{"id":7457,"date":"2018-09-26T08:58:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T12:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brainstation.io\/?p=7457"},"modified":"2021-01-29T09:19:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T14:19:31","slug":"how-a-luxury-hotel-from-the-60s-turned-into-a-digital-marketing-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/how-a-luxury-hotel-from-the-60s-turned-into-a-digital-marketing-leader","title":{"rendered":"How a Luxury Hotel From the \u201860s Turned Into a Digital Marketing Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1960, Canadian architect and real estate developer Isadore Sharp founded Four Seasons with one hotel on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto. Nearly six decades later, the brand has more than 100 luxury hotels in 46 countries around the world \u2014 from New York to Bora Bora.<\/span>
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Put simply, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has evolved into a hospitality powerhouse. While renowned for its properties, the brand\u2019s digital marketing efforts over the last nine years have played a crucial role in its continued success. From promoting luxe experiences to engaging 750 thousand followers on Instagram, to launching its Four Seasons Chat service, the company has become a clear digital marketing leader in the ever-evolving hotel industry.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did it get here? It all started with…<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Digital-First Approach<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Four Seasons position as a digital marketing leader can be traced back to 2009. At the time, the ever-evolving travel industry was still recovering from the global economic recession, and the company understood that a new digital focus was needed. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Four Seasons realized that consumers were going to have an increasing amount of control over the marketing conversation, particularly when it came to branding and reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To influence the conversation in a positive way, and still allow for organic engagement, Four Seasons focused on building a large variety of content, across <\/span>multiple platforms \u2013 from their
website, social media channels, and magazine site. The goal was to create authentic content that people would want to share, even if the topics (including travel and food) would only appeal to niche segments of their audience.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step was to focus on distribution. The company turned their attention to social media platforms that had been neglected by other luxury hotel brands, including Tumblr, Google+, Weibo, and, perhaps most effectively, Pinterest. Four Seasons, in fact, was the first luxury hotel brand to use the platform, creating profiles for more than 81 hotels and resorts, as well as a popular trip planning feature that gave guests an opportunity to engage with the hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This emphasis on interactive experiences paid immediate dividends in 2009, with increased consumer engagement across platforms, including:<\/span>
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