Marketing Lessons from 21C

21c Museum Hotel is in Louisville, KY, and was recently voted the #1 hotel in America by Condé Nast Traveler’s  Readers’ Choice Awards. Last night to celebrate a birthday my husband and I booked a room and made reservations for dinner at Proof on Main, their culinary masterpiece of a restaurant.  A Friday night in Louisville, and we chose to dine late because we also had tickets to the Humana Festival of New American Plays’ Heist which was being performed at 21c at 11 PM. The bar and restaurant were filled to capacity with a mix of urban, local and international patrons. And that capacity seating lasted until way past normal Louisville dining times. So, in this time of economic uncertainly, there was no lack of money changing hands downtown last night. Someone is doing something right in what was being sold and how it was marketed.

The performance of Heist was also sold out (although tickets were free for the asking) and the lobby museum area was overloaded with folks just hoping to get in to see this interactive event that traveled throughout the hotel and near environs solving a mystery.

Marketing lesson #1: communicate about yourself shamelessly if you have something to brag about
Marketing lesson #2: quality is always appreciated and valued
Marketing lesson #3: partner with others so each gets benefits from a positive outcome

The meal was memorable, the hotel is just amazing (it was sold out as well for the weekend), and the exciting thing was that there were so many people from around the world in Louisville last night enjoying the evening’s offerings when they could have been anywhere else in the world. And without great branding, good marketing communications, and follow up and follow through, none of this would have happened or been available!