Virgin Hotels NYC yielded $1M revenue with successful digital marketing campaign

Virgin Hotels New York City opened its doors in late 2022 amid a crowded and competitive hospitality landscape in Manhattan. Although Virgin’s brand awareness and identity are well-established among travelers, the company still needed a comprehensive and effective strategy to raise awareness, drive bookings, and stand out in one of the world’s most-visited global cities.

Throughout 2023, the primary goal was to elevate awareness and interest in the property as part of the well-known Virgin Hotels brand. Heading into 2024, the goal shifted slightly to aggressively driving bookings via the implementation of a full-funnel strategy, while maintaining a return on ad spend of at least 10:1.

These goals were achieved via a multi-level approach, beginning with a demographically targeted general awareness social media campaign highlighting location, amenities, and property features. A room campaign followed, spotlighting unique offer details and vivid imagery. This was in turn followed by video-based stories and reels that further called attention to the property and special packages.

This growth was driven by several key, innovative factors:

• Separation of social feed from story/reel metrics, with discrete budgets for each that allowed the scaling of tactics independently, leading to better optimization
• The use of a diverse creative mix — featuring strong visuals such as videos and high-impact images — played a crucial role in capturing consumer interest
• Copy with a strong, direct hook and a strong CTA that consistently resonated with the target audience while staying true to the brand identity
• Continuous monitoring and analysis of audience behavior enabled the team to quickly identify the most effective creative elements and messaging
• Strategic budget optimizations and monitoring of returns allowed the allocation of additional budget to capitalize on the opportunities where anticipated returns were exceeded

The outcome of the campaign saw Virgin NYC realizing significant year-over-year growth in performance, with an increase of over 100% in both bookings and revenue during the targeted period.

With a total of 7.88 million impressions and 174,000 clicks, the campaign achieved a 2.21% click-through rate (CTR). This resulted in 1,000 bookings and $1 million in revenue. The overall return on ad spend (ROAS) was an impressive 13.8:1, which increased to an exceptional 23:1 ROAS with retargeting, highlighting the effectiveness of Cendyn’s strategies in driving both engagement and profitability.