How content marketing agency Switch helps one of Dubai's leading hotel operators engage its customers more effectively. English version.

1. Case
Study
Emaar Hospitality Group

2. Intelligence
Client: Emaar Hospitality Group
Communication Tools: In-room Magazine, Video Campaigns,
Social Campaigns
Frequency:
Quarterly, Monthly, weekly, Daily
Objectives: Direct Sales / Brand Engagement
/ Brand Advocacy / Guest Loyalty
Target Audience:
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B>C
~ 01 ~

3. Emaar Hospitality Group
stands out from the crowd.

4. Overview
Dubai has one of the highest densities of five star hotels in the world. So it
is imperative that, when in Dubai, a five star chain really stands out from the
crowd. As the United Arab Emirates recovered from the financial crisis, Emaar
Hospitality Group emerged as just such a player in the luxury hotel market. It
has discerning, high-income guests arriving from every corner of the globe,
every minute of the day, and it uses as many tools as possible to promote
itself, and each of its wonderful properties.
Switch is a major part of the machinery that makes this possible. Our deep
understanding of Emaar Hospitality Group’s brand story means that the
amazing content we create for them, day-in, day-out, journeys across
platforms. We amplify our work through print, video, digital and social,
creating a real and lasting impact. And at every step of the way, we extend the
customer experience, turning customers into brand advocates.
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~ 02 ~

5. Their magazine had
to do the same.

6. The Challenge
Switch was tasked with revamping The Address
Magazine in 2011, with the aim of turning the title into
something that could sit proudly in the lobby of the
Armani Hotel inside the world’s tallest building, or adorn
the sumptuous suites of The Palace Downtown Dubai
overlooking the world’s largest dancing fountains.
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~ 03 ~

7. It had to be aspirational.

8. The Solution
01
With so little to salvage from the old magazine, we
decided to start from scratch. We changed the
name – better to reflect the recent broadening of
Emaar’s offering to include the Armani Hotel, golf
courses, equine facilities, marinas and a myriad
other properties and outlets owned by the group.
02
We changed the magazine’s size too, giving it a
full 10 centimetres more width to allow for much
better use of large and visually arresting images. It
is interesting to note that while magazines around
the world are following the Monocle route and
shrinking in size, the local Gulf market (a major
piece of Emaar’s guest pie) still prefers large
format, heavily visual magazines.
03
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~ 04 ~
Then we set about re-conceptualizing a
quarterly, in-room publication: a magazine
divided into four distinct sections –
Culture, Style, Life and Cuisine – each a
key part of a guest’s stay.

9. A timeless
brand experience.

10. The Result
The result was the creation of one of the most attractive luxury
lifestyle magazines in the Middle East. The photography,
typography, design, editorial selection and written word create
a real sense of opulence, fully in keeping with Emaar’s stated
mission to become ‘the premier global provider of personal,
innovative and memorable lifestyle experiences’.
It is through this mutually reinforcing relationship between the
magazine, the brand and the luxury space within which the
magazine’s content is consumed that great guest engagement
and loyalty-building are established. Add the direct calls to action
contained throughout the magazine, and Emaar has a customer
title worthy of the name.
Indeed, Emaar reported sales figures in May 2013 from its The
Address Hotels + Resorts brand recorded an average occupancy
of 92 per cent in the first quarter 2013, considerably higher than
the Dubai city average of 89.8 per cent.
At an individual property level, Emaar has described a significant
uplift in visitor traffic to outlets featured in the magazine. And if
the proof is in the pudding, Emaar has increased the number of
copies requested by an average 7.2 per cent per edition.
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~ 05 ~

11. The proof is
in the pudding.

12. Testimonial
The team at Switch is very creative and
very professional. They have confidently
implemented new ideas and major new
design and editorial changes to tight
deadlines. From the quality of writing
to the selection of fonts, sourcing
of images and re-design of pages,
Switch has remarkable attention to
detail.I would have no hesitation in
recommending their services to
anyone else.
Lamis Aboudi
In-House Publication Manager
Emaar Hospitality Group L.L.C.
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~ 06 ~

13. The brand
goes global.

14. Joining the Dots
Magazines are the perfect remedy to the fast
pace of urban life, which is why in-room hotel
magazines remain so successful. But they
are no longer the only channel through which
a brand’s information should be created and
conveyed. The hospitality industry is more
customer-facing than most, and that means in
today’s age, it is fundamentally social.
One might consider magazine content as
bedrock for the production of content (brand
journalism, branded content, whatever you
want to call it) and at its best, social media
can take that content and amplify it in a million
ways to a million people. This is a huge part
of what Switch offers its clients, big and small.
And Emaar has turned out to be big.
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~ 07 ~

