MSNBC Travel columnist Amy Bradley-Hole published a super-interesting piece on hotel advertising called "Why Hotels Should Shutter Ad Campaigns." Essentially, she argues that hotel ads are outdated and sort of worthless these days.
To some extent, we agree with her: many of the ads for the big-chain hotels on TV are kind of lame (alright, outrageously lame) and follow the pretty people/fluffy beds formula (example: Hampton Inn).
But on the other hand, it might be unfair to say that all hotel ad campaigns are outdated.
A couple of the points that really stuck out to us:
Business travelers are told where to stay. Companies have always made "bulk" contracts with hotels -- the more rooms a company books a year, the cheaper the rate.
We say: true! It's tough for Joe Employee to choose where he gets to crash on business trips.
OMG. Marriott just tipped us off to this crazy video for their TownePlace Suites brand featuring the insane dancer David Elsewhere ("known for his illusionary and gravity-defying dance moves") doing his act in a TownePlace Suites hotel.
The video is nearly 3 minutes long and it features two David Elsewheres. One is a boring business traveler type in a shirt and tie who needs to go to bed early and get up early to file TPS reports and such. The other wears a bright red t-shirt that says "Hello" and dances throughout every imaginable aspect of a TownePlace hotel.
All works out in the end as "both" Davids get jiggy in the windows of the TownePlace at the end. So we have to ask: Love it or Hate it? We love David Elsewhere and this is a genius way of showing all the amenities of a TownePlace but we think the music has just burned a hole in our heads.
Also, what is up with Marriott and dancing? Springhill Suites and Courtyard by Marriott unveiled an online dancing game last year. Residence Inns feature Cirque du Soleil-ish dancers and now this. Marriott brands love dancing almost as much as Bill Marriott loves to blog!
Hotel videos are all the rage this week, but we still haven't found too many that we actually like. And while we thought that the promo videos from the Hilton Caribbean hotels were pretty average, we've unfortunately found a variety of hotel YouTube efforts that are worse.
Our problem with the Hilton Caribbean promo vids was that they were so, well, promotional. But in retrospect, we liked the fact that the Hilton Caribbean videos actually featured video. The waves rolled, the palm trees blew in the wind and there were real live people walking around.
If you turn your attention to a hotel video like the one just featured on the Rydges Blog for the Rydges Sabaya Resort Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia--although in fact, we don't really recommend giving it too much attention--you'll see a lot of similarities to other videos, except that there's nothing actually moving. It's just a bunch of still photography that's zoomed in and out a bit to give the feeling that it was worth making it into a video, but in fact it's even duller than the hotel videos we already labeled dull.
Which is a pity, because we think the Rydges Sabaya Resort is actually a nice place. We recommend trying it in person (room rates start at US$230 a night) rather than living the torture of the video. And we put out the call once more for hotels to make interesting promo videos. Please.
A recent column by Slate magazine advertising critic Seth Stevenson offers critique of the newly-launched TV advertising campaign from
Holiday Inn Express and the brand's new "hot breakfast bar" initiative.
In the TV ads viewers get to feast their eyes on the chain's new breakfast bar offerings, as a group of male
hotel guests feast their eyes on an attractive young woman across the dining room.
Hoping to win her favor, the group opts to buy Ms. Pretty Young Thing a complimentary breakfast food item and begin to argue about which item she would prefer.
Is this a desperate attempt by Sheraton Hotels to target a younger generation? Possibly. But starting soon, you should notice Sheraton infiltrating your favorite college basketball team's televised games.
Sheraton hotels have unveiled a new :30 TV spot, "Belong," that airs during CBS Sports' regular-season coverage of NCAA basketball, the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship -- including the Men's Final Four® semifinal games -- and the National Championship game, through April 8.
That's not all. Sheraton is hoping to start the world's largest online wave at www.Sheraton.com/NCAA, "a site that features video clips of individuals who have filmed and uploaded their own creative version of the wave."
We've always thought of Ritz Carlton hotels as an "old-money" type of hotel, but in the past few years they have been trying to attract a younger, hipper crowd, since, well, old-money won't be around forever; they have to attract the new money too!
In January they furthered their promotion to the younger, hipper crowd by releasing the first of three short-films in conjunction with American Express on RitzCarltonFilms.com.
The first film is about five minutes long and tells the story of a woman in her late 20s who went through a rough week - broke up with her boyfriend, had a 6 hour flight delay, the airline lost her luggage and to top it all off - she was late for the Duncan Sheik concert which is why she made the trip in the first place. But luckily a Ritz Carlton front desk clerk surprised her and made everything ok.
The second one coming out in April is titled "Last Night" and has this description:
"Tomorrow is his wedding day. As he takes a moment to catch his breath in the hotel bar, a mysterious woman in red steals it away."
Whoa now! Did Bill Marriott review these plot lines? These films are getting intense!
The third film, titled "Heads or Tails" should be released in June. We are hoping it's just as sexy as "Last Night."
So what's the point of these films? To show you the experiences that you can have if you put your Ritz Carlton purchase on an American Express card, and "how the Ritz Carlton elevates service into an art form".
All we get from the films is this: "Good thing I have an American Express Card, cause the next time I lose my job, my car breaks down, or the Packers lose - I'm checking into a Ritz Carlton. They'll somehow make everything all better."
Suffice to say, those are some pretty high standards to put out there RC. Of course, we'll be watching you.
Now that their website has been launched, Aloft Hotels have taken their hot pink marketing campaign to YouTube with this ad.
Honestly, we're so tired of Aloft already (and their a-word services like Arrive, Amuse, Asleep, Awake) and this video really doesn't tell us anything that we didn't already know. We even thought this cheesy video was more exciting.
However, in the video description we see the tag line for Aloft:
aloft is the new tWist in travel
The W is capitalized to show that this is a spin-off brand of W Hotels and not just a new brand from Starwood. But this actually makes us mad. So they won't capitalize the "a" but they will capitalize the "W" in twist? Grrr...Just open already and get it over with.
Finally, Hotels.com has upgraded their logo. Gone is the silly bellman carrying bags. Instead, we are now presented with a very modern look with the "o" being an important focus.
Trademork speculates the "o" could be "an elevator button and the arrows are up and down arrows" but we think it might have something to do with a search function since Hotels.com is essentially a search engine for cheap hotel prices.
Either way, we'll have to wait a bit before the new logo is in effect. Trademork reports that the application to protect the trademark was filed Jan. 25, 2008.
In other news: · Lionel Richie apparently consoled the defeated Patriots team at their private Super Bowl loss party at the Westin Kierland resort by saying, ""Come on, there's reason to celebrate. Lionel Richie survived Nicole Richie!" Random and weird. [Page Six] · Chloe Sevigny will endorse the new steamer trunks from Samsonite's Black Label at the Bryant Park Hotel tomorrow night. [WWD, sub. req'd] · Omni Hotels unveils its new in-house spa brand, Mokara [Dallas Morning News] · The newest incarnation of the Flying Hotel is called The Manned Cloud. It won't take off until 2020 but will have 20 bedrooms, a spa, gym, library, bar and a restaurants. It will travel 105 miles an hour using an eco-friendly sort of fuel and can circle the globe in 10 days. Um...yeah right. [Switched]
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by Jenna
