Case Study: How Marriott on Wheels gamified culinary experience using AR filter

Created by Pop Communications, Marriott on Wheels AR filter campaign helped the brand see a 78% hike in engagement on their Instagram page.

To increase brand recall and keep their patrons engaged, Marriott on Wheels created an AR filter campaign during the lockdown. Here, they asked people to play a game on Instagram using the filter and share the experience with their friends and family. The camapign was supported by the pages of over 60 Marriot Hotels.

Brand Introduction

Marriott International, Inc. is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and encompasses a portfolio of more than 7,400 properties under 30 brands spanning 134 countries and territories. Marriott operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts all around the world.

Marketing objective

Encourage people to come to the Marriott on Wheels Instagram page and engage with the brand via an AR filter.

Brief

Make a fun food filter that showcases the scrumptious food/dishes available to be ordered through the Marriott on Wheels menu across 60+ Marriott International hotels in 20 cities. Make the activity interactive in a way that partners, friends, and family can play it at home.

Creative Idea

It was decided to create a gaming experience that can be enjoyed by 2 or more people at home. The concept was to be around food and also have a strong brand connect — the audiences should engage with each other and also the brand via food. It all came together with our ‘Guess the food’ Game. More dishes were added to the game after the first few days of the launch to keep people hooked and have more dishes to play with.

Challenges

The biggest challenge in itself was to come up with an innovative concept that fulfilled all the briefing criteria:

• Showcasing the food
• Making it interactive and not an individual driven selfie-filter
• Creating a filter with longevity 

The second challenge was the design and programming to make sure all the minor and major aspects that Instagram requires you to fulfill before they accept and agree to launch the filter on their platform and make it available for all.

Execution

Over 60 Marriott Hotels in South Asia launched the game on their social media handles on the same day and pushed out the message to bond over food with some fun play. It all tied back to the Marriott on Wheels Instagram page. Repeat guests of Marriott on Wheels endorsed the filter.

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A post shared by Marriott on Wheels (@marriottonwheels)

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Chefs of the hotels associated with the brand challenged each other to play the game. The brand gained User-Generated Content from promoting the challenge among their audiences, asking them to tag their friends and family to play the game and beat their score. The resulting videos helped extend the game's reach, appealing to more users to try it themselves.

Results

The campaign generated 16.7K impressions, 8.7K Opens and 3.1K captures for the brand. After the launch of the filter, the brand's Instagram page saw a 78% increase in engagement, and revenues were seen to go up by 14.2% week over week.

“We believe food is a great initiator to conversations and connections, so why not have fun while doing so? Hence, we decided to showcase some of our best dishes through the medium of this filter. This fun filter allows our guests/customers to enjoy the app through a challenge or a game with their loved ones, while they recall the sheer pleasure of tucking into their favourite foods. Through our content & communication, we aim to give food a fun, innovative twist, while we bring Marriott on Wheels a little closer to home," said Khushnooma Kapadia, Area Director - Marketing, South Asia, Marriott International.

Geetika Khurana, Co-founder, Pop Communications added, "The brand is so innovative in their thinking and focus on creating experiences for the family, they literally wanted to make their food dreams an Augmented Reality, even in lockdown. It was a fun challenge to help them achieve their goal with this AR filter. It focuses not just on brand recall but creates a relationship, an engagement with the brand."