Like many other people, I’ve succumbed to the decades-in-the-making surge in TV consumption. My vices are movies and the occasional sports game. But most of the time, the TV is in the background as I blast out memos, emails and short essays on my laptop—multitasking at its finest. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now—burning the midnight oil to extrap...
New is cool. I get it. With the exponential growth of social media, mobile and all in between, many have prognosticated the extinction of print and even some traditional forms of electronic communication such as telephone and email. To clarify, I lump email into the traditional category because it has been around for more than 20 years now (time flies doe...
Half a year ago, I doted on the remarkable upswing in creative interpretations of the Western staple cuisine - the burger. Over the past decade, we've witnessed this dish go from an ordinary menu item at any old greasy spoon or fast food location to a carte blanche for artisanal combinations of premium toppings and high quality patty ingredients. Sure, th...
Marketing dollars are precious and scarce. No one wants to pilfer resources away towards programs that fail to deliver a solid return on investment. As a general manager, here are ten thoughts to keep in mind as your hotel marketing team prepares to execute this year's plan. 1. You can't measure everything. As a consultant, after presenting a concept, the...
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Writing about this ever-romantic holiday on the day of instead of months before changes what I am going to say, but only slightly. Mainly, even though you are in the throes of executing this year’s Valentine’s Day marketing efforts, it is never too soon to start the thinking wheels for next year’s big day. Later this month,...
Have you taken the time to examine www.backbid.com? If not, give it a quick browse, ruminate on it a minute then return here. If yes, would you consider using it to attract new customers? Although it’s a relatively small piece of the pie, this website’s model is demonstrative of a contemporary shift in consumer mentality, and its perils. On Backbid, consu...
A study conducted last year by Protean Strategies, working in conjunction with the research firm Hotspex, has shed some new light on how consumers are engaging major hotel brands as well as perhaps a fresh perspective on where to take your brand in the near future. Using Hotspex’s proprietary MarketSpex methodology and a sample survey of 800 North America...
This is the year of mobile domination. Smartphones now have the numbers and the ‘smarts’ to swing this from rebellion to full-on revolution. Rethink your website, rethink your social media and rethink your external sales channels. There have been utterances about this for months now, which in internet time is decades. As always, with new technologies come n...
This past month, I had the privilege of judging entries for this year’s HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International) competition. This annual program calls for hotels and their agencies to submit their marketing efforts to be ranked among the best in the world. Competition is fierce, and this year well over 1,000 entries were received....
Arising from discussions about Room Key, the OTAs and where online hospitality channels are headed, I had a conversation with Moe Ibrahim, the CEO of the reservation and experiential website Journeyful (www.journeyful.com). It's a fascinating take on online distribution systems. The platform is designed to be cheaper than a hotel's existing booking engine...
