How KSL Resorts Quadrupled Video Views for 17 Iconic Destinations

KSL Resorts’ Opportunity

KSL Resorts manages a portfolio of iconic destinations, from the adventurous Blue Mountain Resort to the majestic Fairmont Grand Del Mar. Its social media team oversees 17 unique handles, each with its own character and market positioning. No two properties are the same — some are 24-room boutiques, and some are 1100-room spectacles, all with different seasonal trends and target audiences. While this would be a challenge for the most seasoned of social teams, KSL Resorts thrives. Its overarching goal is not just to showcase individual properties, but to sell the dream each destination offers. This requires a nuanced understanding of its myriad of audiences, a strategy to manage content across multiple platforms effectively and the ability to adapt quickly to market changes.

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Travel is complex. Social media travel content skews heavily toward influencers on vacation. But travel can come from work, family reunions, bereavement and so much more. Destination vacations in particular are a high-anxiety purchase, as the worthiness of the investment rides on the experience. As the face of many brands, KSL Resorts’ social team acts not just as marketers, but as customer support specialists and reputation managers, monitoring DMs 24/7 and addressing interactions in real-time across the globe.

KSL Resorts uses Dash Hudson as a pivotal tool in its marketing arsenal, aiming to harness its power to connect with guests on a deeper level and to share the unique story of each location. Through a tiered approach that considers the target demographic of each destination, seasonal influences and the lifestyle aspects of travel, KSL Resorts crafts narratives that resonate deeply with its audiences. The social team, more than 20 strong and regionally organized, uses Dash Hudson’s collaborative tools to create content that captures the essence of each property and its setting, driving incredible growth across the portfolio of 17 brand handles, including quadrupling video views in just one year, and deepening engagement with its customers.

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Streamlining 17 Social Media Handles With Dash Hudson

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"We think about travel naturally and in the context of seasons. Following the way that people move throughout the year. There’s all sorts of lifestyle considerations that make travel marketing so different. When we’re planning for spring, our strategy is a lot different than it will be in summer. We think about what the properties do well, what the destinations and cities are doing and we create silos. Things are always changing, which is a great opportunity to develop our skills."

Kait Salmon
Senior Corporate Social Media Strategist at KSL Resorts

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KSL Resorts moved from an agency model to an in-house model, which required standardized metrics. With many remote team members needing to be onboarded, the brand wanted to keep social media as simple as possible — bringing everything into one platform with common metrics and easy comparisons. Dash Hudson’s simplicity empowers team members to step up as subject matter experts, pulling and presenting reports  themselves in business reviews.

The major differentiator for the travel industry on social media is the need to think about content naturally and in the context of seasons — following the way that people move. In this seasonal view, the team considers holidays, long weekends and vacations for its content. Dash Hudson's flexible and intuitive platform allows KSL to customize data and content strategies at scale across all 17 handles. From managing campaigns to tagging content for better analysis, the tool provides a central hub for all social media activities. This consolidation enables KSL to focus on training its in-house team, ensuring that even as social trends shift, its strategies remain robust and responsive. Dash Hudson’s user-friendliness is a key asset in allowing KSL to market its properties at scale, swiftly adapting its marketing efforts to ever-changing behaviors and trends on social media.

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Expert Channel Strategies for Impactful Content

Growing 17 brand handles at once is no easy feat. At the center of it all is the guest, whose time is their major investment and what the brand seeks to protect. KSL Resorts brings hospitality to social media, ensuring through its content that customers have the guides and itineraries needed to have a fulfilling stay. By leveraging insights into audience demographics, engagement patterns and content performance, the brand refines its social media strategies to boost customer satisfaction and ultimately increase bookings.

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KSL Resorts is in tune with its guests, even comparing social media demographics with cellphone analytics to identify gaps in how it’s serving its community. The brand challenges itself to engage new audiences on social media, expanding its reach through campaigns and collaborations with local attractions. KSL Resorts has built a strategy that respects the nuances of each social channel, connecting with different audiences’ interests by channel.

Instagram provides flexibility across audiences, as Reels can be shared to Facebook, which remains a powerhouse in hospitality. Ski fanatics resonate most with TikTok and YouTube, with their focus on fast-paced visuals that complement the sport. In an industry such as this, it is essential for teams to lead with data while remaining flexible enough to pivot in new directions for content to attract new customers. 

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Using Creators To Lead With Authenticity

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"I’ve been a Dash Hudson fan since 2020. It’s the simplest tool in terms of user-friendliness. Very clean. It’s also malleable — we can customize data, measure campaigns, pull different assets into galleries and use content on the web. So many assets in this tool make our jobs easier."

Kait Salmon
Senior Corporate Social Media Strategist at KSL Resorts

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Showing up authentically as a brand is critical for building community, and KSL Resorts’ social team has no shortage of influencers and creators reaching out to them for collaborations in its majestic locales. Creators are adept at social media, and their talent for social entertainment consistently earns higher engagement for brands. UGC is also highly valuable, as micro-influencers have an eye for beauty that may not show in official photoshoots, and their content is a great way to show the perspectives of diverse travelers. 

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But how does KSL Resorts ensure it’s partnering with the right people for each location? Dash Hudson helps the team streamline its creator vetting, identify user-generated content and request content rights, upping its ability to charm guests with fresh, authentic visuals. Dash Hudson’s Relationships tool provides creator insights in retrospect, such as Earned Media Value (EMV) and followers gained, which the brand includes in business reviews.

Dash Hudson's advanced analytics and insights give KSL Resorts a deeper understanding of its audiences across properties and social media channels. The brand uses Vision AI predictions to understand what content will resonate most in each destination, while Competitive allows the team to track how all 17 handles are performing against the industry and local competitors. On the other hand, Campaigns give a robust picture of performance KPIs for initiatives in each property, such as seasonal events that would be challenging to track without content tagging. The team pulls this information for internal meetings at the drop of a hat, simplifying reporting that would be a significant time sink at this scale. Just as KSL Resorts protects guests’ time, Dash Hudson also understands that time is a social media manager’s greatest asset, and time saved means more time spent innovating, making community connections and increasing social media performance.