Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii, which has 11 great properties in Hawaii, just held a Tweetup.
Rather than host it at one of their properties or even on the islands, it was in Los Angeles.
At first, this may seem odd, i.e., how are Hawaiian hotels going to garner buzz from an event an ocean away?
But, it’s actually quite smart. When your audience is travelers, when your bottom line is for people to come stay in your hotel rooms, why not shoot for a popular city in an ideal location. Since Los Angeles International Airport is a huge hub, many destinations can be flown to easily from it, and then back home again.
The event took place at The W Los Angeles Hotel in Westwood, another Starwood property, with a great location right next door to UCLA, just west of Beverly Hills, and only a few miles from the beach. Nevertheless, the event wasn’t about how wonderful the W Los Angeles – Westwood is, it was about how wonderful those Starwood properties in Hawaii are.
They used Twtvite to draw attendees and shared the event on Twitter with #luwow. The invitation teased of games, prize giveaways, and even chances to win three-night stays at a few of the Hawaii hotels.
Starwood Hawaii held true to their promise, and as is evidenced by the active twitter stream, they gifted many attendees those three-night Hawaiian stays, to much appreciation and hype.
They’ve now created brand ambassadors for their hotels from these winners that would have otherwise possibly not had the opportunity to go visit these resorts, or, in some cases, even know that they existed, the amenities they offer, etc.
It’s also entirely possible that these visitors will now not only talk about their awesome prizes and corresponding Hawaiian vacations, bu they’re also likely to extend their stays beyond the three-day prize period, thereby providing monetary ROI for the hotels as well.
Furthermore, the tweets about had massive reach — According to TweetReach, 50 tweets featuring #luwow reached 28,000 people and received 57,000 impressions.
This was definitely a great tactic in terms of tying in social marketing and related events to spread brand awareness and encourage over-night stays.
Would you go to a Tweetup for a far-away brand?