Member participation in Virtuoso’s new Social Media Content Centre has already exceeded that of its previous system in the few months since its launch, with initial feedback overwhelmingly positive, according to the luxury travel network’s Senior Vice President Marketing Helen McCabe-Young.

In a recent conversation with LATTE, McCabe-Young explained that a clear need for more accessible, shareable content for advisors, particularly as social media becomes an essential marketing tool, had prompted Virtuoso to develop the new platform. Launched earlier this year, it aims to empower advisors with content they can easily personalise and use across their channels.

Now, the marketing team is working to grow awareness of some of the new Virtuoso social media tools on offer as well as gathering initial feedback so it can provide “regionally relevant content” that benefits both advisors and partners. “It’s going really well,” she said. “We’ve already exceeded the participation that we had on our previous system significantly. but now it’s all about content, content, content.”

Content is being built around themes with the idea of community playing a key role. So far, themes include celebrations, sustainability, culinary and family among others. And while it’s still early days, with the new offering only officially launching on 3 February, features like First Look are already proving particularly popular, even though they haven’t been specifically spotlighted as yet.

“It’s going to be really fun when we really start to promote this more,” McCabe-Young said, emphasising the importance of maintaining credibility and delivering quality solutions. “We were a little quiet about it because, quite honestly, we didn’t want to overpromise and under deliver. We’d rather be ready and then push it out, get the feedback, learn from it, and then go bigger and bigger.”

A social media one-stop shop

The centre is not simply about providing content, she stressed. It is part of Virtuoso’s long-term vision to create a self-sustaining content ecosystem that ties in with its ongoing So Virtuoso campaign.

It offers advisors the ability to not only use content but also track their social media engagement through built-in metric tools. “It’s not just, ‘here’s a piece of content, good luck’,” she stressed. “It’s all-in-one, it’s a comprehensive solution for them.”

Virtuoso’s approach is also highly global, allowing for multilingual support and content that can easily be adapted across different regions. “Even in a single market like this, we have an AI translator,” she said, showcasing the platform’s flexibility in catering to various language needs.

Taking almost two years to develop, the content centre represents a significant technological investment. “It took us almost a couple of years to do it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the platform we’re working with really needed to accommodate certain special requirements of ours,” McCabe-Young explained.

Personalisation was a key factor in the development, with advisors’ branding featured alongside Virtuoso’s own. This allows content to be co-branded, strengthening the advisor-client relationship while maintaining Virtuoso’s brand presence.

Working together

Collaboration is another important part of the Virtuoso approach to content creation, with the process involving a broad range of stakeholders. “We co-create this future together,” she said. Feedback from a global member marketing committee plays a vital role in shaping the company’s offerings. “We’ve got a really great marketing committee that’s global.

“We tap into them for feedback and ideas. It’s not just us coming up with stuff and pushing it out; our members have a say in what goes and what doesn’t.”

This Virtuoso social media co-creation model extends to the company’s broader partnerships, with advisory boards for various regions and verticals, as SVP Sales and Partnerships Cory Hagopian explained. “It’s not just the marketing committee we rely on. With with every vertical – cruise, hotels, our destinations and experiences – we have committees, we have advisory boards,” he said. “We rely very much on the feedback and the partnership with our members on committees, on our boards. And that’s where we get a lot of feedback that fuels the future for us.”

In addition to expanding the range of content available, the project’s next steps involve further enabling partners, such as hotels and cruise lines, to contribute content – a mutually beneficial way to keep the content ecosystem dynamic and engaging. Partners are already seeing great potential in the content centre, Hagopian confirmed, thanks to its ability to target multiple regions in a multilingual way.

“Our partners are chomping at the bit,” McCabe-Young added.