Technology has not only transformed hospitality over the past decade or so, but it has also facilitated conversations between finance executives and brand marketers. Simply put, he is in two camps that usually disagree because one counts money and the other spends it.
For Beh Siew Kim, Chief Financial and Sustainability Officer at CapitaLand/Ascott, and Tan Bee Leng, Chief Commercial Officer at The Ascott Limited at CapitaLand Investment, technology in the form of digital marketing and 's AI helped adjust each goal. As one of the world's leading international lodging owners and operators, we execute on a shared vision of brand building and continuous innovation.
Of course, this is because the two have worked together in the same organization for 17 years and have built a trusting relationship. That foundation of longevity has given rise to the dynamic duo, who over the past few years have come up with some seriously cool brand marketing ideas and his AI-centric digital experiments.
Don't get me wrong. If you thought Siu Kim was interested in some cool project, think again. She is still all about return on investment and accountability. She ran a real estate business with her CapitaLand where she worked for 17 years and her last seven years in the hospitality sector running her management of Ascot and her Residence Trust.
Siew Kim said: While it is usually more difficult for brands and marketing, digital marketing offers more tangible benefits. My question is always, why spend money on this? about it. How much revenue and profit are there? Can I increase the target? ”
When asked if these questions irritate her, Bee Leng said with a laugh: When she first joined Ascot in 2019, she was asked: “Do I have to spend money?” My answer was, “We don't have to spend, but we need to spend because the company needs to grow.'' ”
Bee Leng became Managing Director, Brand and Marketing at The Ascott Limited in July 2019, after 17 years as Managing Director (Digital Ventures) at parent company CapitaLand. In February of this year, she was promoted to chief commercial officer. She has a background in corporate communications and marketing.
She says, “In the early days, brand and marketing was more intangible, but now it's easier to have conversations because digital marketing is trackable and measurable. It is written in a language that can be used.”
That doesn't mean the group is spending less on brand marketing intangibles, they say. The company typically spends 50% of its brand and marketing spend on direct marketing, 25-30% on brand building, and the rest on public relations.
Bee Leng says: “You have to combine the tangible and the intangible. Direct marketing brings instant gratification and conversions. But you have to invest in your brand, so we haven’t cut back on spending on brand building. Last year, I We've done a 360-degree brand refresh across all our brands. I'm lucky to have a smart CFO who believes in spending on intangibles.”
Ascot Limited (Ascot) has more than 900 properties in more than 220 cities in more than 40 countries across Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the United States. The company's serviced apartment, co-living and hotel brands include Ascott, Citadines, LYF, Oakwood, Quest, Somerset, The Crest Collection, The Unlimited Collection, Preference, Fox, Harris, POP!, Virtu, Contains yellow.
Invest in experimentation: Cubby web chatbot moves to reservations in phase 2
With such a vast and diverse brand portfolio, it is essential for the Group to remain agile and innovative and experiment with new technologies. Requesting a budget can be difficult at this time of year.
Bee Leng said: “It's hard to guarantee returns, especially for new projects. How do we express the intangible value of experimentation?”
For example, Bee Leng's team wanted to launch Cubby, a web chatbot powered by ChatGPT, to act as a “travel buddy” to guests. “AI is still a nascent technology and we wanted to learn the technology first, so we characterized it as an experiment, set certain his KPIs and asked for funding.”
The project has been approved. Ms. Siu Kim looks at Bi Leng with a twinkle in her eye and says, “She is very lucky because I am enlightened.”
She added: “I support innovation. However, I have abandoned projects that don't make sense, for example they want to introduce a feature into an app. Our CEO, Kevin Goh, also supports digital and innovation, so we have and always have had a budget for innovation. We believe that Cubby is a great way to engage our guests.”
Clearly, Siew Kim is satisfied with the return on investment. That's because Cubby is moving from handling customer service inquiries to phase two to include reservations and booking functionality.
Bee Leng said: “The response has been good, customers have loved it, and pain points have been resolved. We've had great traction and user adoption is good. We received 60,000 guest messages on Cubby within three months, It has saved us a lot of time. We are now ready to add booking functionality and are establishing ROI at this stage to set revenue targets.”
Siew Kim added, “AI is here to stay and we need to invest in brand, technology and sustainability.”
AI wins in human vs. AI marketing campaign experiment
Both executives actively advocate for their teams to incorporate AI into their operations. Bee Leng said: “Our social and marketing teams are now using AI to create assets, EDMs, and processes, which accelerates time to market. Revenue management tools are more sophisticated and more predictive. It’s now possible, it’s more accurate. AI is bolder than us, it can set bolder interest rates and sell out.”
