MediaTV: Mandarin Oriental's marketing strategy

In the interview, Hobson says hotel brands now have to respond to consumers directly and develop a personalised rapport with their audiences to “build up a brand impression online”, whereas it had previously dealt with the third-party booking agencies. Honing in on digital will additionally help capture new travelers from mainland China, which is poised to “change the equation”.







“We’ve seen, for example, in Hong Kong some 60 per cent of our arrivals – which is about 23 million – are coming now from mainland China and a few years ago the amount of mainland travelers was negligible,” Hobson notes. “When China really starts to travel, people are talking about 100 million travellers by 2020 outbound from mainland China and that will quickly soak up demand at all sectors.”

Hobson additionally speaks about the evolution of the Mandarin Oriental’s iconic ‘fan’ campaign off the back of the company’s decision to switch creative agencies earlier this year.


The full MediaTV series, which will air over the upcoming weeks, aims to explore brands’ marketing strategies in the digital age. The series will include interviews with brands such as Jetstar, Zuji and Tourism Australia.

To see previous MediaTV interviews, click here.

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