In a world of big hotel chains, it can be challenging for an enterprise brand like Choice Hotels to stand out as a recognizable brand especially when our namesake (Choice Hotels) is not an actual hotel, but a family of brands (Comfort, Radisson, Quality etc.). So, our objectives were to boost awareness, familiarity and purchase intent through building a unique positioning for Choice Hotels.
Additionally, this enterprise positioning needed to make sense for the entirety of our portfolio, which consists of brands ranging from economy to upscale hotels. Which is no easy feat! Lastly, this new positioning would have to not only stand out in the category, but more importantly give consumers a distinct reason to choose us over them.
We started by digging into the category and the driving forces behind travelers today. We found that regardless of whether we’re speaking to economy or upscale or midscale travelers, two things were true:
This led us to our new positioning: Choice Hotels gives you the most value for your stay, whether you value experiences outside the hotel OR hotel perks that make you feel like you got more than what you paid for (like free waffles!). Not only would this help us convey how we help consumers get the most bang for their buck, it could be flexed to speak to our entire portfolio range, from economy to midscale to upscale brands.
While competitors position their hotels as the pinnacle of the trip, we positioned Choice Hotels as the value brand that helps you experience more inside and outside the hotel.
From this positioning, we developed the creative campaign: Travel Values. This campaign idea demonstrated that value is actually about getting more of what you personally value out of a trip.
In a series of TV, digital and social films, we demonstrated how travelers can do more of what they value, from golfing and line dancing with the fam to free waffles and bonding time with coworkers. Instead of showing off the typical fluffy beds and amenity driven scenes, we focused on how Choice Hotels enables travelers to fulfill their unique travel desires.
We also wanted to make sure the activities and scenarios in our films reflected what actual travelers do on their trips, but also added a layer of humor and hyperbole to amp up the entertainment value and memorability of the spots.
We used the comedic chops of Keegan-Michael Key to evoke a welcoming feel to the Choice Hotels brand, given our diverse set of audiences and hotel brands. His energetic performance also helped us bring to life what happens when you get more value from your stay with Choice Hotels: unlimited waffles, an odd bevy of souvenirs or a silly dance break.
This campaign only launched a few weeks ago (Jan 20th) but we’re already seeing promising results across our entire funnel from awareness to purchase:
9.3% lift in aided awareness
12.1% lift in familiarity
15.2% lift in favorability
15.9% lift in purchase intent
Not only were we able to bring awareness to Choice Hotels, we were ultimately able to significantly shift how people viewed us through our new unique value offering:
16.3% lift in “Choice Hotels provides the best value for my money”
12.3% lift in “Choice Hotels helps me experience more on my trip”
11.5% lift in “Choice Hotels is for people like me”
