Marriott is offering a complimentary Silver status on their Marriott Rewards programs for number of corporate and educational customers. Normally the entry level silver status requires 10 nights. Last year, Marriott gave this Silver status for signing up to their program in the Asia Pacific region.
This offer is available for IBM, Siemens, Cisco, Accenture, Chevron, AT&T, Verizon, PepsiCo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Comcast, HSBC, and numerous others.
There is relatively easy way to get either Gold or Platinum status by doing a Taste of Gold or Taste of Platinum challenge. You can read more about both here.
Conclusion
Having an entry level elite status with Marriott can come handy. If you are planning to have more Marriott stays, I would suggest that take advantage of the Gold or Platinum challenge that I referenced above.