InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has selected e-mail vendor StrongMail to manage its e-mail marketing efforts and deliverability. Under the terms of the partnership, set to be announced January 5, IHG will work with the vendor to streamline its e-mail marketing messaging across brands and campaigns.
IHG owns the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites chains. StrongMail is working to automate the chains’ e-mail newsletters, promotional campaigns and event-triggered messaging, including reservation confirmations, reward balance requests and password resets, through its platform.
The hotel parent company has spent six weeks implementing the StrongMail system. It sent its first e-mails with the vendor in mid-December.
“Most important to them was tighter integration with customer data, so we will be streamlining their data to make it more efficient,” said Ryan Deutsch, VP of strategic services at StrongMail. “The idea is to look holistically in the e-mail channel rather than being siloed in different brands and types of communications.” He declined to specify the size of the account.
IHG mainly uses e-mail marketing for retention. The brand uses the medium to communicate with members of its Priority Club Rewards loyalty program, which includes 47 million members worldwide.
Last month, StrongMail acquired The Email Advisor, an e-mail consultancy focused on the travel and hospitality vertical, as well as on retail. Terms of that acquisition were undisclosed.
An IHG representative could not be immediately reached for comment.
