outlets. Instead of starting from scratch, the travel media relations campaign took a more holistic approach, highlighting the resorts’ already fantastic assets, and positioning them as a complete, unique experience. Innovative tactics were used to further help the resort complexes stand out from the competition, including media seeding mailers to select journalists and infographics that conveyed an engaging message.

• RESULTS: TURNER’s media relations efforts resulted in 1,867,389,532 total impressions. During the past year, several articles have appeared in top-tier outlets, such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, USA TODAY and the Toronto Sun. Online coverage has included such popular sites as Forbes.com, PopSugar.com and MSN.com.

CONTENT + SYNDICATION: Barceló Hotel Group uses its Pin and Travel blog to share the latest trends, tips and tricks for an elevated travel experience. TURNER not only created topical editorial content for the blog that highlighted 10 of Barceló’s all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, Aruba and the Dominican Republic, but also optimized content in a way that would engage a new valuable audience. To support PR and social media marketing efforts, we launched a campaign using a content distribution network to boost SEO, capture new audiences and generate more traffic to the Barceló site.

• RESULTS: Through a recursive optimization strategy on the Pin and Travel Blog, we were able to achieve and surpass industry benchmarks for Cost per Clicks (CPC) and Click Through Rates (CTR). The average travel industry CPCs range from $0.60 - $0.45 and our campaign achieved an average $0.54 CPC. The average travel industry CTR falls between 0.08% - 0.12% and we exceeded the range with a 14 percent CTR.

INFLUENCERS: In order to boost brand awareness, engagement and aesthetic efforts, TURNER developed a robust influencer program for 10 Barceló properties, bringing more than two dozen popular social media personalities to the hotel group’s resorts. Influencers were selected for the strength and quality of their content and their ability to guide messaging to target audiences through a trusted third party. We also ensured that the program excluded influencers who had worked with competing brands in recent months. Often working for work for trade of stay and/or a flight stipend, these influencers wrote blogs and posted on their online channels, exposing the resorts to their extensive audiences in an authentic and meaningful way. Additionally, we brought the influencers into the mix on the Barceló Pin and Travel blog to tell their “Barceló story.” These posts were then syndicated through a content distribution network and amplified on top-line publications such as, Fox, CNN, NY Post and ABC.

• RESULTS: 27 influencer trips resulted in 142 Instagram posts and 22 blog posts, for a total reach of 3,585,630, 58,953,558 total impressions and 492,472 total engagements. Referral traffic has also been strong at 4,010.

TRAVEL TRADE: TURNER planned and executed three travel trade events in Kansas City, Minneapolis and Chicago, each one designed to convey the core messages of Barceló Hotel Group new multi-brand strategy and highlighting particular experiences and amenities available at each of the resort brands. The agency partnered with Funjet Vacations, Delta Vacations and Apple Vacations, hosting 60-75 travel agents per city.

• RESULTS: TURNER’s travel trade-focused events and subsequent efforts secured a wide range of coverage for Barceló Hotel Group’s new strategy and brands in top trade outlets, including Recommend, TravelAge West, Travel Industry Today, HOTELS, Travel Agent Central and many others.