The once-ubiquitous social media “war rooms” that sprung up around big events like the Super Bowl are becoming a thing of the past. Instead, brands are now battling to make sense of real-time data on a daily basis — not just the big occasions. Last week, Marriott brought its fight to Europe.
At its European headquarters in London, the hotel group has launched its fourth “M Live” social media command center. It follows U.S. hubs in Maryland and Florida, and another in Hong Kong. By the time its final center opens in Dubai next year, the group will have all time zones covered.
As with Marriott’s other full-time war rooms, its London team — two content producers, a data analyst and a graphic designer — will sit above the social channels of its 19 different hotel brands. From here, they serve three functions: identifying trends, creating ad-hoc content and cross-pollinating content across Marriott’s different brand channels. As a kind of all-seeing eye, this involves sifting through a “firehose” of data from internal and external sources: Anything from the most popular emojis in use on its properties to uncovering trending topics on Reddit.
The room is also looped in to real-time results. For example, a page showing the number of sign-ups to its Marriott Rewards program. Further down the line, Marriott will roll out specific dashboards that show a direct correlation between content and bookings.
“Before, we were all waiting to see a campaign was effective and we’d get a report two weeks later. By that time, everyone has moved on to the next assignment, and it’s left forgotten,” explained Matthew Glick, Marriott’s global head of content marketing, who jumped ship from CBS last year.
Thanks to M Live, Marriott has been able to jump on trending content and tweak existing campaigns within hours.
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