The Entire Guest Experience Is a Branding Opportunity With Jason Pirock, Corporate Director and Head of Marketing at Springboard Hospitality
Jason Pirock, Corporate Director and Head of Marketing at Springboard Hospitality, is an award-winning marketing executive with over 16 years of experience transforming brands like Hyatt and Target. Formerly the VP of Marketing at Aparium Hotel Group, he built and led the marketing department. In his current role, Jason oversees brand development, integrating marketing and customer acquisition strategies for Springboard Hospitality's 48-plus properties. A member of The CMO Community, an Advisor for TapOnIt, and part of the Advisory Council for Brand Innovators Labs, Jason has a reputation for transforming businesses and their marketing process.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Why Jason Pirock emphasizes a test-and-learn through experimentation approach to marketing
The value of iterative progress: starting somewhere and incorporating changes based on results
How to overcome the biggest challenges in digital marketing
Why marketers need to protect and effectively use first-party data
Jason underscores the value of creating unique and memorable experiences for guests
The use of AI as a tool for efficiency — not as a replacement for human creativity
Why Jason chooses to embrace imperfection
What you’ll learn in this episode:
In the era of social media, splashy videos, and content marketing, hospitality businesses are constantly looking for methods to personalize their marketing message to cater to specific travelers. However, they have found that the best marketing strategy is simply to provide their guests with an exceptionally comfortable and enjoyable stay.
As a seasoned marketing executive in the hospitality industry, Jason Pirock explains how leveraging guest experience can be an excellent branding opportunity. He highlights taking advantage of opportunities for personalization, indicating that it doesn't necessarily have to be elaborate or complex but can focus on meaningful touchpoints during every stage of a guest's journey. He stresses the significance of listening to guests, tailoring solutions to meet their needs, and gradually moving towards more advanced personalization strategies. Jason also notes that creating memorable guest experiences promotes loyalty and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Jason Pirock, Corporate Director and Head of Marketing at Springboard Hospitality, to talk about opportunities for marketing in the travel industry. They discuss the rebranding journey, Springboard's growth trajectory, and the pivotal role of the digital space. Jason emphasizes the importance of learning from the marketing process instead of pursuing perfection. He also suggests that creating memorable guest experiences is crucial in building brand loyalty.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design are the strategic foundation for your brand’s success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:34
Hello everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal, where I get to use my expertise in consumer behavior to engage with top business leaders who are propelling their brands forward. Before I get to today's guest, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, they use holistic marketing that inspires people to visit cities, attractions, and the great outdoors. The behavioral models tap into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. This allows them to specialize in answering the question Where to next, then point them in the best possible direction yours. To learn more visit offmadisonave.com. Off Madison Ave, go see. Now without further ado, I'm super happy to have with me, Jason Pirock, who is the award winning marketing executive entrepreneur and advisor to probably a lot of people. More importantly, he's also like a recipient of the brand innovators 40 under 40 in the Midwest, which is always very impressive. Jason's experience includes working in both hospitality and retail for brands like Hyatt Aperion Hotel, group and target. He is known for transforming marketing departments and businesses. He currently oversees the marketing brand and PR and lifestyle as the Head of Marketing for Springboard Hospitality. In short, Jason is helping to propel the growth directory to new heights. Jason, welcome to the show. What did I screw up? Maybe even your last name?
Jason Pirock 2:06
No, you nailed it. Okay. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Roger Hurni 2:12
Yeah, you're very welcome. I my last name being Hurni people screw up all the time, too, because it's a shortened Polish name. So I understand that that can be be troublesome. Well, let's kick right into it. I'd love to start by giving me just a little background on Springboard Hospitality. I believe in there was even a name change a few years ago.
Jason Pirock 2:35
Yeah, absolutely. So Springboard Hospitality is a primarily a management company. But we do own operate and develop mostly boutique independent hotels across the US. Our you know, the start of the company really happened in in Hawaii, which is actually where a big chunk of our our properties sit. And that was when we were OLS. And I've since moved on to a rebranding about three years ago to Springboard Hospitality. So we as I said, we're not only are we that sort of operator or management company, but we've got ownership stake in in quite a few of our hotels as well. And we also assist with sort of that pre opening phase. So what that looks like for us is, you know, sort of helping owner investor, whomever it may be, really get through that ramp up period and opening. So that could be helping with design that could be helping with branding that could be helping with conceptualizing where, you know, things sit on the property overall. But we're in destinations, like Honolulu, like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Sedona, so a lot of great, great places across the country.
