Tom Santora, chief marketing officer at Omni Hotels, spearheads several programs to attract families with children to its hotels and this year oversaw the revamping of the hotel’s complimentary Omni kids’ backpack in partnership with Chef Cheryl Forberg as part of the Omni Sensational Kids Program.
Designed for children form 4 to 7 years of age, the new Omni Kitchen Kids backpack aims to make eating well fun and easy through an activity book with recipes and food games, memory match-up cards with healthy food illustrations and a twisty tomato straw. Omni Hotels currently goes through about 90,000 complimentary kids backpacks a year.
HOTELS spoke to Santora, a 25-year industry veteran, about Omni’s kids program.
HOTELS: Should hotel marketers target parents or go directly to the kids when promoting a children’s F&B program?
Tom Santora: We should be marketing to both parents and their children. Right now, we are spending more marketing dollars for kids based on the increase of families visiting our brand. I don’t think parents would necessarily book an Omni Hotel to get something like a backpack, but it definitely makes a lasting impression, especially since we are giving kids a tangible item to bring home.
H: Are you thinking about creating more F&B programs for kids?
Santora: Yes. We are continuing our partnership with Cheryl Forberg and plan to build off the idea of teaching children more about nutrition and eating right. There is a tremendous opportunity in that area.
H: Since these backpacks are complimentary, is there an ROI? How do you justify this added expense?
Santora: The program definitely isn’t cheap. When you start to crunch the numbers, you realize that this is all quite expensive. However, we feel that it is worth making lasting positive impressions on parents and kids.
It still makes me very excited to see kids at the airport running around with their Omni backpacks. It’s a great feeling to see we have connected with the kids. They also may go home and tell their friends about their experiences at the Omni, who in turn will tell their parents that they want to come too, ultimately driving more guests to our hotels.