• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, December 9, 2019

Here's something you don't hear about every day -- a hotel with artwork spread throughout. But, wait, there's more. It also has an app that you can use to view the art. And that's not all! There is a 95-seat black-box theater, four galleries, an artist in residence and several hotel room that are decorated by artists.

Marcus Hotels has developed a concept that celebrates all art. It opened Saint Kate The Arts Hotel, named for Saint Catherine, patron saint of the arts, in Milwaukee. Erin Levzow, Marcus Hotels CMO and a natural comedian, told our Email Insider Summit on Monday, "We don't like to do anything that's been done before." 

Since art is personal and subjective, the brand had hurdles to overcome. An in-house design team created a tour of the art and built an app. Levzow said they built a CMS that was easy to understand; even the curator could update it. After all, they have a 150-piece art collection and rotating artists.

The art tour app is self-guiding and frictionless. "We don't want people to worry about where they are in the app." Marcus Hotels gets a lot of data this way, finding out what kind of art each person is interested in. Now, it can personalize emails to former and returning guests.

In marketing the app, Levzow said they added it to the pre-arrival email, to the point of check-in and on in-house digital menu boards.

And, "we are testing everything," working on creating better search tools within the app, testing Lenses, AR technology and beacon technology so that "all that data is connected and we are able to truly communicate with someone. When an exhibit comes to town, I know exactly who's interested in it."