Roger Hurni 4:03
So destinations that don't suck. So that's awesome, aren't there? I'm gonna go back on the name change. I know, it was before you were there. But it I'm actually familiar with the outrigger brand, some years ago. So it seems that and I'm gonna do this as a learning lesson for other people listening. But it seems like that change was, because that name is very limiting. I mean, it feels Hawaiian. It doesn't allow you to expand, it doesn't allow you to maybe really highlight what the brand is capable of doing for your clients from a mat hotel management perspective. Is that true? Yeah.
Jason Pirock 4:43
And yeah, outrigger is in the history and that's kind of further back. Like as it moved into, sort of OLS and evolved, but outrigger does stand alone today as its own hospitality company. They're predominantly in Hawaii and actually into some of the other Pacific islands, as well. They're in Australia, Fiji, etc. But Springboard, I think it was more representational of, you know, really propelling you forward. You know, into that next trajectory, like really having a company behind you that is, is this group of experts that can help speed to market? Can I kind of plug you in and get you off in the right direction as quickly as possible?
Roger Hurni 5:37
Well, that's great. I just clarifying. I mean, it seems fairly obvious. But I'm glad that at least got that cleared away. Yeah. Well, you've been a Springboard for about a year now. kind of curious as, like, why you took the position? And what were some of the marketing challenges and opportunities you saw right away?
Jason Pirock 6:07
Yeah, absolutely. So I was intrigued, really, by, by the position, just, I think the first thing was, when I saw the collection of hotels in the locations, obviously, as you mentioned before, some you know, really nice areas, places that I ultimately would want to go as well. But I think, more importantly, it was the trajectory of growth, you know, a majority of the growth that's happened in the company has been post pandemic. And so that was really interesting to me that this group of folks was sort of coming in and very quickly taking over these properties and sort of turning them around. And I ultimately wanted to be a part of that. So they actually brought me in to help sort of audit what was going on from a marketing perspective and figure out ways that, you know, we could become more efficient that we could become more performance driven, that we could provide more value for, you know, our owners and investors and our properties. And so, you know, some of the first few things that that I kind of noticed, was, surprisingly, not as much of an emphasis on emphasis on the digital space. Right. So, um, well, investing in digital from, you know, a paid media perspective, I think there was, there wasn't anyone dedicated to digital when I first came in. And so that was my first hire, to really bring somebody in that, that really knows the space that could get their hands dirty, and sort of figure out where, where were our blind spots? And, you know, what do we need to do to kind of take, take the properties and take the company to the next level in that space. So that was one of the one of the key things and then the other big thing was that really further defining what it is that marketing, what it is that marketing ultimately is right, making sure that we're educating that on that, and, you know, ultimately what it can do, but what it can't do. So in all of my career, being in marketing, it's always been about communication and education are a huge component of, of what I do. And because I think a lot of times, there's this, there's this mystery behind what marketing is. And I think there's a misconception of what it takes to make it all happen, there's a ton of moving parts. And there's a lot of data that goes into decision making. And there's a lot of different partners and hands in the pot to make it all come together. And so really defining those scopes of work. So that we could level set on what what we do as a team as a department, and also level set to our stakeholders of what they can expect from us.
Roger Hurni 9:11
I think that's really smart. I I hear tons and tons of marketing executives just talk about here's what marketing can do for you what marketing can do for you. And you know, a lot of people think it, it's like the, the three witches from Macbeth, like conjuring up some sort of potion, that's going to be a cure all. I really do appreciate and love the fact that you had to educate them on what marketing can't do. Specific, I mean, I'm actually surprised that 2022 23 Whatever, they weren't really doing digital, which feels like it's really behind the curve. So obviously, it was an organization that's built around marketing, but they clearly seem to want to do that bringing somebody like you want but I think it's a really novel approach of being able to dispel, hey, markings I can be able to solve these problems for you guys. This is an operational thing, or this is, this is something else. Yep. Yeah, question in there. I was just an operation long winded observation, but an observation. Moving past digital, though. I remember in 2015 2016, Gartner had a survey talking about how by 2020 brands that didn't engage in personalization would be out. Little by competitors by 20%. And they just did another study recently where they they reconfirm that like in 2024. You know, amongst other things, you know, personalization is going to be really significant. And we've seen a lot of traveler behaviors change around trying to personalize those experiences. I'm curious as to with travelers looking for that, is there anything that you are doing or counseling your destinations to do to create those unique personalized experiences? And that may not be activity? I got to the easy answer. Right. But maybe, but how it feels to stay at that hotel? How that personalization occurs? Is there anything there that you're either working on or working toward?
