CASE STUDY: Jack Morton Worldwide recasts storytelling as asales enabler for Marriott International

Background

Marriott International was seeking a new way to engage and alignits Asia-Pacific sales and marketing teams. Jack Morton proposed aconference to create an experience that would educate associatesvia internal and external speakers, simultaneously allowing them tonetwork, team build, and learn from each other. At the same timeMarriott also wanted to celebrate the company’s success of the pastyear, recognize team efforts and continue to drive results.Storytelling, as a concept, provided the basis for the developmentof an immersive and compelling experience. This aligned
with Jack Morton’s corporate philosophy that extraordinaryexperiences define brands and transform businesses.

Idea

To engage the sales and marketing associates in an inspiringway, the agency created the conference’s key event ID ‘Get yourstory on’ and tagline ‘Shape It. Sell It. Share It.’, which becamethe driving force of the overall story arc and agenda of theconference. Jack Morton worked with Marriott to co-create thecontent and design of the conference around the event ID andtagline. The goal was to encourage and motivate teams, representingthe breadth of all the Marriott brands, to build their own stories,giving them the tools and confidence to embrace the practice ofstorytelling in their day-to-day work. ‘Get your story on’ providedassociates with the building blocks for storytelling and insightsinto reflecting on business results, sharing business priorities,content development, and defining the brand. Idea To engage thesales and marketing associates in an inspiring way, the agencycreated the conference’s key event ID ‘Get your story on’ andtagline ‘Shape It. Sell It. Share It.’, which became the drivingforce of the overall story arc and agenda of the conference. JackMorton worked with Marriott to co-create the content and design ofthe conference around the event ID and tagline. The goal was toencourage and motivate teams, representing the breadth of all theMarriott brands, to build their own stories, giving them the toolsand confidence to embrace the practice of storytelling in theirday-to-day work. ‘Get your story on’ provided associates with thebuilding blocks for storytelling and insights into reflecting onbusiness results, sharing business priorities, content development,and defining the brand.

Execution

The conference took place at the JW Marriott, Hanoi, from 2 to 5February, and included a Vietnamese-themed welcome reception, anMTV-inspired gala awards night, a fashion show and team-buildingactivities, which enabled contributions to various charities. Theagency oversaw and managed external facilitators and speakers whohelped drive the discussion around storytelling. The theme wasreinforced from the first pre-event communication throughout theconference. Onsite, associates learned how to share their storieswith others and bring them to life in the most compelling andmemorable way. A highlight of the conference was a unique fashionshow choreographed by Jack Morton. It aligned the core values andbrand attributes of each Marriott hotel group and tied them back towell-known fashion labels.
This demonstrated to associates that storytelling can be amulti-sensory experience. In designing the audience experience,Jack Morton implemented concepts from Meetingsimagined.com,Marriott’s own new website, where it shares ideas and inspirationswith the world to fuel more thoughtful and purposeful meetingdesigns.

Results

About 350 sales and marketing associates, including the globaland Asia-Pacific management team, brand marketing team, associatesfrom sales and marketing from the corporate office and localmarkets and hotels (general managers, sales and marketingdirectors, marketing managers) across the Asia-Pacific regionattended. The event provided them with the tools and confidence totell their Marriott story and help them customize it to differentcustomer groups. In addition, a collection of post-event videossummarizing key messages from workshops will circulate toassociates who were unable to attend, ensuring they also have theopportunity to implement storytelling into their day-to-daybusiness operations. The case demonstrates how a well executedinternal communications effort can help improve external comms andhelp drive bottom line performance.http://www.prweek.com/article/1338228/internal-­?event-­?helps

Discussionquestions on how internal coms plays a part in the total customerbrand experience and how that plays out in the PRprocess.

Please answerthe following questions and discuss:

What was the objective?

What was the strategy?

How did they execute it?

How could they have evaluated/measured the success of theevent?

How do employees (in general and in this specific case) affectthe PR process and the customer's brand experience?