While some hotel chains focus on Facebook and other social media channels for promotions, W Hotels is taking a different approach by making use of its entertainment offering.
The idea is that the chain wants to bring together some of the up and coming music DJs around the world, in the first instance to give them advice from pro DJs, but also highlight its own programme of club events in its properties in Asia.
Alongside DJ bootcamps at its flagship hotel in Bali, Indonesia, for those already selected, a partnership with Mix.dj and Coca-Cola energy drink brand Burn and its studios project, will see the final slot on the tour of hotels filled by way of a online competition.
Budding spinners are able to upload sets to a dedicated channel on the Starwood-owned W Hotels site. A guest and site visitor vote will determine which DJ will be picked for the tour over the summer.
Tapping into what the brand is synonymous for (club nights, in this case) appears to have worked well elsewhere in recent years, and moves the social-technology-marketing integration beyond just often rather dull promotions.
Probably the most high profile and successful uses of technology, social media and brand extension in the hotel industry so far came from the Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel in Spain last year.
The property invested in RFID-enabled wristbands so that guests and visitors to its own club events could take photos of their experience at the shows and send messages to their Facebook friends.
The results of the campaign, which will continue for the 2012 summer clubbing season, included a massive uplift in members of its Facebook page and thousands of uploaded items of content.
NB:DJ image via Shutterstock.
NB2: For those curious about the inspiration for the headline, a classic from the 1980s: