Our task was to find ways to give the Next Generation Experience Seekers (NGES, 18-34, who are in market to travel and seeking unique experiences) a way to engage them with Marriott Bonvoy hotels. NGES is not as easy to pin down in traditional advertising channels, so creating something unique to allow them to test drive our hotels before staying to win them over.

We discovered that gaming was the way for us to do that in an unexpected way. We decided to build an open world experience as an offshoot of our general market campaign that allowed NGES (who likely haven’t booked with us yet) to interact with Marriott Bonvoy to understand and explore the different offerings of the portfolio.

Our objectives were to drive awareness, portfolio affiliation and consideration for Marriott Bonvoy as well as innovate and test and learn an emerging space for the hospitality industry.

Fortnite is more than just a game, it’s a place to escape, to discover, a place that defies the physically possible.

Marriott Bonvoy is more than a collection of hotels, it’s a key that unlocks new experiences, the start of an adventure that can take you anywhere.

Marriott Bonvoy Land in Fortnite: a bespoke island experience with four gamified hotels, each housing a unique mini-game.

Gamers spawn into Marriott Bonvoy Park, the center of Marriott Bonvoy Land, exploring four unique hotels with mini-games.

The Autograph Collection: Treasure hunt to find keys like a hotel guest is offered onsite.

Westin: Obstacle course showcasing the brand’s commitment to wellness.

Moxy: Prop Hunt, a social game where one team transforms into everyday items while the other team attempts to expose their disguise

W Hotels: A labyrinth, challenging players to find the clues through the maze and ends at the W Wet Deck

Our key demographic, the Next Generation Experience Seeker (NGES), are young millennials/GenZ and are constantly seeking new and different experiences. They want to do things that provide talk value to their friends. They are more likely to endorse a brand that provides an experience, and they are constantly on social media.

NGES are avid gamers, 50% more likely to play video console games or computer games. Connecting that with 67% of total gamers planning to travel and 20% getting inspired to travel via video games – we knew this space was the right territory to engage.

We not only built an entire in-game experience, but we also knew we needed to support and engage the gaming community. We partnered with ten of the top and most diverse NGES Fortnite influencers to rally their followers.

Building an entire gaming experience from scratch is no easy feat. We had to work across several brand stakeholders for each of the mini-games to educate them on how gaming works and best practices on how to engage gamers while ensuring we are keeping their brand ethos intact.

We also were in development as UEFN (a brand-new software that creates better, faster graphics) was launched. About halfway through the process, we started over and rebuilt the game in UEFN to deliver an even better experience. That big bet paid off and allowed us to include even more hotel features and new gameplay elements into the island.

Our campaign resulted in a +14 lift in consideration, a +13 lift in digital ad awareness and a +6 in portfolio affiliation – exceeding all objectives across the board.

Over 14K gameplays, 3x higher than internal benchmarks, and a 13-minute retention rate, ~20% higher than benchmarks.

27M total views of gameplay from a diverse set of creators across social and YouTube

Our two livestreams had 1.3M total minutes watched. With 300 entries in our livestream contest and 556K earned media reach on Twitter/X.

Over 450M earned impressions with 100% positive/neutral sentiment

“They make it interactive for people to go and play in. Definitely makes you think about these hotels if you were to travel somewhere.” Male, 18-26

80% agreed Marriott Bonvoy has many diverse hotel brands and experiences to choose from. 81% said Marriott Bonvoy is an innovative brand. 80% of those exposed to the creative liked what they saw.