Moxy Hotels

Marriott International’s new millenial-focused brand that is entering the U.S. market in a bold way.

Overview & Objectives

Moxy Hotels in partnership with Marriott International and Wright Management hired Bond Moroch to support the launch of its New Orleans hotel in Spring 2016, the first Moxy hotel in Louisiana and second nationwide.

Our goal was two-fold: to boldly launch the brand in the Louisiana market and Gulf South region with a targeted media relations campaign, and to formally introduce New Orleans to Moxy with a themed Freak Show Coming Out Party. We were tasked with securing media coverage of the hotel opening in print, broadcast and online media outlets with a focus on bloggers and social media influencers.

Additionally, Bond Moroch handled identification and management of the guest list for the Freak Show party, which involved securing attendance from key local and national influencers, dignitaries and media. Bond Moroch also assisted with celebrity event guests including YouTube star Taryn Southern, host of Moxy’s original YouTube series “DO NOT DISTURB;” Actress Dani Thorne; DJ Amy Pham and Comedian David So.

The Bond Moroch team curated and managed Moxy New Orleans’s social media channels, delivering weekly content grids and images for the property. Our objective during this campaign was to increase brand awareness of Moxy Hotels in New Orleans and formally introduce the brand into the market. The focus centered heavily upon Instagram, a key platform for the brand.

Approach

Year-over-year, our PR campaign consists of the following:

• Local, regional and national media relations
• On-site event management (artist interview coordination, media/photographer press pit coordination, etc.)
• Community relations/strategic partnership development

Our campaign highlights BUKU’s many years of growth/success and showcases BUKU’s unique on-site features (art installations, music stages, food, etc.). We also managed local artist relations, which allowed our team opportunities to generate preview coverage and on-site interviews for post-event features.

Leading up to the festivals, we began aggressive media outreach to promote the lineup announcement, additional announcements surrounding the festival’s art/food components and more to generate buzz and increase ticket sales. On-site at the event, our job was to coordinate all artist interviews with media, monitor all photo/press pits during artists performances and work with media to develop unique storylines around the festival’s many events.

Results & Impact

Our media and community relations-focused campaign proved successful, solidifying BUKU as a top music festival in New Orleans and throughout the country. Our campaign succeeded in increasing general awareness surrounding the festival to increase ticket sales (sold out shows 2014, 2015 and 2016), but also in gaining support from the New Orleans community.

Highlights from our PR campaigns include:

• Secured a large amount of local, regional and national media surrounding BUKU’s lineup announcement(s) to assist with increasing ticket sales—including Associated Press pick-ups each year included in over 100 outlets, features in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Huffington Post, New York Times, Pollstar, Digilove, Southern Living and much more
• Secured over 200 media contacts on-site during each festival (writers and photographers)
• Secured over 50 on-site artist interviews with various media outlets/artists during each festival
• Secured a large amount of post-event festival reviews to increase general festival awareness (over 100 post-event features per year)
• Secured a range of meetings with local business organizations (GNO, Inc., Chamber of Commerce, LED, New Orleans Business Alliance, NOTMC, NOCVB and others)
• Successfully assisted in creating a positive preference for BUKU among New Orleans community members