"It’s a huge miss if you aren't capitalizing on UGC that exists out there for your brand. Emplifi is easy to use to permission content and then distribute it across multiple touchpoints digitally. Emplifi is an invaluable resource." – Lindsey Riggs, Director of Digital Marketing, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Luxury hotel and casino The Cosmopolitan is located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, promising a guest experience like none other. One of the most Instagrammed hotels in the world, The Cosmopolitan strives to be the go-to Vegas destination for tourists by spotlighting the high-quality user-generated content (UGC) from its guests on social media. To manage the wealth of existing UGC online and showcase hotel highlights in the most authentic way, the marketing team at The Cosmopolitan turned to Emplifi.
Creating a curated experience across all channels with Emplifi
What stood out to The Cosmopolitan’s social team when choosing a user-generated content platform was Emplifi's easy-to-use software when designing online galleries and measuring campaign success. With several layouts available, the brand’s team is given creative freedom to create customizable widgets that best fit its marketing channels while streamlining UGC collection.
"There's a lot of content out there, and we know people love to show off when they come to The Cosmopolitan. We wanted an easy way to aggregate all of that content."
The Cosmopolitan’s KPIs focus on hotel booking rates and social media engagement. Emplifi’s platform also allows the hotel’s digital team to measure the ROI and track conversions of each individual piece of UGC. Using Emplifi to design its Shoppable Instagram, the hotel saw a massive engagement rate of 42%.
Sharing UGC to showcase the post-lockdown guest experience
After the travel lull in 2020 due to COVID-19 shutdowns, bookings began to pick up in 2021 as consumers regained trust in traveling. To create an authentic and up-to-date experience, The Cosmopolitan utilized Emplifi-powered UGC across various channels like social media, on-site galleries, and email campaigns to show prospective visitors the genuine experience it has to offer, as well as safety precautions in place. Over 19,000 pieces of content collected ultimately produced an overall reach of over 250 million impressions.
"We're thankful to have a platform that enables us to easily source that UGC, get permission and repost it. Even as a consumer, I want to see what a product or experience actually looks like when I’m shopping."
Authenticity beyond social
To make social media ads feel more authentic, the hotel chose to show off groups of women celebrating bachelorette parties at The Cosmopolitan by resharing their Instagram posts. Using Emplifi’s tagging capability, the brand’s social media team was able to quickly collect and curate posts related to bachelorette parties from a wealth of UGC.
"Branded photos are nice, they're important, and they serve a purpose. But I always want to see what it’s actually like from a real life person's point of view... I appreciate the ability to be able to display that authentic content on our websites to keep our site visitors engaged."
When analyzing engagement on social media, the hotel’s top three posts are usually UGC. But The Cosmopolitan also champions UGC beyond social media, whether that be its PR team using guest posts in a press release or a hotel restaurant searching for a picture of a specific dish.
"Ultimately, we want to show off everything at the resort through our visitors’ eyes – so that when people think about visiting Las Vegas, they instantly think about The Cosmopolitan and want to stay here."
#DecadeOfMischief campaign
The brand embarked on its first social media contest in several years to celebrate the hotel’s 10-year anniversary by encouraging customers to share their favorite memories at The Cosmopolitan on social media, tagging #DecadeOfMischief, or via an on-site direct uploader powered by Emplifi.
This campaign not only engaged fans on social media and spread brand awareness, but it also provided The Cosmopolitan with valuable UGC for use in future marketing campaigns to showcase the hotel experience through the lenses of its guests.
"It was extremely easy to implement Emplifi on the website, and now, even though the contest is over, we still have all that content that we can display because we are celebrating the anniversary all year long."
Influencer discovery
While the hotel has partnered with influencers in the past, Emplifi's Influencer Discovery tool helps the team discover the amount of existing, organic content shared by top Instagrammers while designing a social strategy.
"Recently, I was in Emplifi to pull influencer-UGC, to show leadership both the quality and quantity of the UGC we were getting, including influencers who were organically sharing their experience, unprompted."
As one of the most Instagrammed hotels in the world, The Cosmopolitan hit the jackpot with content and community through their highly engaged audience. With Emplifi, the hotel will continue to grow their audience and help their fans "See + Be Scene."
