2022 Winners & Shortlists

WAITOGRAPHER

BrandHILTON
Product/ServiceHILTON
EntrantTBWA\RAAD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryTravel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Idea Creation TBWA\RAAD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Placement MERKLE Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR SEVEN MEDIA Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production BKP MEDIA GROUP Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

This case is relevant for brand experience and activation because it celebrates a comprehensive brand-building into a nice experience to optimize the customer engagement on the ground. At Hilton, the customer journey starts online and ends up in the hotels’ experience. Most of the time, the customer service is what determines the increased brand affinity, client’s satisfaction, and hence commercial success. And what is more important for guests than collecting memories? This is a case about building a dedicated staff training program to uplift the customer experience.

Background

More often than not, a brand idea is only delivered through a beautiful film and some empty words. This case is an example of how brand action can be much more powerful. In 2020, Hilton launched the ‘To New Memories’ brand platform globally, it was capturing our collective craving for reconnect with our loved ones and experience moments worth remembering. Then at the end of 2021, as the world was reopening and everyone was either traveling or considering traveling in 2022, the key for Hilton was to be talked about so that the mental availability of the brand would be high. How could Hilton not only live up to its brand promise “To New Memories” but give the world a reason to talk about it? Objectives: ● Create talkability and a news factor for the brand ● Engage employees around its new brand promise ● Drive brand affinity and engagement

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Our memories tell the stories of our life. Many memories are created when people stay and dine at a Hilton, from their 20th anniversary dinners, to the first family gathering since the pandemic. So how do we help people not just create those great memories, but also keep them forever to remember and cherish? The answer is simple: the cornerstone of a great memory is a great photo. But there’s a problem: most holiday pictures are awful, especially when you give your phone to a waiter. Photos get cropped, out of focus, or worse with a finger on the lens! Bad photos don’t make it to beautiful frames and they get forgotten. What if we could make every waiter/waitress at Hilton a truly great photographer of precious memories? Introducing “Waitographer”, an internal program upskilling the Hilton staff, delivering them an official certificate training as mobile photographers.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Brand health tracking showed that Hilton is the best-known hotel group with 73% aware of Hilton. However, brand awareness is not enough. When it comes to leisure travel, people might often go to a booking website and make a choice based on price or location only. We needed people to be actively thinking about (and booking) Hilton as the world was reopening and travel was picking up. We needed to differentiate ourselves and do it in a true Hilton spirit. Hilton owns many “world firsts” from the 1st room service, to the 1st keyless room or the 1st hotel chain loyalty program. While hospitality brands talk constantly about uplifting their experience, too often the outcome is an impersonal standardization of the guest experience. What we needed to achieve was an uplift in experience that would be felt at a personal level and would be even worth sharing and talking about.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

What if we could make every waiter/waitress at Hilton a truly great photographer of precious memories? Introducing “Waitographer”, an internal program upskilling the Hilton staff, delivering them an official certificate training as mobile photographers. Led by Roger Moukarzel, an internationally acclaimed Lebanese photographer, we created the first mobile photography workshop especially dedicated to waiters of Hilton’s properties. All waiters who complete the course are given a special pin to mark them as certified waitographers and to be easily recognized by customers on the ground. Additional communication in restaurants, on Hilton’s social channels and in the media supported the uplift in experience. As a first round of graduates, 70 waiters were selected in the UAE, gradually, Hilton will be expanding regionally and covering global markets from Far East Asia to America, simply by making this new skill a core part of its waiters’ training. Because quality memories deserve quality pictures.

List the results (30% of vote)

The most important impact for us, has been the change in mindset: everyone at Hilton has always been committed to creating amazing moments but now they have become more aware (and prepared for) turning beautiful moments into beautiful memories. The change in culture has been so deep that Hilton is now launching the “WCG competition” or “Waitographer Generated Content Competition” as well as the “Waitographer of the Month”. On top of this, the initiative has generated PR across 10 markets in publications as diverse as HotelierMiddleEast, TradeArabia, and HotelNewsMiddleEast. Some of the quotes include: “new skills will equip waiters to take photographs for guests in future with expertise and without stress”. Our content on social platforms is planning to reach 2.7million people and more will come as the campaign is just starting to scale and spread. So book at Hilton.com and get your photo frames ready!

Credits

Name Company Role
Walid Kanaan TBWA\RAAD Chief Creative Officer
Joe Lahham TBWA\RAAD Managing Director
Jennifer Fischer TBWA\RAAD Chief Innovation Officer
Krix Berberian TBWA\RAAD Regional Creative Director
Camilo Alzate TBWA\RAAD Designer
Nour Christidi TBWA\RAAD Copywriting
Haikel Ben Hamouda TBWA\RAAD Strategy
Ian Carvalho TBWA\RAAD Brand Leader
Tanya Fitoria TBWA\RAAD Client Servicing
Zuhair Khan TBWA\RAAD Motion Designer
Romy Abdelnour TBWA\RAAD PR & Communications
Zeina Safa TBWA\RAAD Copywriting
Marianne Sargi TBWA\RAAD Head of Production
Rozy El Beainy TBWA\RAAD Production
Samir Syriani - Film Director
Ezzat Habra TBWA\RAAD Traffic
Naveen Madurakariyan TBWA\RAAD Traffic
Links
Video URL