Philips Hotel TV is one of the key players worldwide when it comes to interactive television systems aimed at specific user groups, such as hotels, hospitals and prisons. Despite this strong market position, Philips is continuously looking for opportunities to increase its market share.

Wouter Steel, EMEA Marketing Manager of Philips Hotel TV says: “We have been experimenting for about six months now with the options presented by social media. We have set up a Twitter account and created a Facebook page. There were a few people who saw its usefulness, but there were also some that were still not so sure about what we should be doing with social media. In any case, my feeling was that it was time for us to take a more coordinated and well-considered approach. We then set about finding a partner to support us.”

Wouter Staal, Philips Hotel TV

We asked three parties to put together a proposal for us, and we eventually chose Budeco’s bid. The main reason for this was their focus on business development. That’s what it actually comes down to: the goal is to strengthen your business, and marketing and the use of social media is a means to an end, no matter how new and innovative it may be.”

Wilco Verdoold of Budeco says: “Together with Wouter, we designed a workshop for the management team of Philips Hotel TV. It’s a very diverse group that includes the product manager, the international key account manager, the business manager… And some of them had virtually no experience, while others had plenty. We solved this by approaching social media not so much as tools, but by looking at them in a more conceptual way: what’s behind them, why do people actually use them, and what do they use them for? What role does word of mouth advertising play and how can you influence it? And secondly, of course, by focusing on the business objectives, because that’s why we’re all here. If you can’t strengthen your business by using Twitter, then don’t bother with it.”

Wouter concludes: “The day after the course, I posted my feedback on LinkedIn, completely in keeping with the theme. We are very happy. Marco and Wilco have managed to inspire the participants and to create buy-in among this complex target group (very generation X). At the end of the day, we had come up with a clear strategy, objectives and specific activities for 2011, enjoying the support of the entire team!”

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