Social media gaming – a recipe for employer brand success

Pages13-17
Published date29 November 2011
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/14754391211186269
Date29 November 2011
AuthorTisha Freer
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour
Social media gaming a recipe for
employer brand success
Tisha Freer
Abstract
Purpose – As part of an ongoing employer brand initiative, Evviva Brands developed My Marriott Hotel,
a culinary social media game, for Marriott International that launched on Facebook in June 2011. This
article seeks to focus on this initiative.
Design/methodology/approach – Global research insights identified social media and gaming as
primary in-home activities and a path for repositioning the Marriott brand with internal and external target
audiences.Focus groups, interviews and ethnographic observations led to key game-play and design
components that would ensure the game delivered operations realities as well as entertainment value.
Findings – The game was designed as a tool for reaching employment candidates in countries like
China and India where the service industry is growing but hospitality is not a highly sought career.By
managing a virtual hotel kitchen including staff, supplies and ingredients,players are given insights into
the world of hospitality and a culinary career at Marriott.
Practical implications By relying on target audience insights to build a business case, the project
received support from key executive leaders throughout the process and their involvement generated
over $500,000 in media exposure during the first few weeks of game launch.
Originality/value – As first to market with a hospitality simulation game, numerous observations can be
made about the processes that lead to successful game development and global deployment on
Facebook’s API.
Keywords Social media, Online games, Employer brand, Hospitality, Recruitment,
Management games, Hospitality management, Business enterprise
Paper type Case study
Evviva Brands is a specialized brand consultancy known for its ability to turn employee
and organizational insights into brand building opportunities. Evviva relies on its
Inside Insight process, including subject matter interviews, focus groups and
ethnography, to understand the true DNA of an organization and the employees’ role in
delivering on the brand. There is an inherent focus on service brands at Evviva due to the
fact that service brands rely heavily on their employees to articulate the brand, embody the
brand and quite simply be the brand – the People Brand. As the brand shop for people
brands, Evviva specializes in building and executing br and strategy that creates
connections between the employee, the organization and the customer.
As part of an ongoing brand initiative, Evviva developed My Marriott Hotel, a culinary social
media game, for Marriott International Inc, which was released on Facebook in June 2011.
Marriott International Inc is a global hospitality company and premiere service brand with
more than 129,000 employees in 3,400 properties across 68 countries and territories.
Focus groups and ethnographic observations were conducted in 2009 with Marriott
employees and target candidates around the world. In summarizing these insights, a few
themes emerged. They include the following:
DOI 10.1108/14754391211186269 VOL. 11 NO. 1 2012, pp. 13-17, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398
j
STRATEGIC HR REVIEW
j
PAGE 13
Tisha Freer is based at
Evviva, State College,
Pennsylvania, USA.

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