In our latest conversation with Miguel Rojas, Director of Brand Marketing at Rove Hotels, for MM Talks Exclusive, we explore the journey of a marketing leader who has helped shape one of the region’s most distinctive hospitality brands. With extensive experience in brand strategy, storytelling, and customer engagement, Miguel shares his insights on building authentic brand experiences, adapting to evolving traveler expectations, and driving innovation in hospitality marketing. He also discusses the importance of creativity, purpose-driven branding, and meaningful guest connections in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Q1: Rove Hotels has positioned itself as more than just a hotel brand, leaning into community and lifestyle. How did you strategically evolve this positioning, and what were the key inflection points in that journey?
From day one, Rove wasn’t built to be just a place to sleep—it was designed as a hub for connected, modern travelers and locals. Our core strategic shift came from recognizing that lifestyle isn’t reserved for luxury; it’s about energy, relevance, and belonging.
Community makes a brand extend far beyond its four walls. When guests transform into outspoken advocates, it proves they feel part of something bigger. We’ve achieved this by actively cultivating ties with like-minded passion points—art, photography, pop culture, and gaming. Whether hosting annual competitions for emerging artists or creating the region’s first dedicated gamer rooms, we build around what our community cares about.
Crucially, we’ve stayed true to our original promise. We know Rove isn’t for everyone, and we haven’t diluted our identity to chase mass appeal. By sticking to our guns—adapting operationally when necessary without ever compromising our core concept—guests always know exactly what they’re getting when they walk into a Rove property.
Q2: Rove’s brand voice is playful yet purposeful. How do you maintain consistency across campaigns while still staying agile and culturally relevant in a fast-moving market?
Consistency isn’t about rigidity; it’s about knowing your identity so well that reacting naturally becomes second nature. Our brand voice rests on a foundation of being relatable, witty, and grounded.
We stay agile by empowering our team to move fast without getting bogged down in red tape. Because our team lives and breathes the brand every day, they intuitively know where the boundaries are. That clarity allows us to step into real-time conversations without sounding like a committee wrote the script.
Of course, channel nuance matters. On social channels, we keep things lighthearted, fun, and humorous—always steering clear of needless controversy. In performance or display advertising, we pivot to be punchy, direct, and straight to the point.
Q3: Your campaigns often tap into real-time cultural moments rather than traditional advertising cycles. How do you balance speed, creativity, and brand safety in such an approach?
Speed is worthless if it compromises your values, but traditional, multi-month approval cycles mean missing the cultural moment entirely. We balance this with a few clear principles:
- Decisive Guardrails: We know exactly what Rove stands for, which makes identifying what isn’t brand-safe immediate. If the team ever has a doubt, the rule is simple: we skip it.
- Flat Structure: A streamlined approval process gives our internal teams the autonomy to be nimble and execute while a trend is still hot.
- Relevance Over Perfection: In real-time marketing, perfect is the enemy of done. Authenticity and humor beat slick production every single time.
We also apply this trust internal-first. Rather than overly controlling our staff’s online presence out of fear, we empower our “Rovesters” (our hotel team members) with basic sense-checks and give them the space to showcase their daily routines, achievements, and hotel initiatives on their own terms.
Q4: Rove stands out for its “everyday relatability” in storytelling. What audience insights or frameworks guide your team in deciding which stories resonate most deeply with guests?
We actively avoid overly polished, corporate narratives and instead focus on micro-moments of real life. Our community isn’t looking for unattainable fantasy; they want functional, vibrant, and fun experiences—and humor is often our best bridge to connect with them.
When evaluating social content, our internal compass relies on three basic filters:
- Is it human? Does this reflect a genuine human experience or insight?
- Is it hyper-local? Are we connecting directly to what’s happening on the ground right now?
- Does it cut through the noise? If an idea feels like a generic hospitality press release, we kill it immediately.
To keep our storytelling authentic, we directly involve Rovesters from across various operational teams in ideation and content creation. They are on the front lines every day, which keeps our content grounded in what is actually happening inside our hotels.
Q5: Unlike many hospitality brands that focus on luxury and aspiration, Rove emphasizes accessibility and authenticity. How has this influenced your customer acquisition and retention strategies?