15. Socialise.

16. Going Social
Emaar Hospitality Group’s brands had wellestablished presences on Facebook and Twitter
that targeted the thousands of residents that
eat, drink and stay at its properties as much
as its international following. But the company
recognised that by exploiting social media much
harder, it could steal a march on its rivals, and
asked us to help.
Switch has shifted the strategy towards an
‘engagement-first’ approach, better to suit the
needs of both the client and its social followers.
Our content team is now physically present at
Emaar properties on a daily, rolling basis. It works
closely with each property’s in-house marketing
team to hunt down a continuous stream of
engaging stories. These are then videoed, written
about, posted – and, ultimately, used to engage
with Emaar’s social media followers.
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~ 08 ~

17. Talk of the town.

18. The Result
Social media strategies typically take time to bear
ripe fruit, but the results of this closely-managed
approach have been immediately clear.
For example, in the first four months that Switch
began managing The Palace Downtown Dubai’s
Facebook account (starting at the beginning of
March) we added a total of 4,000 new likes.
That’s 1,000 a month, and an increase of
22 per cent.
In the same period, we managed a 21 per cent
increase in followers for the @Address_Hotels
Twitter account.
4,000
22%
21%
New likes in four
months on The Palace
Downtown Dubai’s
Facebook account
Increase in likes (11
March, 2013 = 10,901
likes; 24 June, 2013 =
14,204 likes
Increase in Twitter followers
(11 March, 2013 = 1,440
followers. 24 June, 2013 =
1,827 followers)
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~ 09 ~

19. Increase in ‘likes’
during campaign period.
In the limelight.

20. A Taste of Video
Switch produces video assets for Emaar Hospitality Group every month, and our
first was a sensation. We created a short film for The Palace Downtown Dubai’s
Facebook contribution to the Taste Of Dubai series of culinary events at: https://
www.facebook.com/thepalacedowntowndubai/posts/3914282316031.
Followers watched Chef Norberto Palacios, Executive Sous Chef at The Palace
Downtown Dubai, present the ingredients of his restaurant’s signature dish. They
then posted their guess of what the dish was to win tickets to Taste of Dubai.
The campaign reached 52,947 users and generated 5,186 engaged users in
just three days.
Increase in ‘likes’ during campaign period
May 1, 2013 - May 31, 2013
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~ 10 ~
Snapshot

21. Results to envy.

22. Sold Out
Switch invited people to tag a friend on
The Palace Downtown Dubai’s Facebook
page, explaining why they would like
to take them for brunch. The winner
received two tickets to the Argentinian
National Day brunch a week later.
Increase in ‘likes’ during campaign period
March 1, 2013 - June 21, 2013
See http://on.fb.me/18UFOUO
The Tag to Tango campaign received
1,483 likes, 252 shares, and 340
comments during the 10 day campaign
from 14-23 May, 2013.
At one stage, the Facebook page was
receiving 80 new likes per day, frankly a
phenomenal rate.
The event sold out.
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~ 11 ~

23. Measured results.

24. Testimonial
From our first meeting with Switch
we were deeply impressed by both
their knowledge and their genuine
enthusiasm for what they do. Switch’s
content-first approach is refreshing: the
team has an innate understanding of
what our audience wants to see, share
and discuss, and constantly comes
up with creative ways to engage with
them.
Tzu Wei Wu,
Corporate eCommerce Manager,
Emaar Hospitality Group L.L.C.
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~ 12 ~

25. To infinity & beyond.

26. Planning for the Future
Now the Switch team is ‘embedded’ with
the client, its journalists, social specialists,
photographers, videographers and designers
are fully in tune with Emaar Hospitality Group’s
individual brand stories and audiences. This
means we can implement communication
strategies that keep up with the group’s
ambitious expansion plans, and allows us
to quickly create clever tactical campaigns,
websites and guides to further that goal.
The focus of the Content Strategy now is to
use all of that firepower across platforms to
turn Emaar Hospitality Group’s brands into the
destination for information about hospitality
in Dubai. We are telling visitors where to go,
what to do, and why they should be doing
it – engaging new audiences, championing
influencers, showcasing user-generated
content – and filling rooms, conference halls,
restaurants and bars as we go.
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~ 13 ~

28. In Numbers

29. world-class in-room magazine
A Magazine
67,500 readers per issue X 4 issues a year
= 270,000 Readers a year
comprehensive social media strategy
11
social
media
accounts
30
5,186
engaged
users in a
single 3 day
video campaign
1,000+
likes a week
generated
by Facebook
campaigns
microsites, campaigns, videos,
photography, marketing collateral

30. Always talking about you.
If you want your customers in Asia
and the Middle East to talk about you,
you need to talk to us.
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Switch Limited
Switch Communications
Switch Limited
1103A, Business Central Towers
Dubai Media City
PO Box 24173
Dubai, UAE
48b Amoy Street
Singapore, 069874
Al Fardan Office Tower
Office 950, 9th Floor
Al Funduq 61
PO Box 31316
Doha, Qatar
Office: +971 4435 5711
Mobile: +971 55711 8499
Email: charlie@switch.ae
Office: +65 6438 1998
Mobile: +65 9005 4753
Email: owen@switchsg.sg
Direct: +974 4410 1719
Mobile: +974 7786 3136
Email: ridwaan@switch.qa