Siu Kim acknowledged that there may be some fear among staff that some jobs will be replaced by AI. “But AI can eliminate manual labor and free up time for more creative work,” she said.
Bee Leng's team recently ran an AI-to-human marketing campaign. Both launched the same campaign at the same time with the same offer. Bee Leng said: “The AI team was faster to market and had better conversion. The time saved was most important. The humans waited because they wanted to design a better version.”
Siu Kim's chime. “Agility improves his ROI.”
The team is currently reviewing the Discover ASR (Ascott Star Rewards) app, released in October 2020, with the aim of moving from mobile responsive to native. Siew Kim says, “Right now, the app is more of a booking thing. We want to incorporate e-commerce into it, so a native app has the best of both worlds.” says.
New revenue stream from virtual influencer Rae
Another successful experiment that Bee Ren started while at CapitaLand was Rae, a virtual influencer created by CGI technology and powered by AI, as a way for CapitaLand to reach out to tenants during the pandemic.
Bee Leng says: “Retailers couldn't open their stores and no one was in their offices. We had a blank canvas to work on, and our task force was working to keep people informed and create a sense of community. I came up with the idea of a virtual influencer to create.”
They decided to introduce Rae without any connection to CapitaLand. Her first Instagram post was in October 2020. “I wanted to see how the market would react to a virtual persona. To my surprise, people started engaging with her, telling her their problems, and her following grew. Then , we tried her out in different activities and hobbies, but our first breakthrough was a collaboration with local shoe designer Local Sabotage. We launched Rae's limited edition product series, sold out.”
In December 2022, the company revealed its relationship with Rae, by which time she had grown to be one of Asia's most popular virtual influencers, with over 1 million followers across Weibo and Instagram. Ta.
We subsequently licensed Rae to Dentsu, a global marketing and advertising agency network, in a strategic partnership to drive innovation in virtual identity technology.
“This (right) is directly connected to our revenue,” says Siu Kim. “We are very happy. We welcome new revenue streams created by innovation.”
Shorter length of stay puts you in direct competition with OTAs
Another area where the two companies are collaborating is increasing direct bookings through Discover ASR, the brand website launched in July 2021 to unify the company's 14 lodging brands on one platform.
Currently, 70% of bookings across the group are booked directly, with the remainder being made through OTAs and other wholesale channels. This high percentage is due to Ascott's strong corporate foundation with a strong extended stay portfolio, but as the group moves more towards short stay with other brands, it is facing competition from OTAs.
“OTA is important,” says Siew Kim. “They have more money than us, and they bring in new fish, guests who aren’t in our ecosystem. Then it’s our job to get them to book directly. As we grow, we also have OTAs and It will allow us to better manage our relationships and enable better pricing of distribution costs. Scale is key.”
Bee Leng added: “We have to think about coexisting in a way that helps us. For example, new markets like South America and Africa where we are just getting started and where we are as established as they are. They can direct customers to our facility because they don’t have a network.”
The company's goal is to maintain 70% of its direct booking share as it moves into different segments of travel with different brands in development. “Long-term stays are our bread and butter, but we are now flexible to short-term stays,” says Shu Kim.
Both executives are excited about the growth of the “bleisure'' segment, as well as the rise of digital nomads, two trends that often impact the group's brands such as Oakwood and Riff.
“We want our corporate customers to be with us when they go on leisure trips,” says Siew Kim. “For example, Oakwood is a strong champion of leisure, and we tell new leisure customers that even if they don't stay long-term, they can stay with our brand. There is no need to go to an OTA.”
Sustainability is a business imperative
Now, Siu Kim has added a new responsibility to her financial role: sustainability. “This is no longer a cost or revenue issue; it's a business imperative.”
We have achieved Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) accreditation standard status and have set clear goals as outlined here. One of these is to “achieve 100% green building certification for all of our properties” by 2030.
Regarding measuring the return on investment on this journey, Siew Kim said: Waste collection, recycling – easy to do. Occupancy sensors, water filters, tracking systems – the rewards have diminished over the years as technology has advanced. Previously he took 6-7 years, now he takes 4-5 years. With the rising cost of electricity, it makes sense to install sensors in rooms. Operational costs are reduced and the environment is protected. ”
Bee Leng said that within the group, Somerset is a champion sustainability brand “with brand values focused on harmony and wellness”.
Siew Kim adds: “For us, this is not a marketing exercise, but a growing concern and we have set clear milestones.