Marriott is telling guests that something is different about its lobbies’ F&B offerings with its new, large-scale day/night bar. Special merchandising displays help the bar transition between dayparts.

Start with Marriott, now featuring expanded F&B offerings in its new destination lobbies (which are rolling out across North America—about 30 are in place and more than 100 are likely to be in place by year-end), including food items that can be served in five, 10 or 20 minutes.

To communicate this new offering to guests, the company has debuted stylishly designed 5/10/20 logo menus across lobby-area tables and 5/10/20 logo carryout containers and packaging.

In addition, “there is a whole service dialogue that accompanies the program,” says Matthew Von Ertfelda, vice president of restaurants and bars for Marriott International. “As guests are checking in or arriving in the lobby bar/lounge, there is a chorus of associates reinforcing this to guests in a very professional, discreet fashion. What we wanted to avoid was being too aggressive with how this is marketed. Hotels are often perceived as trying too hard—we wanted to be a bit more understated.”

Von Ertfelda says the substantive changes to the lobbies in terms of design and furniture (such as high-top communal tables) will speak for themselves, signaling to guests that something is different and driving a certain energy around the public space and the new lobby's anchor, a day/night bar.

Marriott uses the stylish but understated 5/10/20 logo above to show guests that food is available quickly, whether for snacking in the lobby orfor taking on the go.

In addition, new roaming lobby ambassadors, whose job is to tend to any need of the lobby-going guest—including satisfying hunger and thirst—carry hand-held POS terminals for order taking and “are all well-versed in the [F&B] program and speak to it,” Von Ertfelda says.

But he stresses that promoting the new F&B offerings is “not a full-court press. The goal is for people to be aware, but to let it be a natural discovery. If we are too hard-nosed and aggressive, it will come off as being forced. That is what we want to avoid.”

Seemingly, the strategy is working so far. Marriott is seeing average increases in F&B revenue of between 20% and 30% at properties with the new lobbies, Von Ertfelda says, and at some bars, business has quadrupled.

Holiday Inn Express, meanwhile, is keeping its messaging simple as well, using billboards to supple-ment its clever TV spots that describe the brand’s hot breakfast offering as “the hot new bar in town.”

Significant consumer research went into not only how to improve the brand's breakfast offering (considered a key offering and point of differentiation), but also how to best get the word out about the changes, according to John Merkin, senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn, Americas.

The result is a fun and wide-reaching, cross-platform advertising campaign around the idea of the brand's breakfast bar as the new “hot” bar in town. So instead of seeing singles trying to pick up members of the opposite sex over evening drinks, thanks to the creativity of Holiday Inn Express' longtime ad agency, Fallon, we see business travelers plotting pick-ups at the breakfast bar over bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls.

“We knew that the primary message of the advertising would need to focus on our new, hot food items. And we wanted the tone of the ads to be in keeping with the smart and clever personality of the brand,” Merkin says. “As soon as [Fallon] presented the 'new hot bar' campaign idea, we knew it was going to be a success.”

The campaign—which launched on popular U.S. cable television networks in February, ran during the NCAA basketball tournament in March, and is supplemented by online, print and billboard ads—has earned praise from Slate magazine's advertising critic, and more important, from guests.

“Guest feedback has been incredibly positive,” Merkin says. “We have heard from general managers that guests are referencing the campaign in the hotel—much like how consumers have adopted the 'No… but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express' line,” he says, referencing a catchy previous brand campaign also created by Fallon.

At the property level, messaging to guests shifts from raising awareness about the new hot food options to communicating how they can combine and customize the items for a different meal every day, Merkin notes. And in another win for the brand, not only are guests talking about the campaign, but “guest satisfaction surveys have reflected uptakes in satisfaction with our breakfast offerings,” Merkin says.

As if that were not enough, to even further drive guest engagement with the brand and its breakfast, Holiday Inn Express recently built an interactive microsite on the Web where consumers can take a quiz to determine what breakfast item best represents their personality and have a chance to win a free, breakfast-themed T-shirt, complete with phrases like “It's a great day for sausage” or “I 'heart' bacon.”

“Since we cannot give consumers a free hot breakfast online, we decided to give them free hot breakfast T-shirts instead,” Merkin says. And those people not lucky enough to win a free shirt can custom design and purchase their own, he adds.

Starwood is using on-property tasting events with celebrity chef Dave Lieber-man (above) to get the word out about the new “Cravings” menu he has created for W Hotels.

Lieberman has developed a new “Cravings” menu—featuring globally inspired foods with a twist—available in W's bars, living rooms and guestrooms at select North America properties.

To generate some excitement and buzz, the W brand put on three signature W Happenings events with Lieberman at W hotels in the cities of San Diego, Chicago and New York just prior to the new menu's June launch. The brandinvited W loyalists and enthusiasts, and, of course, hotel guests.

“Happenings are very popular with our clientele,” says Tina Edmundson, senior vice president of brand operations for Starwood's luxury brands. “And these are very 'foodie' cities. So they were a great setting for the debut of the menu.”

Edmundson says the Chicago and New York events were very well attended, while the San Diego event “was good, but didn't have the number of people the other two had,” which she attributes to the location of the hotel and the nature of the city of San Diego as compared with the other two.

Still, she says she sees all the events as successes, especially as they provided an opportunity to also prepare the new menu items for sampling by the hotels' employees, who now will be able to talk knowledgeably about them when serving guests in the living rooms or guestrooms. In addition, in talking with a few W hotel general managers, Edmundson has heard that the brand new menu already has been well received by guests in hotel living rooms.

That said, while W has no specific plans to hold additional Happenings with Dave Lieberman, Edmundson says doing so is a definite possibility, as the Cravings menu goes through seasonal refreshes over the next year.

Meanwhile, the way to really get strong buzz going is through people sampling the menu, Edmundson says. To ensure that happens, the brand's North America hotels have placed menus throughout their living rooms as well as a prominent purple wrap over the in-room compendium, touting the new menu.

“You can't miss it,” Edmundson says. “It really stands out. So when people open the compendium, even if they're not thinking of ordering food, the hope is that they'll see a great menu and think [about ordering] an appetizer or [two].”

Finally, information about the new menu will appear on W Vision (one of the television channels), and the menu will be featured on the W Hotels Web site.

All of these things work together, no doubt, but look for events to continue to play a prominent role in W's F&B marketing moving forward. “Part of W's strategy is to highlight food as a passion point,” Edmundson says. “We'll continue to do Happenings centered around our passions.” l

Direct comments to: derek.gale@reedbusiness.com