40NL Creativity assignment year 1

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Online Trade Fair - can you beat the competition?

In your market, you are not the only player. You need to know who would want to stay at your hotel and you also need to know who your true competitors are – the ‘Comp set’. Hotels will often compare their performance against Com Set hotels, in order to find ways to make their own offering more competitive). So now it’s time to pay extra attention as to how your hotel positions in the market and the way you would promote, sell and distribute your hotel.

An online Trade Fair is coming up, and Ms. Jill Jandal has strongly suggested the Emerald Forest should participate. This is not only a good opportunity to present your hotel to the press, industry and potential guests; it’s also the place where you can closely observe your competitors’ commercial efforts.

Trade fairs have a long history offline; examples of important events include ITB Berlin, WTM in London or the Dutch Tourism Expo. Quite recently, online experiments have started popping up. It shows that especially today, online contacts, and social media play a crucial role in our lives. In tourism and hospitality, the impact is huge. Social media has been a bit neglected by the Bergmans so far. The original hotel does have a social media profile. And Christina and Jill and other staff members are active on their 'private' accounts. However, there seems to be no coherence or logic.

Situation

Check how the Emerald Forest Hotel has been doing online so far. Don’t just copy that or upgrade it: you have after all created your own strategy. So be sure the way you plan to use social media matches your strategy. Social media are used for:

• communication with your clients
• 'eavesdropping' on your clients
• checking the competitors
• marketing
• reviews as a separate thing
• adding thing to the hospitality products
• ... etc.

All these qualities can be used to set up an ultimate campaign performance at the Trade Fair.

Goal

Your Team File Year 0 Preparations and strategic choices have to be ready in plenty of time before the Trade Fair. Beware that you also have to reflect on the Trade fair and observe your competitors, do a competitor analysis, as this is part of your decisions in year two. This assignment is not just about generating some mindless marketing and sales blurb! It might be a good idea to divide the tasks - all the while making sure your deliverables are going to be coherent! Deliver an improved plan using social media, with concrete choices. In the end this should contribute to better marketing communication and, in the end, it should also bring a measurable result. Create the ultimate campaign to beat the competition!

Task, deliverable

In year 0, in the strategic choices, you made a Facebook business page as well as a 2nd Social media channel. Check once again what your measurable goals are, and aim for an even better result.

• Create at least five posts on both accounts, supporting your strategy.
• Be creative in the type of posts, the target audiences and the content you upload (beware of IP!)
• Try to get a decent number of followers or reads, views or comments on these posts.
• Prepare a 3-minute video, promoting your hotel and offering an invitation to react online. This video will be shown in the Online Trade Fair, later on.

Be sure the accounts are public and check your links on the tab ‘Year 0’ in your Team File.
At least two members of your team should be present and attending your online booth during the entire fair. This ‘booth’ will be your promotional material, your video and an open chat-box. Your fellow students, coaches and other staff members will visit you and discuss your concept and strategy.

Assessed elements

• Is the link to the strategy clear?
• Are the posts online, original and effective?
• Is the explanation clear and measurable?
• Do the posts and the video support each other?

Handing in your assignment

Hand in your material by uploading it in the right way, as instructed on MS teams.

• Be sure that your posts and video are also made public
• Be sure anyone with a link can access posts and video without any login (!)
• Add a written description of the way you have chosen to present your hotel and how this aims to improve your marketing efforts (LMS). Hand in your plan by uploading it in the right folder in the Capstone Course in LMS

Additional information

• Social media
• Website
• Competition
• IP
• Social media now in use by Emerald Forest Hotel
• Social Hospitality: Key 2021 takeaways
• 2021 Social Media Trends Hoteliers need to know about
• Hotel and Tourism Marketing Trends 2020
• 3 ways to keep social media visitors hooked on your website
• Tips to Market your Business Effectively at Trade Shows

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Emerald Forest Hotel offering an emerald hotel experience! | Run your own hotel in this management simulation.