Client InterContinental Hotels and Resorts
Agency Media Contacts
Lead planner Chris Swarbrick
Media Contacts wanted to make travellers familiar with InterContinental as a credible player in the luxury hotel market to align the brand with affluent "experience" travellers in the UK and to drive traffic to InterContinental.com.
Strategy
The team chose branded content as the cornerstone of its strategy and decided to leverage a powerful, credible brand to achieve this. The agency chose The Telegraph as a premium environment that would ensure brand salience and aid recall.
Activity
Media Contacts worked with online TV service Telegraph TV to produce a series of four destination guides uncovering the hidden sides of London, Paris, Madrid and Cyprus. In each, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts was integrated into the show. This approach allowed InterContinental to showcase the high quality of its facilities and its wealth of local knowledge. Providing information on the hidden side of destinations aligned content to the interests of an experience-oriented audience.
The Telegraph's attractive audience made the brand a perfect fit for ICH. InterContinental branding was prevalent throughout the guides section on Telegraph TV, through interactive ad units that showcased extra video content. The channel was also promoted throughout Telegraph.co.uk via traffic drivers that used material from the video guides as teaser trailers.
Results
There was a clear shift in brand perception among the target audience. Media Contacts research showed a 32% increase in the association of InterContinental with luxury leisure among users exposed to the campaign, and a 35% uplift in those who saw InterContinental as a prestigious and luxury brand. More tellingly, 13% of respondents enquired about staying with InterContinental as a result of the campaign.
Chris Swarbrick, account director, Media Contacts