Skift Take
Peninsula is creating quality video content, but it needs a viral angle or ambient marketing play to build buzz around the brand's underlying message of heritage and luxury.
It’s not often that we see a global hotel brand publish a full-length documentary about itself on YouTube, so the release of The Peninsula Hotels‘ well-produced video caught our eye.
The Hong Kong company has invested a significant portion of its marketing budget into video starting last year with its “Peninsula Moments” campaign. The 10-video series aimed to highlight authentic moments at each of the brand’s hotels and feature the actual staff members who make each Peninsula property unique.
Building on this strategy, the group released a 45-minute documentary on the Peninsula’s brand heritage and the three generations of Kadoorie family leadership behind the brand.
The film was shot at the group’s hotel locations in Asia, the U.S. and Europe and features archival footage, historical photos and interviews that discuss the history behind the hotels.
“Our heritage and family leadership inform every aspect of the Peninsula experience. Film enables us to tell this story in the most compelling way possible,” explains The Peninsula Hotels’ vice president of marketing Robert Cheng.
Cheng says the brand’s goal is to create “an emotional journey to inspire and engage.”
“The films resonate with our audience because they communicate an authentic sense of destination, stunning architecture and timeless luxury, together with the genuine desire of our staff to introduce the very best of their respective cities.”
According to social dashboard SkiftIQ, Peninsula Hotels has a total 225,00 views on its YouTube page, making the platform more popular than its Facebook page with 31,200 “Likes.”
Surprisingly, the hotel brand does not have a dedicated Twitter handle. Individual Peninsula properties do maintain a Twitter presence.
Views of Peninsula’s YouTube views has grown steadily over the past two months and increased by 233 a day in the past two weeks.
Peninsula Hotels uploads between 3 and 4 videos a month, making its the 23rd most prolific YouTube user among global hotel brands. Other luxury brands like Mandarin Oriental and St. Regis produce at a similar rate.
The average video lasts 4:43 making its most recent documentary a mammoth upload.
The 45-minute documentary can be viewed on YouTube and below:
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Tags: peninsula hotels, videos, youtube
Photo credit: The front of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Chris Price / Flickr