Fairmont magazine, spring 2014 cover
Printed and digital content is a key engagement strategy that allows brands to extend the length of a hotel stay or enhance the purchase of an automobile through a sense of community.
Spaxfax, a content creation agency whose clients include Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and Mercedes-Benz Canada, builds visibility and engagement around a brand’s happenings through entertainment, publishing, media sales, interactive touchpoints and technical services. In the publishing space, Spafax is a leader in custom marketing with more than 20 digital and paper publications in six languages, including titles such as Fairmont magazine, Mercedes-Benz magazine and Bombardier Experience.
“All of the content we create for our clients is developed specifically with their customer in mind,” said Courtney MacNeil, director of brand Alliances, marketing, and public relations at Spafax, Toronto. “We spend a lot of time creating editorial calendars and researching story opportunities that will engage those customers in a meaningful way.
“This approach, of creating looking at every brief through an editorial lens, delivers results: our content programs have been recognized with awards for both content marketing, such as the Pearls and Content Marketing Awards, loyalty marketing, such as the Loyalty360 Awards, and consumer journalism, such as the North American Travel Journalists’ Association,” she said.
In this Q&A, Ms. MacNeil speaks with Luxury Daily about Spafax’s approach to content creation, the benefits of branded publishing in print and online and the brand’s dealings in the luxury space.
Courtney MacNeil of Spafax
Here is the dialogue:
Can you please tell me about Spafax’s background in content creation?
Spafax opened its doors in London, United Kingdom in 1985, serving primarily as an inflight entertainment provider for airlines.
Over the years, the company has expanded and evolved its offering to create engaging experiences for premium global brands, including print, digital, video and “live” experiential and PR content.
How does Spafax work with its brand partners to create curated content?
All of the content we create for our clients is developed specifically with their customer in mind; we spend a lot of time creating editorial calendars and researching story opportunities that will engage those customers in a meaningful way.
This approach, of creating looking at every brief through an editorial lens, delivers results: our content programs have been recognized with awards for both content marketing, such as the Pearls and Content Marketing Awards, loyalty marketing such as the Loyalty360 Awards and consumer journalism such as the North American Travel Journalists’ Association.
In what ways does Spafax aggregate content or is all created solely by the luxury team?
All of the content in our publications is created by our in-house luxury team, who are supported by a wide network of award-winning contributors around the world.
In some cases, such as Mercedes-Benz magazine, we also receive content from our clients’ global network of publications, based in Germany, which we translate and adapt for our edition of the magazine.
Spafax titles: Bombardier Experience, Mercedes-Benz magazine and Fairmont magazine
How do these titles help to interact with consumers after a point of sale or during a hotel stay?
Be it a print publication, a video, an e-newsletter or a bespoke event, content brings a brand’s story to life and sustains an ongoing dialogue with customers after the point of sale, or in some cases, leading up to it.
They represent positive touch points between the brand and the customer that are focused on creating value for the customer, rather than just advancing the brand’s sales message. For example, as part of the Air Canada’s enRoute Canada’s Best New Restaurants program, Spafax organized a private dinner series for Air Canada’s VIP clientele, in partnership with Jaguar Land Rover and Macallan whiskey.
Each including a special menu, unique venues and exciting giveaways, these dinners offered a memorable money-can’t-buy culinary experience. These types of interactions become an integral part of the customer journey cycle of purchase, retention and cultivation.
What trends is Spafax seeing in the luxury travel space? How about in auto and private aviation?
Luxury today is about quality and craftsmanship, but also, increasingly, about being in the know. This is especially true in the travel space and brands leveraging this to provide content and experiences that are ultra-exclusive and ultra-personal in nature.
For example, VistaJet’s Voyager iPad application provides bespoke “insider” tips for passengers about global destinations, specifically curated for their personal tastes and interests.
Similarly, Air Canada’s recently launched Altitude Community is a proprietary branded social community that invites the airline’s most frequent fliers to share insider travel intelligence with each other. Because access to the site is exclusive to Air Canada Altitude members, users are more likely to find like-minded recommendations that will resonate with them on a personal level.
Each title is translated to be relevant to the reader where they are — why is this significant and how does this enhance the reader’s experience?
One of Spafax’s unique strengths is our ability to understand the sensitivities of a local markets and to create customized products for them that go beyond a straightforward translation. It is a priority for us to ensure that our content is relevant on a local level, as this ensures an authentic connection with readers.
When working in different languages, we create adaptations that factor in not only language, but also cultural context and references. For example, we produce the award-winning Fairmont Magazine in up to four versions per issue, including customized local content in up to four languages: English, French, Chinese and Arabic.
Spafax works with Fairmont properties to create its branded magazine — how does this offering benefit the hotel?
Fairmont Magazine does not deliver a hard sell. As a travel magazine, it is a loyalty tool, raising awareness for and sparking guests’ interest in Fairmont destinations, old and new.
Fairmont magazine spring/summer 2015, produced by Spafax
As a lifestyle magazine, it reflects guests’ tastes and experiences, confirming their choice of Fairmont as a brand that represents who they are, a brand they can trust, and it places that brand in the wider world.
The latest issue’s (spring/summer 2015) cover story explores bespoke topics in New York — why is this of interest to affluent readers?
The Plaza is one of Fairmont’s most iconic properties and a historic hub for affluent travelers. But it’s easy to feel like one of the herd when you’re a visitor to New York because, as the story says, even the “hidden gems” quickly become over-exposed and passé.
By showing readers how to make New York their own through bespoke experiences, we give them the tools to craft their own itinerary and feel like they can still have it their way. That’s luxury.
Fairmont’s magazine was recently redesigned. How does the incorporation of user-generated content via tweets and Instagram images enhance the read while showing of the hotelier’s lifestyle?
Most travelers today stay connected while on-the-go, and leverage social media to connect with locals or find ideas about what to see or do. By incorporating this type of content into Fairmont magazine, we wanted to highlight this aspect of the travel experience and encourage like-minded travelers to connect with each other throughout their journeys.
The Making of Fairmont Magazine
How has content creation changed, for better or for worse, now that digital and mobile content communications have become so vital to reach consumers?
Absolutely for the better, especially for brands who are able to keep up with the ever-changing communications landscape. Be it Periscope or Snapchat, new platforms create fresh, new, engaging ways to tell stories; they give marketers an opportunity to reframe and reenergize their dialogue with existing and prospective clients.
Highly capable mobile devices and geolocation technology enable content to play an increasingly valuable utilitarian role in the service of consumers who are on the move and need contextually relevant reference points. Moreover, digital/mobile provides a measurable footprint of how, when, where and why consumers are engaging with content, providing test-and-learn insights that can help brands and agencies assess and evaluate their strategies in real time – an essential asset for any communications program.
Final Take
Jen King, lead reporter on Luxury Daily, New York