Lou Dubois, the Director of Global Editorial at Hilton, joins us on today’s episode of Brand Story, Inc. Lou works across Hilton’s 18 brands, 6,100+ hotels in 119 countries and territories, overseeing video production, product and editorial content strategy. He was employee #1 in this function when he joined the company in 2018 and is responsible for Hilton’s first-ever global, mobile-first, digital news platform, the Hilton Online Newsroom.
A Global Content Community
One of the reasons I’m so excited to have Lou on is the size and scope of the company’s assets and the number of stakeholders. He is charged with delivering best in class content to myriad audiences, including media, team members, owners, communities, and travelers around the world. It’s a tall order with a lot of complexities, yet many of the insights Lou provides apply to all shapes and sizes of brand content studios. I also love his jump from the traditional media world to the brand side – he’s an authentic storyteller at heart with the business chops to bring huge value to our audience.
Lou also served as Executive Director of Digital Content at NBCUniversal, overseeing all digital products and content strategy, internal and external, originating from the corporate communications team, before moving in-house at Hilton. Lou and Hilton exemplify why I started this podcast – a brand morphing into a modern media publisher the right way – bringing in world class storytellers.
Inside Room 702
One of the key highlights of this episode was Lou’s example of the Room 702 project which started as a content-driven event commemorating a key John Lennon moment 50 years ago and has morphed into a full-blown internal and external purpose marketing initiative.
Here’s what Lou and I touch on in this episode:
- Hilton’s content studio origin story. How Lou has gone from employee #1 to an integrated team.
- The organizational structure, resources and inner workings of the Hilton content team.
- Resorts World Las Vegas: a case study in content to support a massive product launch.
- POV of how in-venue content and digital can converge.
- The Room 702 Project and how content is empowering staff.
- Hilton’s purpose-driven efforts during COVID and the balance of telling the brand story.
- Brands building out content studio functions with media execs and lessons learned.
- As always, bedside bookstand – what Lou is reading for fun.
I invite you to follow Lou Dubois on Twitter @Dubois & connect with him here on LinkedIn so you can get insights on content like we discussed today.
We want to hear from you. Share this podcast, give us your feedback and hit me up with topic suggestions and guest ideas. Brand Story, Inc. is for you, so let’s make it great together. You can ping me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter @_JaySharman. Thanks for listening. Enjoy!