DoubleTree's Content Garden

I'm currently interested in finding new examples of content gardens, especially from brand companies, not just the publishing industry such as Mashable.

So when Sally Falkow told me about the content and engagement strategy developed by DoubleTree Hotels for their site Double Destinations, I wanted to hear more.

Sally told me she managed the "site for them for three months and now it has been handed over to their marketing team." She reached out to DoubleTree hotel concierges for local information, and asked local bloggers to write content on the site. About 30% of the content on the site is generated by local bloggers. I believe those writers were not paid, but some received a free night at a DoubleTree.

Traffic has grown to over 3000 unique, but I did not get any numbers on calls to action.

What's interesting to me about this site was the real attempt to get outside content from free contributions, not only does that reduce the costs of content creation, but also helps with the sharing of content into social networks.  This is something that’s not unique to DoubleTree, but for a brand it’s something that we don’t yet see on a regular basis. Sally tells me they have had over 6000 impressions in social sites like FB, Stumble Upon and Twitter.