Marriott appoints Spark Foundry as media agency

Spark Foundry has won Marriott in Australia as well as globally.

Marriott has appointed Spark Foundry as its media partner in Australia, as well as globally.

Marriott kicked off the review last year in an effort to rethink the scale and scope of its global paid media needs after the hotel giant acquired Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

A dedicated Publicis Groupe team — called Marriott One Media — will work with Marriott’s internal media teams globally.

Marriott says the company has 30 brands with 6,500 hotels in 127 countries, and has more than 110 million members in its loyalty programs Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. That scale, the company says, led the company to create a “Global Marketing Optimization” team to make its marketing and media efforts more effective.

Says Sue Squillace, CEO of Spark Foundry Australia: “The global win of Marriott demonstrates the power of collaboration and scale of our global Publicis network and brands.  All media will be handled by Spark Foundry and we will work closely with Publicis Sapient in our newly-created ‘Marriott One Media’ group. This innovative structure will provide Marriott with the best talent, tools and personalised marketing insights to take the hotel group to the cutting edge of guest engagement.”

The incumbent agency was Wavemaker.