Jason Pirock 11:21
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, it's such an interesting, it's such an interesting topic, because it comes up so frequently in the marketing space, this personalization, what does it mean? You know, I think there's a lot of different interpretations that are out there. And I think for us, I don't think that we're, we're advanced, per se in this area. And it's something that we're, you know, ultimately working towards, I think there's a lot of, you know, foundation and building blocks that we've got to put in place first, before we can really move into that space. But how we're playing there today does go back to what you mentioned earlier around experiences, right. And so our, our approach has been more about how do we really listen to our guests and put solutions in front of them that sort of meet their needs. And to your point, it doesn't have to be this like, elaborate experience? In some cases, we are doing like, you know, say, for example, you're going to Jackson Hole, and there's whitewater rafting, right, you can kind of do that anywhere, we're taking that and elevating it to this specific spot. That's one of our favorites, because we know, the guide, and afterwards, we're going to have, you know, lunch on this little, you know, island that is surrounded by the water, right, like the rushing water that's coming through. So there's extreme instances where we're doing that, but in other cases it you know, it's those touch points when they're first coming on site, like how are we? How are we greeting them? What's their first impression, and, you know, is there something maybe in in the room that we can do to just make that just to give that extra special touch or, or personal touch. The other thing that we've talked a lot we've actually done, I've done a handful of brand marketing workshops for the properties where we've really dove into the brand and aligned as a group, and I'm talking with like, owner property, you know, corporate folks, whatever it may be, there's a group of us that will come together and I facilitate a workshop where we really dive into who we are. And you know, what the brand is all about to finding that architecture defining. You know, those all of those bits and pieces and then taking it a step further to say, how do we remain consistent by bringing this through different touch points. And those touch points could be thing things like design and decor, it could be things like arrival, it could be amenities, it could be your f&b concepts would have ever it may be but really thinking about not only is it about, you know that, that experience, you know, elevating experiences, it's thinking about the holistic journey from start to finish before they get there while they're there. And then when they leave, and how do we try to personalize from our point of view as a brand? To make sure that it's a memorable experience? Have they ultimately come back?
Roger Hurni 14:52
Yeah, most owner operators but a lot of people particularly in operations going good, you're, you're expanding it beyond the brand part. They don't realize that every point of contact is a brand touch point. And you having that as part of that brand workshop that you run is is really smart. You know, I know when I work in in shifting consumer behavior and visitor behavior, you know, many people think that personalization is just this. Oh, we need a name on an email. Remember their birthday, like, that's not even personal. That's just like basic tables. As you need to get to a level of understanding what's what's important to the guest and making those memorable moments and I really how you're doing that with, with the owner operators of those independent hotels?
Jason Pirock 15:45
Well, I also think back to, you know, back to my response just a bit ago, I think there's different levels, right? Like, let's take, let's take email, for example. You don't necessarily when we think about personalization, I think a lot of people go in the direction of one to one. But it doesn't have to be one to one to be personalized, right? I think that it can be segmented audiences that you better understand or that you can further relate to. So when you're thinking about your content strategy, when you're thinking about what you're putting in front of them, that you're keeping your audience in mind. So for example, you know, in my world, say we're running a Parkins day offer, right? Well, that's not relevant to our entire national database, right? Because there's quite a few people that might be flying in. So making sure that you're thinking about out your guests and a sense of, okay, well, that park and stay offers probably relevant to our drive market. So let me segment this email to only include those that are within driving distance, right. And then maybe we have a more a broader offer that goes to the remaining database. So ultimately, you're just like starting to get like, it doesn't take a ton of extra work. But you're starting to make sure that the that your guests or customers are being heard, because you're thinking about everybody a little bit differently.