In a market saturated with luxury offerings, accessibility is one of our primary differentiators, and it completely shapes our growth strategy. On the acquisition side, we win market share by targeting travelers and locals who value experiences and seamless functionality over unneeded fluff—leveraging agile digital channels, high-value promotions, and culturally aligned partnerships like esports or arts and culture activations.
Beyond accessibility, we place special emphasis on innovation and unique offerings to truly stand out from the crowd. Whether it’s creating the region’s only dedicated gamer rooms, building dedicated podcast studios, integrating co-working spaces across all our properties, or launching campaign hooks that spark conversation, we constantly look for novel ways to add value. Retention then comes naturally when we deliver on these core promises, with our front-line team playing a massive role in bringing that experience to life every day.
Q6: Partnerships and collaborations are central to Rove’s marketing ecosystem. What criteria do you use to evaluate whether a collaboration is truly aligned with the brand?
Partnerships are a major focus for us because they serve a dual purpose: they directly support our community-first approach through real-world activations, and they provide a cost-effective way to reach new audiences authentically.
When evaluating brand partners, we look for three fundamentals:
- Audience Overlap: Are we genuinely speaking to the same community, or just chasing numbers on paper?
- Value Creation: Does this partnership elevate our guest experience or our brand positioning and awareness?
- Cultural Authenticity: Does the partner share our drive for fun and innovation? If a partnership feels forced internally, it will look forced to our audience.
For major events like concerts and festivals, we operate on a strict no-cash sponsorship rule. We select aligned partners on a barter basis—supporting their operational needs with stays, dining, and venue space. In return, we go beyond simple logo placement to build co-branded rooms, host invite-only fan experiences, and run deeply integrated cross-promotions.
Q7: Rove’s marketing often feels community-led rather than brand-led. How do you empower your audience to co-create content while ensuring alignment with your overall brand narrative?
It’s really a balance. As a brand, we shape the narrative and establish the positioning. Our guests (“Rovers”) then amplify that narrative through word-of-mouth and social media.
For that echo-chamber to work, the stay experience itself has to be exceptional. Turning guests into organic brand advocates isn’t just a marketing job—it relies completely on our operational teams delivering on the ground.
I’m fortunate to work alongside an extraordinary operations team. Their day-to-day execution keeps Rove properties consistently sitting at an average online reputation score of 9+ across all locations. That operational excellence is the strongest marketing tool we have.
Q8: With AI increasingly influencing marketing strategies, how do you see it transforming experience-driven hospitality brands like Rove over the next few years?
AI is a powerful multiplier for speed, hyper-personalization, and efficiency. In marketing, it helps us test messaging faster, analyze sentiment in real time, and personalize customer journeys at scale.
However, human connection remains the absolute core of hospitality. AI should handle the heavy lifting behind the scenes—data analysis, campaign optimization, administrative workflows— freeing up our teams to deliver genuine human warmth on property. For a brand like Rove, AI is an engine for agility, not a substitute for creative soul.
Q9: Reflecting on your marketing journey, can you share a bold campaign or idea that didn’t work as expected but ultimately helped refine Rove’s brand strategy?
While we’ve avoided major outright failures, we’ve certainly had valuable learning experiences—promotions that offered incredible value on paper but underperformed commercially, or campaigns that blew past revenue targets but created massive operational friction.
Those experiences helped us refine our strategic approach in a few clear ways:
- Broad Internal Stress-Testing: We now reality-check campaign concepts across non-marketing teams first, putting ourselves squarely in the guest’s shoes to challenge the offer’s clarity and genuine appeal.
- Operational Alignment: A campaign is only as good as its execution. We now build comprehensive briefing systems—including detailed promo FAQs and reservation team prep—to ensure operations can handle high-volume pushes smoothly.
- Objective Transparency: We are ruthlessly honest about what a campaign is meant to achieve. Some ideas are designed purely for media buzz, others strictly for commercial volume. Knowing exactly which bucket an idea falls into prevents us from chasing campaigns that don’t deliver meaningful ROI.
- 360-Degree Execution & Focus: We’ve learned that major campaigns perform best when fully integrated across all touchpoints—combining digital ads, offline activations, and PR seamlessly. Most importantly, we prioritize quality over quantity: it is always better to execute two standout 360-degree campaigns exceptionally well than to scatter energy across a dozen minor promos.