Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Hilton launches new campaign, hires VP (Score 20)

Sales Lead: Hilton Worldwide just launched a new campaign in an effort to recruit new employees.

• The campaign was made by TBWA \ Chiat \ Day NY.
• The company will likely:
  • Keep launching new work
  • Continue increasing spend
  • Seek new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Potential employees, specifically millennials and Gen-X

Recent leadership shifts:

• This campaign launch closely follows the February 2023 hire of brand strategy Sara Whiffen.
  • Whiffen joined from Audi, where she was the VP of mobility and retail operations strategy.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Hilton has spent approximately $27.9m on national TV commercials YTD, about 4x the approximately $6.8m spent by this point last year.
  • Last year: The company ended up spending around $59m on this channel in 2022, about tripling when it spent around $19.9m in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Hilton's 2023 commercials have targeted millennials and Gen-X watching shows such as NFL Football, College Football, The 65^th Annual Grammy Awards, Good Morning America, and Today 3^rd Hour.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the hotel chain has allocated roughly $9m toward digital ads, down slightly (3%) from the roughly $9.3m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • YTD data: Hilton has earned ~1.1b digital impressions YTD via Facebook (56%), Instagram (23%), YouTube (15%), desktop display (3%), desktop video (2%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend, $34.3m, reached 25% more than that of $27.5m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes digital, print, OOH, local broadcast, radio, Google Ads, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and online video (via Youtube Android, Youtube IOS, and Youtube.com) ads.
  • Hilton sponsors podcasts such as The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Stories fro mNPR, Motley Fool Money, the Bill Simmons Podcast, and The Indicator from Planet Money.
  • It also invests in short-form DRTV.
    • ​​​​​​​Hilton has rather widely dispersed network TV coverage and will likely launch a new campaign within the next 90 days or so.
    • The company's top TV networks include TENC, MAGN, TRV, COOK, and TDC.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: The recent VP hire may lead to an agency review, so get in touch soon to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​TBWA \ Chiat \ Day NY: Creative AOR (2017)
  • VMLY&R: Creative AOR
  • iProspect: Digital AOR
  • EssenceMediaCom: Media AOR
  • Pace Communications: Digital and social agency partner
  • Legacy Marketing Partners: Creative agency partner
  • RP3 Agency: Creative agency partner
  • WillowTree: Digital agency partner
  • rbb Communications: PR agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.