Roger Hurni 17:24
Yeah, no, I think you're you're doing a great job of educating along that continuum. You know, I tell people very similar sorts of things, but display, relevancy, your name, your birthday, whatever, then get to a level of being personal. And it's finding common traits among cohorts. But then there's going to be this utopian place of true personalization, where you're taking a behavioral analysis approach and looking at those implicit and explicit behaviors, and then individualizing, every single piece of communication to that person. And that's a completely, that's another whole nother level. But they've got to start somewhere.
Jason Pirock 18:05
Right? I just think that people get overwhelmed, right? They. So when you hear personalization, it's like, how am I going to get in front? How am I going to create something unique for every single person, and I think you're right, like the Holy Grail is eventually getting that place where you are truly one to one. But you can start somewhere by starting to group people by, you know, attributes, or group them by location, or behaviors, or whatever it may be.
Roger Hurni 18:33
I know I had, I had an experience in Beijing a few years ago. And I'm also as a serial entrepreneur and having companies I'm involved in, but there's one that does that, like on an app. And when I was in Beijing, I'd never been to this particular four seasons before, and they greeted me outside the door by name had already checked me in, you know, said, like, by the way, there's no tipping here in China. And then like, all these things, and then there was like these Swan towels on the, on the bed for my wife and I and it really felt very personalized. But that's just maybe what they do for everybody. But they, you know, they just, they took the information they had, and they just leveled it up. And if you can do that with your brands, the way you're running those brand workshops, those those companies should be thanking you up and down, because it's going to make those experiences memorable and unique, and live beyond the trip. And that's, I think, ultimately, the best place to be is when you go back and you tell people, this is the hotel experience I had here. That's always a win.
Jason Pirock 19:42
That's what we're that's what we're striving for. I always tell the teams, actually the slide in the, in the workshop that you know, striving for loyalty and loyalty to me is not only repeat customers, but it's also you know, word of mouth marketing, right? And, you know, leaving a review, and really talking about the experience. That's how that's how you know, you're creating loyalty and that's what we should be striving for.
Roger Hurni 20:13
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I can't have a conversation with someone of your acumen and not talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room every time I'm in the room with somebody or over zoom. What role do you see AI playing In marketing, and maybe the industry as a whole.
Jason Pirock 20:34
Yeah, I always, this comes up a lot too. So I think that ultimately, we've, here's my, here's my initial take, like, ultimately embrace it, it's not going away. And by the way, it's become more trendy, if you will, or it's come up more frequently, in the last call it six months. But Newsflash, everyone, it's been around for a very long time, it's just gone through iterations, it's been called different things. But it's not going anywhere. And for me, you know, I look at it as like, use it, as there's two ways that I think about it. One is a first draft, right? And I'm thinking about as like a chatGPT is of the world, right? You know, there's been so much talk or talk about that tool in particular that technology and, you know, I think from, you know, a, the perspective of, it can be a great place to start, right, and then put your own spin on it, put your own touch, I think at the end of the day, to me, it's it's about leveraging it for, you know, efficiencies, and being able to provide more value to our customers, in ways that maybe we are unable to today. And so what I mean by that is, you know, a prime example of how I think it could be used really well is, on our websites, a web chat, for example, seems kind of, you know, elementary, maybe, but I think buy, ultimately, and when I think of web chat on a website, it's a conversion tool, you're helping a consumer make a decision quicker, so that they convert, and if you have technology like that in place that can, you know, get the answer for the consumer faster, or free up somebody at the front desk and, and get it pretty far along. That's where you're starting to provide more value to the guests. And ultimately, you're providing a more efficient operation and doing so. And so that's where I kind of see, see it going in my world at least. And I know, there's plenty of other ways that you know, you could implement it or take it, but those are some of the the initial thoughts I have
Roger Hurni 23:09
You, though, are thinking about it the same way. I mean, night, I don't think it's it doesn't replace humans, because it's not souI generous, it's not going to create originality, it's pulling from what exists and says, here's another way of looking at this are here, things that don't seem related, that can be related. And that can give you a lot of ideas, but it still takes human inception, or the creativity behind the direction. It takes good human analysis to determine what feels right for the brand and what doesn't. If you rely solely on it as a tool to replace people, I think you're really missing the big opportunity. And it seems like you are saying the same thing.
