MARRIOTT MEDIA: New Ad Network To Monetize Bonvoy Members

Marriott, the world’s largest hotel group, has today announced plans to launch MARRIOTT MEDIA, a media network intended to target the 237 million members of the Marriott Bonvoy program. What are the implications of this for hotel guests and Bonvoy members?

Details of the new MARRIOTT MEDIA network

Marriott is launching MARRIOTT MEDIA, described as a new chapter in how brands engage with consumers across the travel journey. By the way, the capitalization and bolding is how Marriott markets this, so I guess the word “riot” is supposed to jump out at us, or something? I find that all to be a bit odd.

Marriott’s new media network is described as connecting relevant brands with customers at the right time, across digital and physical touchpoints, and with a contextually relevant message. For example, it’s specifically noted how one of the most compelling brand placements will be alongside Marriott Bonvoy’s original content shown on Marriott Bonvoy TV.

The intent is to use first-party data and 200+ targetable attributes across nearly 237 million Bonvoy members and 9,500 properties globally, to enable targeting by combining demographic information and guest behavior, travel intent, and traveler passions. Here’s how the idea is described:

Working with select brands, MARRIOTT MEDIA will curate brand experiences across Marriott-owned digital platforms such as Marriott.com and the Marriott Bonvoy app, placement within the room and stay experience, third-party websites, and social platforms. MARRIOTT MEDIA collaborated with select brands for an initial pilot including PepsiCo., Visa, United Airlines, Uber, Starbucks, F1 THE MOVIE, Audible, American Express and Resy.

The ability to engage with travelers on a connected journey through digital and physical touchpoints and its seamless integration model sets the network apart. MARRIOTT MEDIA bridges advertiser content and native Marriott content, making it possible for brand messaging to engage guests in high-trust, high-attention spaces, from curated pre-arrival recommendations to bespoke in-room experiences and post-stay reengagement. This media model allows marketers to move fluidly with customers at points in the journey when they are most interested in relevant content and new discovery, serving not only impressions but compelling offers and memorable touchpoints.

Here’s how Marriott’s Chief Customer Officer, Peggy Roe, describes this development:

“Today’s travelers expect personalization and welcome thoughtful discovery. MARRIOTT MEDIA is designed to enrich, not interrupt, serving guests content, recommendations, and offers in ways that feel natural, relevant, and aligned with their travel experience. I’m excited to announce Chris Norton, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Data Activation & Personalization, will lead this bold initiative and serve as the General Manager for MARRIOTT MEDIA.”

Here’s how Marriott’s SVP of Marketing, Chris Norton, describes this:

“Our goal is to offer select brand partners the opportunity to create deeper engagement with customers through the lens of travel and our brands. Through sophisticated measurement, including brand lift and awareness studies, attributable conversions, and advanced modeling, we empower our brand partners to align their campaigns with our travelers, ensuring meaningful engagement at every touchpoint.”

Interestingly, Marriott started trialing this concept back in 2022, and now it’s being formalized and branded.

This media network concept isn’t too surprising

At the end of the day, for major hotel groups, us guests and loyalty program members aren’t the customers, but rather we’re the product. The customers are the hotel owners that they want to convince to join the Marriott network, as well as the co-brand credit card partners (and that’s fair enough, as that’s how the business works).

Now you can take that a step further. While Marriott hasn’t historically been a media company, we’ll also increasingly be the product being sold to third-party advertisers. Frankly the hotel industry has historically had surprisingly little targeted advertising, despite offering access to a pretty desirable customer base.

Sure, hotel groups develop affiliate partnerships with complementary businesses, but that’s about it. So it sounds like we can now expect more third-party ads on Marriott’s website and mobile app, more ads on Marriott Bonvoy TV, and more marketing emails from partners, rather than just Marriott.

I suspect that these types of media networks will become the industry norm sooner rather than later. For example, roughly a year ago, we saw United Airlines launch a media network, with a very similar concept. Do I like this? Not really. Do I accept that this is just how the world is evolving? Yes.

Bottom line

Marriott is launching a new media network, named MARRIOTT MEDIA. This builds on a concept that the company started trialing around three years ago, intended to better monetize the lucrative customer base that Marriott has access to.

Expect more ads on Marriott’s website and mobile app, more marketing emails, sponsored content on Marriott Bonvoy TV, and more on-property advertising. It’ll be interesting to see just how prevalent this becomes.

What do you make of Marriott’s new media network?