THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 14th Annual Shorty Awards

Adventures At The Moxy

Finalist in Graphic Art

Objectives

Our aim with Adventures #AtTheMoxy was to creatively convey the unconventional Moxy Hotels guest experience to set guest expectations before arrival. We wanted to prepare and engage prospective guests for the atypical hotel experience we offer in order to drive higher guest satisfaction. We set out to clearly communicate what sets us apart while aligning with our brand values: Fun, Spirited, Thoughtful.  

Drawing on the insight that brand fans crave authenticity and are fatigued with standard social content, coupled with the growing popularity of text-based social posts, we developed social-first comic strips to playfully tell brand educational stories.

​​Our goal: Fuel engagement on Instagram with likes, views, comments, saves, and shares.

Strategy and Execution

The creative vibe of Adventures #AtTheMoxy is directly inspired by the street-style pop art that appears on the walls of our hotels globally, featuring highly saturated colors, bold text, and comic imagination.  

With the nostalgic appeal of a comic strip, the assets are perfectly designed to draw viewers in with sound off and continue to swipe or watch to experience the story’s beginning, middle, and end—each panel overlapped with the next to encourage this user behavior and longer dwell time. Since Moxy Hotels is exclusively on Instagram, the assets were formatted uniquely for in-feed carousels, standalone videos, Stories, and Reels.

We shared the content from July through September 2021 organically and with paid promotion. To fuel engagement, we created and shared Giphy stickers of animated elements to encourage guests to organically weave them into their own Stories; used polls and native features to encourage Stories interaction; and launched the campaign with a 6-post in-feed grid takeover of a full carousel comic strip. The campaign name seamlessly leverages the longtime brand hashtag, #atthemoxy.

Each comic strip opens with an animated element to spark interest in the first few seconds of scrolling; features Moxy Hotels branding including logos and signature colors; and reinforces a brand proof point that is also reflected in the caption. Each asset needed to make the viewer crack a smile, succinctly explain the concept, and represent the brand accurately.

We wanted guests to understand you can check in at the bar; our guestrooms are smaller than average but have clever design features; our public spaces are playful and filled with fun and games; we offer 24/7 grab and go drinks and food; our bathrooms feature rainfall showers; and our hotels are in desirable locations.

The graphic artwork features our diverse and inclusive target audience of Fun Hunters as the protagonists (age 25-40, average household income of $75-$125K, Bachelor’s degree, takes at least one business trip per year). From a solo business traveler unpacking his suitcase in record time using the peg wall (no closets here!) to a girls’ getaway weekend in a quad bunk bed room, to an all-hours snack-a-thon with something for every personality and craving, our Adventures #AtTheMoxy capture the essence of what to expect at our hotels.

Results

This breakthrough social graphic artwork was a category first in the hotel brand space. The eye-catching campaign generated more than 4 million engagements  at a high 17% engagement rate and impressive 0.77% CTR.

The top-performing asset was the in-feed carousel comic strip featuring the Moxy Peg Wall, which had a knockout 50% engagement rate and helped guests understand and appreciate that we don’t have closets in our rooms like conventional hotels do. 

We achieved our goal of drawing in our target audience, educating them on brand proof points in a fun, playful, and original way. 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Marriott International

Links

Entry Credits