Accor's CreateCationIn Dubai’s competitive hospitality market, no two hotels can afford to look or sound the same. With global brands expanding rapidly and new properties opening every month, differentiation in marketing has become a survival strategy, not a luxury.
For today’s marketing and advertising (M&A) leaders, the challenge extends beyond visibility, it’s about creating brand ecosystems that safeguard core identity while allowing each property to express its individuality.
The UAE hospitality landscape mirrors a global shift: guests now demand authentic, localised experiences, but still expect the reliability of a trusted international name. True marketing success lies in striking the delicate balance between resonance and uniformity, particularly when managing hotel clusters under a single brand family.
Understanding the brand value of each property
At Accor, this philosophy is brought to life across our Deira and Gold District cluster, which includes ibis Styles, Mercure, Novotel, and Adagio. These properties are united by values of innovation, trust, guest passion, and sustainable performance.
Yet, their market positioning intentionally diverges. Each hotel is designed to serve a distinct demographic, appeal to unique emotional triggers, and meet specific travel needs.
ibis Styles is playful and bold, attracting social-first travellers with its vibrant design and energy. Mercure emphasises heritage, culture, and gastronomy, making it a magnet for solo explorers and culinary enthusiasts. Novotel seamlessly blends business and leisure, appealing to professionals and families seeking balance. Meanwhile, Adagio caters to digital nomads and long-stay guests, offering comfort, familiarity, and a sense of home.
Our M&A approach is simple: anchor every strategy in a shared purpose, then personalise touchpoints to align with each property’s audience.
Social media as a brand amplifier
Social media became our first testing ground for balancing cohesion with individuality. Instead of relying on templated content, we developed bespoke strategies for each brand.
ibis leaned into playful, trend-driven formats, bright palettes, meme-style polls, and reels with viral audio, to resonate with Gen Z and millennial audiences. Novotel adopted a polished, professional tone, using carousels to spotlight wellness programs, family-friendly activities, and business offerings. Mercure leaned into cultural storytelling, with posts celebrating local dining rituals, heritage walks, and hidden gems around Old Dubai. Adagio focused on lifestyle-driven content, guest testimonials, slow-travel narratives, and authentic long-stay experiences that built community.
The outcome was clear: audiences didn’t just engage with more posts; they connected with them. Comments reflected authenticity, “This feels like my kind of hotel”, while engagement rates rose across all accounts by 35 per cent.
The lesson? Social media isn’t about volume; it’s about relevance. Relatable content, tailored to property personality, became our most effective growth driver.
CreateCation: A shared campaign, four distinct experiences
With the cluster voice established, we stress-tested our model through ‘CreateCation’, a collaborative influencer and content creator activation.
The goal was simple: capture each property from a unique perspective while remaining aligned to brand imagery. At ibis, the experience was high-energy, design-focused visuals, bold colors, and personality-driven content dominated feeds. Mercure emphasised cultural immersion, with curated workshops, heritage trails, and culinary showcases that created a slower, deeper narrative. Novotel delivered a versatile experience, family yoga sessions, wellness activities, and hybrid spaces that highlighted its dual appeal to business and leisure guests. Adagio embraced stillness and belonging, featuring cozy corners, home-style meals, and long-stay lifestyle content.
We also partnered with Nikon Middle East. They provided the participants with their latest camera models to use and shared tips on how to make their content more engaging.
Although part of a unified campaign, each hotel told a different story, and that difference was intentional.
Influencer content varied dramatically, but every piece tied back to Accor’s brand promise of trust, quality, and thoughtful hospitality. ‘CreateCation’ proved that a cluster-wide approach doesn’t dilute creative strategy, it elevates it. By giving each property ownership of its narrative, we strengthened brand equity through diversity and precision.
The ‘CreateCation’ campaign was also a success, engaging regional talent eager to learn and grow while introducing them to cutting-edge technology. It also involved us in content creation, uniquely positioning the hotels in the process.
Demographics as the creative brief
The third layer of our cluster strategy lies in advertising, specifically, how campaigns address distinct audience segments. Every property’s campaigns were built around demographic insights rather than generic messaging.
ibis targeted younger audiences with youth-centric campaigns on Instagram Reels, optimised for short-form, playful content. Novotel focused on families and professionals, running campaigns on Google Display, travel meta-search, and carousel ads that highlighted staycations and wellness. Mercure targeted solo travelers, food lovers, and cultural tourists through native ads emphasising immersive experiences. Adagio tapped into expats, remote workers, and seasonal visitors with lifestyle-led ads showcasing comfort and practicality.
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Each campaign carried the credibility of Accor’s global reputation, but the storytelling, formats, and calls-to-action were carefully customised. This approach not only maximised ROI but also reinforced loyalty by showing guests we understood not just their needs, but who they were.
Ultimately, the impact is best reflected in the numbers. ibis Styles Dubai Deira delivered PR coverage exceeding USD 358K across 33+ articles, while ibis Styles Dubai Gold District added more than USD 187K in value, supported by paid campaigns on leading travel platforms.
Mercure Dubai Deira emerged as a cultural storytelling leader, securing USD 535K in media value with 52 features. Aparthotel Adagio Dubai Deira maintained strong audience connection, with consistent coverage worth USD 434K and double-digit EDM open rates averaging 13 per cent. Mercure Dubai Gold District recorded steady progress, achieving USD 285K in PR coverage across 22 articles.
At the top, Novotel Dubai Gold District led the cluster, generating over USD 707K in PR value and 70 published features. Together, these achievements highlight how tailored marketing strategies not only safeguarded each brand’s integrity but also translated into measurable market impact.
The top takeaway for successful hospitality marketing
The key lesson is simple: in hospitality marketing, sameness equals stagnation. Too often, brands sacrifice individuality for consistency and end up with campaigns that feel repetitive and forgettable.
But in today’s attention economy, memorability is built on creativity, authenticity and resonance, not replication. For M&A professionals, the mandate is clear: build frameworks, not formulas. Anchor messaging in core values, but give properties the flexibility to localise, personalise, and humanise. Don’t just measure brand lift, instead measure emotional lift.
Balancing brand integrity across multiple hotels while tailoring strategies to each property’s strengths is not just a marketing tactic, but a strategic necessity. Global brands cannot afford to dilute the consistency that earns them trust, yet they also cannot ignore the reality that no two properties share identical audiences, geographies, or cultural contexts.
The most successful clusters find strength in frameworks rather than formulas. Non-negotiable values such as trust, quality, and sustainability act as the anchor, while the execution flexes across properties. Campaigns like ‘CreateCation’ show that individuality and cohesion can co-exist: differentiation within a cluster amplifies credibility by proving adaptability. The art lies in walking the line, building ecosystems where hotels feel unique, yet unmistakably part of a larger whole.
By Ferry Trinidad – Cluster Marketing and Communication Manager, Accor Cluster: Dubai Deira & Dubai Gold District
