Hilton HHonors $25 Million Rebranding: Q&A

Hilton has put $25 million toward rebranding its loyalty program hoping to change the perception of hotel marketing among travelers. The basic premise moves the messaging from earning and redeeming miles, to visions of breathtaking images of wondrous, magical places awaiting unforgettable experiences.

The creation of the new brand identity is a worldwide effort managed by Publicis New York. The online, print and outdoor ads will appear globally in the U.S., Turkey, China, the UK, Italy and other markets.

The debut of the campaign in this highly competitive business comes a little more than a year after Intercontinental Hotels Group launched an in-your-face campaign targeting the members of Hilton’s HHonors loyalty program after Hilton said that it would impose a 20% reduction in reward point values.

Jeff Diskin, Hilton Worldwide’s senior vice president, customer marketing, oversees the Hilton HHonors program and its 27 million members, of which more than 2.5 million joined last year alone. He shares his thoughts on how the idea to rebrand came about and what it took to set it sail last month.

PROMO: What prompted you to rebrand the loyalty program?
DISKIN: We saw a competitive vacuum. We didn’t see anyone separated from the rest of the pack in travel hospitality programs overall. There was a standardized level of expectations at the core and we saw a competitive opportunity. What is impactful is the way we describe and communicate the benefits. People are interested in points, but more importantly it’s about what they can do with them.

PROMO: Did you conduct research?
DISKIN: We conducted several different types such as traditional behind-the-mirror talk about loyalty programs. But, more specifically, we explored areas that we had hypothesized about with high-frequency members staying in our hotels. We explored different creative avenues for explaining the program and got feedback on what people liked and didn’t like; what they understood and how the direction of the creative appealed to them. We tried to understand how people think about travel and what the program can do for them. We looked at how and when people use their points and how they track their balances.

PROMO: Any other research?
DISKIN: We conducted surveys to determine what members value the most and asked them to prioritize rewards and rate the benefits on a scale from one to 10. We also fielded a survey about five or six different aspects of the program to get insights. Most often these programs appeal to certain types of people and we wanted to find out if we could we appeal to others by shaping the program differently.

PROMO: How did you identify targets for the survey?
DISKIN: We used a research company to help identify people in the travel demographic, for example, people who travel six times per year, but don’t join loyalty programs.

PROMO: How is the new creative different?
DISKIN: It’s heavily dependant on large-scale photography that captures intimate moments and unique experiences that people instantly connect with. It’s vibrant photography that we shot around the world in and around the hotels, but not typically property shots. We introduce it using a passport stamp with the logo and tagline, “Experience is Worth Sharing.” We feel the creative will standout in the industry, but more importantly people identify it with it.

PROMO: What is your goal for the creative?
DISKIN: We want to create a sense of opportunity and experience at their fingertips—adventures, far off lands—with a whimsical nature to it. We innately knew that a new place could be magical and through our loyalty program members can accumulate points and use them to tap into that freedom of expression.

PROMO: Are you spreading a consistent theme and message?
DISKIN: We have 10 different brands in the program with hotels in 86 countries. It was important to have a single look and feel that had universal appeal, which did great in the testing process. When tested in the U.S. the creative came in 20% above industry average and almost 50% in Japan and Asia.

PROMO: What was the timeline for the relaunch?
DISKIN: We spent one year determining what we would do and then months on how to capitalize on the communication aspect and developing those materials. Obviously, that’s a never-ending journey. We’re still making significant updates to our Web site both in functionality and what people can do within the content of the program.

PROMO: How are you measuring the effectiveness of the new program?
DISKIN: We look at new members, activity from existing members, brand equity scores and what people are saying about program. We have a lot of measures in place to see how effective we are.

PROMO: How did you feel as the new program began to roll out?
DISKIN: You get the jitters, but I truly wasn’t concerned because we were so well tested. It was more the anticipation and excitement. We worked on this for a year and a half and we have something that is really going to connect with people.