Hyatt Regency?s Hyatt Gold Passport brand is teaming up with Comedy Central for new digitally driven content to augment the hotel chain's latest marketing campaign, which includes custom, humorous advertisements on the network?s Snapchat Discover channel.

Hyatt Gold Passport is jazzing up its "It's Good Not to Be Home? marketing campaign by leveraging a partnership with Comedy Central and tapping comedian Iliza Shlesinger to depict how travelers make the most of their time away from home. In addition to a series of digital shorts set to be broadcast across social media, the hospitality marketer is also rolling out custom ads on Snapchat?s Discover feature.

?Custom ads on Snapchat Discover channels are a smart move for Hyatt to engage users of Snapchat in comedy shorts that can be shared via social media, which could give Hyatt a boost in its reward membership program,? said Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis, Atlanta.

?Comedy is one of the largest areas, if marketed properly, that has a great chance of being shared in the social media universe. This is just a small piece of the larger overall marketing effort, as it should be, but could become one of the most beneficial in gaining traction.?

Snapchat?s millennial prowess
Snapchat has become a veritable stomping ground for marketers seeking to reach more millennial mobile users. The photo-sharing application has introduced a suite of new tools that can be tapped by brands to showcase short clips or advertisements to specific audiences, ranging from the public Stories feature to the Discover channel for publishers.

Comedy Central fans that view the network?s Discover channel daily will now be able to spot humorous Hyatt advertisements interspersed with content. The Discover feature enables marketers to post daily or weekly material, which may include short articles, videos or imagery, which consumers can consistently view when using Snapchat.

Hyatt will likely experience a big boost in brand awareness with this initiative, and may enjoy an uptick in room bookings from an influx of millennial consumers. Placing ads in Snapchat Stories or Discover channels may be a viable marketing avenue for certain brands, especially if they tailor the advertisements to appear relevant and contextual to the audience, as Hyatt is doing.

?The hospitality industry has yet to break through to a younger demographic and have a distinguished voice,? said Guillaume Lelait, general manager of Fetch, San Francisco. ?With hotel brands such as Marriott looking to have an app to complement and add to their customer service offering, it?s a smart move for Hyatt to utilize a unique platform such as Snapchat to connect with its consumers.

?Snapchat has grown significantly in a short period of time, with around six billion videos watched every day. The majority of Snapchat?s audience is millennials, an audience which can provide revolutionary growth for Hyatt.?

However, Hyatt is not the only company engaging in this mobile strategy.

In September, Maybelline and Calvin Klein both rolled out short video clips interspersed with snapshots of New York Fashion Week shows on the event?s public Snapchat Story (see story).

Digital content blitz
Hyatt Gold Passport and Comedy Central have also developed a custom content series starring comedian Iliza Shlesinger that delineates moments of humor in the ways consumers make the most of their travels away from home.

The three-part series will air on Comedy Central, while additive content including extra clips will be dispersed across Comedy Central, Viacom and Hyatt Regency?s social media and digital platforms.

The focus on providing consumers with relevant material will likely result in more memberships garnered for the Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program.

The hospitality brand has been making a strong push for mobile lately, as evidenced by its implementation of digital concierge services at a slew of its properties.

Hotel concierge applications are becoming a must-have for major hospitality brands seeking to tap into guests? smartphones to anticipate their needs before arrival on premises (see story).

?Travel marketers should be cognizant of their entire user base being on mobile en route,? Siteminis' Ms. Troutman said. ?They should always consider cross-partnerships on digital channels as a critical piece of the brand awareness.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely, staff writer on Mobile Marketer, New York