2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

The Waitographer idea shows how a hotel brand can reinvent the customer culture and service. As Hilton aspired to connect with its audiences in an alternative way, beyond the traditional brand campaign, it tapped into a human problem rooted in universal truth and found a creative solution that would have an impact long-lasting memories. For a brand which stands for “To New Memories”, what is more important than playing a role in curating these memories and uplifting the customer experience in capturing best life moments?

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 to reconnect with our loved ones and experience new moments worth remembering. 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.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% 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.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel winning economist has proven that each individual has two selves: the experiencing self, who knows only the present moment, and the remembering self – the storyteller. Our memories tell the stories of our life. All the rest is lost to time. 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.

The Creative Idea (20% 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, 100+ waiters/waitresses were selected in UAE and KSA, 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.

The Outcome / Results (20% 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!