Hotel Co 51

Colm Feeley ACIM

Colm Feeley is Regional Director of Marketing for Hotel Co 51 UK, where he leads marketing strategy across a portfolio of Marriott International brands, including Moxy Hotels, AC Hotels by Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott. With a background in commercial sales, his approach to marketing is rooted in revenue performance, brand positioning and guest experience. He has led a range of partnership and product initiatives designed to drive incremental revenue while strengthening brand identity, with a focus on turning creative ideas into commercially viable propositions.

Turning Creative Ideas into Measurable Revenue

One of the most common responses to a new marketing initiative is not whether it is creative or interesting, but whether it will deliver a return. In an industry shaped by margins, creativity is often placed in direct competition with commercial performance. The result is not a lack of ideas, but a pattern in which ideas are diluted, delayed, or dismissed when they cannot clearly demonstrate financial relevance.

The issue is not creativity itself, but how it is handled once it enters the business. In many hospitality organisations, brand and commercial performance operate as separate conversations. One is measured in engagement and perception, the other in revenue and occupancy. When an idea moves between the two, it is either reshaped to meet immediate expectations or challenged to prove value within timelines it was never designed for. In that process, the original thinking is often diluted, leaving behind campaigns that are easier to approve but harder to distinguish.

The challenge, then, is not to protect creativity from commercial scrutiny, but to approach it differently from the outset. Creativity in hospitality does not need to be shielded from commercial pressure; it needs to be built to withstand it. This requires a shift in thinking.

Developing ideas in isolation, for example during marketing brainstorming sessions and then validating them later often slows momentum and weakens their impact. Instead, ideas should be shaped with their commercial role already defined, shifting the question from “Will this work commercially?” to “How has this been designed to deliver commercially?”

In practice, this requires a more disciplined approach to how ideas are formed. The most effective campaigns tend to begin with a clearly defined audience insight, grounded in real behaviour rather than broad segmentation. From there, the proposition must be something a guest would genuinely choose to pay for, not simply notice. It must also be designed with operational realities in mind, ensuring it can be delivered consistently across locations and teams. Finally, the idea must demonstrate its commercial relevance as a core part of its design, not as an afterthought. When these elements are aligned, marketing creativity becomes far more resilient under scrutiny.

From Cost Perception to Profit Contribution

This approach can be seen in how standard hospitality practices are reframed into revenue-generating experiences. In one example, a routine pet policy was repositioned around a clearly defined audience, transforming a standard fee into a more considered, guest-facing offer. By adding perceived value and speaking directly to that audience, or even to the dog, the dynamic shifted. The charge was no longer seen as a penalty, but as part of the overall experience. The result was not only incremental revenue, but also stronger engagement and increased intent to recommend.

A similar principle applies to partnerships. Marketing initiatives that initially appear cost-driven can be reworked into guest experiences with a clear commercial return, provided they are designed with both delivery and demand in mind. In each case, the idea succeeds not because it avoids scrutiny, but because it is built to withstand it.

Ultimately, the perception of marketing and its creativity as a cost centre is not a reflection of the ideas themselves, but of how they are constructed. When developed in isolation, creative concepts can appear discretionary, indulgent and easy to deprioritise. When designed with commercial return in mind from the outset, they become far more integral to performance. The difference is rarely the scale of investment, but the discipline applied to how those ideas are shaped and delivered.

An idea does not fail under scrutiny; it fails when it is not built for it.