The Background
The Hanover Inn is an historic landmark that has presided over the Dartmouth College Green, in one form or another, for nearly 250 years. As a cherished gathering spot, it holds a special place in the hearts and minds of both the college and town communities: hosting celebrations, happy returns, memorable meals, college reunions, and other special occasions over its long history. Owned by Dartmouth College, the inn also holds a unique distinction as one of the only hotels in the nation with a dedicated historical archive, carefully preserved within the collections of an Ivy League library.
The Objective
Develop a storytelling platform that digs deep into the history of the hotel, the town, and the college. Create a strategic editorial calendar that produces engaging content for distribution on the hotel’s key marketing channels, including social email and web. Develop local partnerships and relationships to collaborate and cross-promote the brand.
The Approach
We conducted our research the old-fashioned way: visiting the library and combing through the materials in its archives. Drawing on the Hanover Inn’s rich history preserved at Dartmouth’s Baker Library, we crafted an editorial calendar for the hotel’s social, web, and email channels. Each piece spotlights captivating stories from the past, brought to life through historical print, video, and photographic media.
‘Hanover Hospitality” is the common thread that animated the stories we chose to feature: from notable hotel guests discovered in 19th-century guest registers to the excitement of historic home games. These stories celebrate the enduring tradition of welcoming guests to Hanover and offer opportunities to collaborate and cross-promote this content on partner channels in the Dartmouth College community, and beyond.
The Results
This content pillar quickly became the highest performing activity across Hanover Inn’s digital channels, outperforming past social content, providing engaging material to share via email marketing avenues, and seizing unique SEO angles. Cross-promotion partnerships proved a lucrative way to increase the hotel’s impression-share with local and national audiences, from guest commentary on the blog by Dartmouth Professors to ‘Collaboration Posts’ with the official social channels of The Ivy League athletic conference.
TWO LOUIS 