With a handful of promotional videos, each gaining more than one million hits on YouTube and a highly-engaged online community of followers, the FIVE Hotel and Resorts group is more than happy to talk about its digital marketing strategies.
It helps when the products you are promoting are ultra-cool luxury hotels. But FIVE’s Director of E-commerce, Ahmed Kheir, is very much a driving force behind the success. He decided to pick YouTube and Instagram as the two main channels for the brand to engage with its millennial-strong audience.
He goes on to explain why these channels are of prime importance – “Access to a large, global and diverse audience who engage in heavy mobile use, an ability to target audiences while participating with them directly – and being able to measure results”.
Results are measured by view counts, engagement rates, conversion rates, click-through rates (CTR), social sharing and brand awareness.
In fact, Kheir is big on analytics, constantly looking at data on a daily basis as to how his campaigns are working. Each hotel in the portfolio has a slightly different target market, calling for a more complex approach to marketing.
He shares how consumer behaviour has evolved. “There is a greater propensity to shop via ones’ mobile phone and via social media channels while sustainability-first options are gaining greater importance. Consumers have become more cautious about sharing their personal information online therefore brands that prioritise data privacy and security can build trust and long-lasting relationships with their customers”.
One of its most watched videos is for FIVE Palm Jumeirah, which has achieved more than two million views online. “We are always thinking about creating bespoke ‘next level’ videos. It is a 24/7 passion of ours,” Kheir added.
The brand also has a worldwide social media community of more than 931,000 active social media followers across YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. This has been achieved through a 360-degree social media strategy using digital trends, such as reels and TikTok (FIVE’s hashtags have been viewed over 137 million times via hashtags on social media).
Interestingly, the brand has its own record label, FIVE Music, which fits in nicely with its marketing aspirations. FIVE Music has already scored a big success with its first music release ‘Oh My My’ in collaboration with global sensation Burak Yeter, the artist behind cult hit ‘Tuesday’.
The official music video for Oh My My by Burak Yeter and Montiego featuring Séb Mont garnered 1.5 million views.
Kheir acknowledges the strong influence of its creative digital strategy on reservations, which is spearheaded by Aloki Batra, CEO FIVE Hospitality, with FIVE Palm Jumeirah and FIVE Jumeirah Village achieving high occupancy rates that average 93 per cent.
