Humans
Meet Ben from Content Marketing
A key part of our Content Marketing department’s mission is to ‘provide inspiring stories and invaluable information that empowers users to get more out of each hotel experience’ on our shiny digital magazine. It is one of the newer departments, and Ben Moller-Butcher has been the lead for coming up to 2 years. Life at trivago caught up with Ben to chat about Content Marketing at trivago, and how it got to where it is today.
LAT: Thanks for joining us Ben, so tell us a bit about your time at trivago, when did you start and what roles have you worked in?
Ben: Hello! Well, I started in Country Development in April 2012, which seems like a long time ago. I looked after 4 countries in my time as a Country Developer – When I joined I worked on the existing UK, Ireland plaforms and then the launch and early development of the Australia and New Zealand platfoms.
I stayed in that role until February 2016 and now I am working in the Content Marketing team.
LAT: And what is your current role? What does it involve?
Ben: I am leading the Content Marketing team here in Dsseldorf. What does it involve? Our team is really focused on inspiring and exciting travellers about where to go on their next hotel experience. We are up and running and working together to create articles, videos and stories that really focus on inspiration.
LAT: It seems Content Marketing is always moving into more markets, how many different countries do you now have platforms for?
Ben: In terms of room5, we have 23 platforms at the moment and are also operating in a few more countries. Although we have made progress in the last year, we really see that we are at a pretty early stage of where we want to go – content is very versatile, and we can see many ways to use the work we do now to support our efforts in the future across different areas of marketing.
LAT: Wow, so there must be thousands of articles. Do you have a personal favourite?
Ben: We really focus on user relevance for the reader in our articles – so using that as the criteria, I would have to say that an old press release that was turned into an article that inspired me to choose the hotel where I got engaged would have to be my (current) favourite.
LAT: And do you know which was the best-performing article of all time?
Ben: Although some Brazilian articles are catching up fast, I think it’s still the Romantic Weekend with a Jacuzzi Article in France. I think the whole of France read it – I wouldn’t go into any of those jacuzzis if I were you.
LAT: Thanks for the heads-up! So I’m guessing it takes more than just a writer to reach the ‘whole of France’. What kind of roles make up a Content Marketing team?
Ben: There are a broad set of roles, but each role is quite specialised, everything from creative writers to Marketing Analysts – we have quite a few different teams working together as country teams, but also coming together as a function to make sure we are able to innovate and push each other improve.
LAT: So you must meet a lot of new and interesting people in Content Marketing. So, final question… what is the best team event you have been on?
Ben: Well, I would say not a team event, but trivago on tour 2012, which was a cruise down the Rhine. It involved 3-4 days of partying and waking up in a new location every morning. It was only 6 months into my time at trivago, so it was really an unforgettable experience. There have probably been better locations for subsequent trivago on tour, but I will always remember that one.
LAT: Sounds like a blast! Thanks for joining us Ben, and all the best for the future.
