MARRIOTT MEDIA Explained: Chris Norton on Marriott’s Travel Media Network

Jeanniey Walden: Welcome back to Liftoff. You won’t believe who I have with me. It took me the entire trip at Cannes to find five minutes of free time with Mr. Chris Norton, and I’m so excited to have him here. Thank you so much. I’m so excited to talk to you about what you’re doing at MARRIOTT MEDIA and your travel media network.

Chris Norton: Thank you for having me. MARRIOTT MEDIA is Marriott International’s first media network, but we don’t like to call it a hospitality media network. We like to talk about travel media, and really think about how we’re using the power of personalization to connect brands with our more than 270 million Bonvoy members.

Jeanniey Walden: I’m just one of those 270 million. Intentionally. I am an ambassador.

Chris Norton: Potentially the most important one.

Jeanniey Walden: Thank you for creating such great experiences. So you call it a travel media network. Throughout Cannes there have been all these conversations about AI, and about media networks of all different sizes and shapes. Lots of companies have loyalty programs now. What do you think the importance of a media network is for a business these days?

Chris Norton: A lot of businesses, as evidenced by the Croisette being so full of media networks and new players, are getting on the bandwagon to think about how they can generate a new revenue stream. If their heart’s in it the right way, they may be thinking about how they bring relevant brands to life with their customers. When we approached it, we really felt that travel media taps into these very important moments in life, when people are most open to exploration and new things, coupled with a lot of behaviors brands can build around, like needing a whole new wardrobe before Cannes because it’s 95 degrees every day. We at Marriott have those travel signals potentially better than anybody else. We approached it from a personalization standpoint: what brands make sense in what travel moments, from inspiration to planning to booking to staying.

Chris Norton: We want customers to feel these are relevant messages presented in a personalized way, based on the deep, enriched understanding we have about the true reasons they travel. People don’t usually travel just for the hotel. They’re going to pursue a passion, visit people they care about, explore a new place. The investment we’ve made in Marriott Bonvoy has been to know our customers at that level, so we can build a true love-based loyalty relationship. That’s the same asset we’re bringing to MARRIOTT MEDIA, and why we think it’s differentiated from a lot of the other media networks coming into being.

Jeanniey Walden: You said so much in that one answer, but you said the S word first: signals. Do you think the ad tech world has moved from segmentation to signals?

Chris Norton: When you think about signals, what other words pop into your mind? Contextual. What’s the context of a person’s moment and need? That’s the powerful thing to tap into. A great ad for a credit card you can use safely in France is most relevant when you’re actually thinking about traveling to France. What we and other travel entities bring is an understanding of that, and that’s how we bring relevant messages to life. So yes, segments are important, context matters, and sometimes real-time signals are even more relevant and will perform better for partners advertising to our member base, because we can bring them to life in meaningful ways across multiple parts of the journey.

Jeanniey Walden: You also talked about endemic and non-endemic without saying those words. Most people don’t stay at a hotel just to stay at the hotel. So non-endemic: what are you going to buy to go there, what are you going to need when you get there? How important is that to what you’re doing?

Chris Norton: You’ve hit the essence of why we exist and how we think we’re differentiated. It’s understanding the intent and the need state of the customer, and bringing a partner advertiser into that intent moment with a message that’s relevant. On the endemic side we have many travel partners, our airline partners, partners like Starbucks, because getting your morning coffee is still important wherever you are in the world. But we’ve branched out into other areas important to the travel journey. I’m here in Cannes, we’re at a great restaurant, but where can I eat, what museums can I see? The local aspect matters, and it gets back to the different travel stages. When you’re on the property on vacation, you have a very different set of needs than when you’re planning.

Jeanniey Walden: Did you do any shopping before you left? A hundred percent. This is new, of course.

Chris Norton: That’s a very different kind of signal we can use with a different kind of retailer to help you plan for your trip. Many people are thinking, my lord, I’m leaving in three days and I didn’t shop. We can help get that center of mind. And when you’re here, it’s what can I do, what can I experience, where can I explore? It runs the gamut of not just travel-related things, but the broad nature of most needs people have when they’re out and about.

Jeanniey Walden: Then you mentioned the L word: loyalty. Being an ambassador, I know how important it is. Do you think the time has come for loyalty to move from its own siloed area into being integrated across the entire business?

Chris Norton: Absolutely, and at Marriott we’ve led a charge on that. If we look at the history of loyalty programs in travel, there’s been a heavy transactional component: you stay with a given airline or hotel company to accrue more points. That’s not loyalty, that’s transactional. So about five years ago Marriott Bonvoy started to say we don’t want to be just transactional. We want to be your travel partner for life. We want to understand who you are and why you travel. Our members now tell us those things, and we can observe what they like to do, like golf or spa, and connect them to those experiences. The other half of my job at Marriott is around marketing capabilities and personalization, so all of this started with that impulse to get beyond transactional loyalty into true love-based loyalty. We’ve embedded Marriott Bonvoy into the entire marketing organization, and into our operations down to the property level, to bring the recognition of who our members are and what they care about to life, in what we say to them and what they experience on property.

Jeanniey Walden: It’s so exciting, everything you’re doing. How has Cannes been for you?

Chris Norton: It’s been hot. Very hot this year, but amazing. I work for a big company, you interact with so many people over the years, and you run into them all here. Every day you walk down the street and see somebody you know. The creative roots of Cannes Lions have shifted a bit more into the marketing and advertising space, but when you get all these great minds together, that creative energy really comes through. I’ve been energized by conversations with long-lost peers and new ones I’ve just met. That’s the beauty of Cannes Lions.

Jeanniey Walden: Totally. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. There’s a story or two we’ll save for the behind-the-scenes. Cheers to you, and stay tuned. We’ll be right back.