HILTON GRAMMYS
TURNING A CONTEST INTO INSPIRING SOCIAL STORYTELLING
Conrad Hilton was featured on Mad Men at the same time we were creating this campaign. Only Connie could out-swagger Draper. So when he declared he wanted "a Hilton on the Moon”, it actually inspired me to find some new territory for the brand to conquer.
The marriage between this well-known hospitality brand and an iconic music event spanned nearly half a century. My content development efforts gave Hilton a harmonious way to naturally imbed lead-gen goals within a natural, socially-friendly story.
Next, we went to work on the contest.
Together with our strategist, I discovered an aspect of the HIlton / GRAMMY story that significantly expanded the contest's reach: music fans were some of the busiest travelers in the world.
What we created was a contest perfectly suited for tour junkies and megafans. We simply asked them to tell us a story about the musical trip they never miss. Phish Heads, Dead Heads, Parrot Heads, you name it, people had traveled all over the glob to see their favorite artists. Often dozens of times.
One guy even planned family vacays around Garth Brooks.
In just a few weeks, we doubled Hilton's Facebook audience and generated nearly twice as many submissions as the previous year.
Above all, it gave me the chance to help tell a really cool story about a subject I love (and mine juicy celebrity history- not a bad way to spend billable hours).
Team
Art Direction: Spencer Slemenda
Strategy: Sam Devlin
Design: Jenna Lykes
Content Strategy & Copy: Me
Prod. Design: William Stillwell
Account Manager: Faryn Maya
Project Manager: Chelsea Hurley
Team Support: Lulu