Jason Pirock 23:56
Yeah, and I mean, especially in the hospitality space, we're all about, you know, customer service, and connecting with our guests. And, you know, having, you know, that empathy that, you know, whatever it may be, like leading with empathy with our consumers. And so AI is a very, very long ways away from that, right. And so again, if you can, if you embrace it and think more about how can I help you and sort of flip the script versus thinking it's taking your job, I think that you're going to be that much better off.
Roger Hurni 24:34
Yeah, absolutely. Jason, you're right. It's not going away. So it's, it's just another arrow in the quiver, so to speak. Exactly. Yeah. You've been great with your time. I have just a couple of other questions. I'm curious as to what's keeping you up at night now. Like, what's the challenge that you're you're facing in the organization?
Jason Pirock 24:57
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think that the ever changing world of just digital marketing in general. You know, first we went from Google Analytics universal to Google Analytics for and you know, there was a lot of there was a lot of angst around what that would mean. And obviously there's a lot of, you know, things that are very different about GA four and in areas that people were comfortable with that, that they're now, you know, trying to relearn, or, or whatever it may be, and GA for is really looking at things differently in general, right, the way that they're even defining certain metrics is different than what was out there before. So, I, that keeps me up at night in the sense of, you know, do I know enough? Are we diving further, you know, far enough into, I also worry about like the, you know, how a lot of that like year over year data's is slowly going away. And so, you know, really working towards what that means and how we protect that data so that we're able to go back and look, and then it sounds like, cookies are really happening this year. That's it's going, it's going away. So that definitely keeps me up at night. And what the impact that will have in the advertising space. I mean, you know, it's it's even more important for us to focus on our first party data and gather as much information, you know, even helping with like that personalization piece. And so I'm really curious to see how that shakes up. Multiple, I mean, all industries, right? Anybody who's dealing with marketing, it's gonna, it's gonna shake things up. So those are a couple of things that stand out to me.
Roger Hurni 27:02
Yeah, yeah. first party data is is an untapped treasure trove, if it's used and analyzed correctly, you know? Well, I've got one last question. In this can be personal or professional. But I've always found that sometimes the worst advice, there's a gem of a pearl in there, that is really great advice. So what is the worst advice you've ever gotten? Oh, wow. That question before? What is the worst? Or what's the best advice you've ever gotten? But no one asked me the other.
Jason Pirock 27:41
Yeah, that's a good point. Um, the worst advice I've ever gotten something that stands out. Or that kind of comes to mind at first is something around like something to the tune of, you know. Being like, being risk averse, or being a little bit more conservative, where I think it should be the total opposite, I'm very much a, a test and learn type of person and, and fail fast. And I think maybe that's part of my entrepreneurial spirit. But, you know, growing up in in the true corporate space, for a majority of my career, I think it was sort of ingrained in you that, you know, you had to be more conservative and check every, you know, every box and dot every I and cross every T. And I've worked myself out of that. But it doesn't have to be perfect. You don't need to go to you know, you don't have to have something fully baked when you go to leadership or you go to your boss or the powers that be. And so I guess that advice of it has to be perfect. I think was was some some pretty bad advice that was sort of ingrained early on in my career. And as I said, I've worked. I've learned and work to get away from that, because I just don't think that's the right approach. Nothing is ever perfect. But you've got to start somewhere and you can iterate, right, but you're not going to know unless you if you waste all of your time trying to make it perfect. You're never going to know if it works.
Roger Hurni 29:31
Very smart advice. Very smart advice. Particularly in marketing, where everything is a moving target these days, you try to get something to the point of perfection. None of the things are going to happen in past you, Bobby, while you're doing that, so it's very, very smart. See, you get great advice instead of bad advice. There we go. Really well. Thank you again, so much for being on the show. And I had been speaking with Jason Pirock, who is the Head of Marketing at Springboard Hospitality. Jason, where can people learn more about you and Springboard?
Jason Pirock 30:07
Yeah, so springboardhospitality.com You'll find everything about the company on there and our portfolio across the US. For me, I actually spend a lot of my time on LinkedIn. So you can just search for for my name Jason-Pirock on LinkedIn and there you'll find me.
Roger Hurni 30:29
All right. A very, very good I heard that LinkedIn thing's gonna be a big deal one day, so I like to factor on it.
Jason Pirock 30:35
Yeah, it's it's, you know, it's a small thing. It's fine.
Roger Hurni 30:39
All right, well, thank you again so much, everyone. Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal catch you next time
Outro 30:43
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
