W hotel’s video included mukbang’s traditional elements such as appealing food imagery as well as chomping noises. This was coupled with dramatic commentary and humour from Porowski whose big social presence (more than four million followers across social channels) makes him an attractive choice of influencer.
Cultural Fluency / This campaign is in line with W hotels ambition to target ‘millennial-minded global jet setters that seek memorable experiences and as many choices as possible,’ according to Jennifer Utz Ilecki, vice president of buzz marketing at Marriott International. W hotels prides itself on creating cultural experiences around fashion, music, design and fuel (W’s approach on wellness) by balancing ‘the power of a global brand with the relevance of a local insider’, as per Marriott’s website.
For example, the brand made headlines last year when it made use of Marriott’s partnership with Coachella (the famous music and arts festival) to build four luxury yurts to represent four famous W locations around the world.
The hotels strike back / This campaign is also an example of a hotel responding to Airbnb’s increasing presence in the hospitality sector. W Hotel’s room service activation is a unique hotel experience that could never be provided by Airbnb. We’ve seen other hotels responding to Airbnb in a similar style recently. For example, Hotel Honduras Maya increased its bookings by 32.5% by creating Airbnb listings of its hotel rooms. In an interview with Ogilvy Honduras, the agency behind the campaign, it explained why they decided to embrace the competition: ‘As a result of Airbnb’s success, travellers see hotels as something that is no longer relevant and, for the cost of most Airbnb rooms or homes, they feel like they are getting a much more genuine experience that you can’t have anywhere else’.
