“French Kiss” is an original short film that uses magical realism, a talented cast and a setting that evokes feelings of wonder and wanderlust to illustrate how travel inspires, delights and reminds us that anything is possible. The story poses the temptation of distraction against the beauty of opening your eyes, speaking to the Marriott Hotel guest who wants to travel and see the world. Knowing that traditional marketing is becoming obsolete, we are propelling ourselves into the forefront of content marketing to define the future of how brands engage with consumers using our 3Cs strategy of producing entertaining and informative content to gather communities of people passionate about travel to drive commerce for our brands. With French Kiss we are contributing to the trend of becoming what people are interested in through compelling content rather than interrupting what they are interested in with ads.

To generate buzz and excitement for the film, we released a trailer first on YouTube and on frenchkiss.com. A month later, in May 2015, the full-length “French Kiss” film premiered on multiple platforms, including YouTube and frenchkiss.com, a limited theatrical release and in Marriott Hotels throughout the world. Dual premiers, one in Los Angeles and another in Paris, brought attention to the film and created moments for additional press and marketing. We stationed teams in both premier locations to properly promote the events on social channels. We then engaged influencer Be Frassy to cover the Paris premier and share the event with her more than 550K readers. Her posts covering the Paris premier garnered more than 6K engagements on Instagram.

The film quickly picked up momentum, garnering attention for its originality, while also changing travelers’ perceptions of the Marriott brand. In a few months, “French Kiss” received more than 6 million YouTube views, achieved 9.7 million impressions of #FrenchKissFilm on Twitter and earned almost 500 million PR impressions with an estimated advertising value of over $7MM. While the film did not include a strong product sell, a French Kiss–themed hotel package and bookings promotion drove more than $500K in revenue for the hotel. Engagement with both the film and trailer exceeded industry engagement benchmarks. The trailer enjoyed a view rate 65% above benchmark, and the film garnered a view rate, 159% above benchmark. Marriott brand interest, as measured through a Google Search lift study, saw a 63.2% lift after the film’s release, illustrating that exposure to the film achieved its objectives of driving curiosity about and consideration of the brand.