Social media’s peer-to-peer content informs and inspires purchasing decisions because of its authenticity and first-person storytelling capabilities. When it comes to travel marketing, user-generated content is a goldmine hidden in plain sight.

Whitney Reynolds

Director of Social Media, Kimpton Hotels

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is one of the best-loved brands in the hospitality industry. A destination for savvy travelers, visitors choose Kimpton hotels for their unique experiences and heartfelt customer service.

Kimpton's social gallery showcases guest photos of hotels, dining, and travel

Given the brand’s fun-loving take on luxury boutique travel, it was looking to increase its social media engagement and, ultimately, drive more online bookings. It wanted to tell its brand story through its guests’ social media content by displaying and celebrating it across its different property websites and owned channels.

Kimpton and Emplifi first partnered on the brand’s Pet Photo Contest. Emplifi helped Kimpton to amplify its social media campaign: to easily collect photos and videos of visiting pets, display submissions on a microsite, and install voting functionality.

“We couldn’t ask for a better partner in Emplifi,” Reynolds said. “The Emplifi team’s creativity and responsiveness are unparalleled and they genuinely believe that our brand’s success is their success.”

After the massive success of the social contest, Kimpton worked with the Emplifi team to evaluate the effects of this customer content on online bookings by displaying galleries of real customer photos on Kimpton’s individual property pages.

Guest photo of a woman at Geraldine's restaurant in Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt

The Emplifi platform makes it easy for us to manage and permission the tremendous amount of guest content that we receive every day. We enjoy a high volume of rich, beautiful user-generated content and Emplifi helps us to recognize the individuals behind it in a personal way.

Whitney Reynolds

Director of Social Media, Kimpton Hotels

challenge

Kimpton wanted to increase their social media engagement and, ultimately, drive more online bookings.

solution

The brand partnered with Emplifi to help them easily collect photos and videos of visiting pets to display on a microsite during a pet photo contest.

outcome

Today they’ve collected over 3.6 million photos from travelers driving over 200 million engagements and their parent company, IHG hotels also expanded to use Emplifi.

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