2022 Winners & Shortlists

WAITOGRAPHER

Short List
BrandHILTON
Product/ServiceHILTON
EntrantTBWA\RAAD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategorySocial for Mobile
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

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 new moments worth remembering At the end of 2021, as the world was reopening and everyone was either travelling or considering travelling 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

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/waitress. 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 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

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. Our memories tell the stories of our life. 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. But there’s a problem: most holiday pictures are awful – especially when you give your phone to a waiter/waitress. 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. A mobile-driven powerful idea to reinvent the waiter’s job.

Describe the execution

First, the Waitographer program was implemented internally within Hilton in the UAE. The purpose was to drive change in the culture of the organisation and rally everyone to embrace the new initiative through specific trainings dedicated to waiters. Those trainings started by making the waiters comfortable with the different operating system and camera apps before even teaching them about photography. There is nothing worse than being given a phone you don’t understand with the pressure to deliver a great photo with it. Then, the initiative was promoted across Hilton owned media channels such as Youtube and other social media platforms. The film promotes the Waitographer initiative by immersing ourselves in a dinner experience where guests are struggling to get their pictures done the right way. We then rolled out a strong PR push getting headlines such as “Waiters at Hilton are now trained in photography to snap up perfect memories”.

List the results

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
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