Since 2014, Iñaky Bau has been in charge of the corporate marketing strategy of the Palladium Hotel Group and of all its banners, present in six countries. We have spoken with the professional at the company’s stand at the Ifema Madrid tourism fair, Fitur, about the group’s marketing strategy and the objectives set for 2022.
What marketing and communication strategy does Palladium Hotel Group work on?
We are a hotel manager, with different properties. On the one hand, the management part, where we have a brand positioning strategy with a very clear objective of increasing the recognition and notoriety of all our brands. And we take care of that from the hotel manager. And then we have, at the marketing activation level, a number of operational teams across all the hotels that have different owners, who are more focused on a day-to-day basis of the marketing budget.
So, at the brand level, the main pillars of our strategy to achieve the objectives are the following. One of them, and one of the most important, is the sponsorship strategy. For a few years, especially the last two, we have been promoting sports sponsorship. At the end of 2019, we closed an agreement with Real Madrid basketball to be the main sponsor, also that same year we closed another agreement with the New York Yankees. And it put us in a very interesting situation, being a brand that sponsored two of the most valuable brands in the world.
We have also been focused on developing brand activations and sports sponsorships with much more niche segments, such as golf or polo tournaments. We have also touched tennis, because we work closely with Reef Nadal and his team, as we have a sports center in Women’s Coast. At the brand sponsor level, we have all the sponsorships, from which we are getting very good results thanks to the collaboration with Real Madrid, even during the pandemic. Now we have started the activation with the Yankees. The pandemic came and we had to stop everything, the contracts were frozen. This part is very important and we are going to continue giving it continuity over time because we have had very good results.
And then at the level of brand strategy, we also have collaborations with similar brands, with whom we share objectives and are developing actions, such as Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz, with whom we have been collaborating closely in recent years, which helps us position our brands, as well as reach new markets, audiences and spread messages on all its channels.
Will the marketing budget be increased in 2022?
We are going with everything, we had some interesting pre-pandemic budgets that, logically, were cut with everything that happened. But we approach 2022 as almost a post-pandemic year, we will go with masks, we will respect all security measures in all hotels and we will do everything in our power so that the virus stops as soon as possible, but, by treating this year As a normal operation, we are going to open all the hotels. In fact, we have two openings. That means that we are going to go with marketing budgets very similar to those we had pre-pandemic and revenue objectives similar to those of 2019.
“We are going to go with marketing budgets very similar to those we had pre-pandemic, to revenue objectives similar to those of 2019”
And will the media mix change? Will the digital channel play an important role?
Yes, the digital part is very important. For us, direct sales is key. In fact, through our direct channel, we have managed to take sales to very interesting levels, especially in recent years. During the pandemic, intermediate sales or from online channels may have been affected, but our direct channel has benefited and has grown quite a bit. Today, 25% of sales come from the direct channel.
The loyalty part has also been strengthened, we launched a program at the end of 2019 and this has boosted direct sales. In fact, 70% of direct sales come through the loyalty program. In this sense, the online channel is very important, we develop strategies in social media, SEO, display, campaigns throughout the year in display branding that help us bring qualified traffic to the website…
“70% of direct sales come through the loyalty program”
And, in addition, all the audiovisual content, we took advantage of the pandemic to launch a television channel, Palladium TV, where you could enjoy the destinations while you were confined, and it had a very good impact. We continue to promote the project.
In social media, we have been pioneers and leaders in innovation and strategy, we have been the first hotel company to open a channel on TikTok and it has worked very well for us, it was one of our big bets last year. Opening it, we had over a million views. And within this digital strategy, we are beginning to bet on other channels, such as Twitch, in addition to reinforcing our visibility and positioning on YouTube.
“First hotel company to open a channel on TikTok”
And in the eSport sector?
We have it in our sights, we have started to hold talks with some players. There’s some advanced stuff but we haven’t started doing anything yet, just like with the world of the metaverse, we have it all in our road map to start doing something, with brands, like Bless, that would fit very well.
Palladium Hotel Group increased its income by 131% in 2021
After the interview, the president of Palladium Hotel Group, Abel Matutes Prats, and the company’s CEO, Jesús Sobrino, have presented to the media and attendees the balance of the company in 2021 and the novelties planned for this new year. Last year, the company closed with a turnover of 445 million euros, 131% more than in 2020 and 40% less than 2019, a year that they hope to exceed in 2022, “that is the expectation”.
Last year some relevant projects saw the light of day, such as its two hotels in Sicily (Grand Palladium Sicilia Resort & Spa y Grand Palladium Garden Beach Resort & Spa), el Palladium Hotel Menorca and the new Only YOU Hotel Valencia and Only YOU Hotel Málaga. Likewise, at the end of 2021 the doors of the Bless Hotel Madrid reopened, managed by the Palladium Hotel Group after the acquisition of the property by RLH Properties, the most important purchase-sale operation in terms of price per room in Spain in the last year .
The president and the CEO of the group have made an assessment of his first stage as a hotel manager. In this sense, Abel Matutes Prats has explained that “The change in the structure of the company has generated much more value by a series of efficiencies derived from focusing a great team exclusively on hotel management without attending to other verticals in which the Matutes group of companies is also present».
New hotels and markets
The group has announced the inauguration this year of the TRS Ibiza Hotel, the first of the luxury brand TRS Hotels in Europe. This five-star hotel will have a total of 378 exclusive rooms and suites. Palladium Hotel Group will also carry out major renovations at its hotels in Jamaica and at Grand Palladium Palace Ibiza Resort & Spa. Likewise, the group has announced its intention to continue incorporating new establishments of the Only YOU Hotels chain, through the joint venture that keeps with The English Court.
In addition, this year it is expected that the reconversion work will begin on what will be the brand’s fifth hotel, Only YOU Hotel Sevilla, while continuing to analyze different options in privileged locations in various cities, both Spanish and from other countries, suitable for each of its brands, in luxury and premium segments.
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