In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Hampton
Inn hotel chain faced a challenge and an opportunity: Fewer people
were traveling, but more of those who did travel were driving
instead of flying. Hotel executives decided that an effective
public relations effort could help steer those motorists into
Hampton Inn hotel rooms.
The hotel chain's PR agency Cohn & Wolfe stepped up to the
plate with a combined offline and online effort. The campaign,
called "Hampton's Year of 1,000 Weekends," initially featured a
calendar highlighting quirky local events. The calendar was first
produced on paper and then placed on the Web as a searchable online
database.
"[The calendar] showed people all these great events that they
could do," says Tori Walsh, PR project coordinator for the Hampton
Inn brand, a subsidiary of Hilton Hotels Corp. The idea was to draw
leisure traffic, by highlighting all there was to enjoy within a
25-to-35 mile radius of a Hampton hotel. "You never again would
have the excuse to say, I have nothing to do this weekend."
It took a significant amount of work to compile the calendar,
which plugged such off-the-beaten-path events as the Wizard of Oz
Festival in Chesterton, Ind., the Great Fruitcake Toss in Manitou
Springs, Co. and, of course, the famed Toad Suck Daze in Conrad,
Ark.
"We did everything. We called local chambers of commerce across
the country. We used national event books like 'Chase's Annual
Events.' We sent out e-mails to all of the hotels asking what the
big events are in their cities," says Jeremy Baka, senior vice
president and chief creative officer at Cohn & Wolfe. "We
literally sent out e-mails to friends and relatives across the
country asking what goes on in their neck of the woods. And we
would surf the Internet like crazy,"
During their 1,000 hours of research, agency staffers hit the
phones, calling festival organizers to confirm start times, dates
and other salient information for every single event.
From this heap of dates and data, the PR created an event
calendar. About 400 copies were distributed to travel
writer/features editors at print and broadcast outlets worldwide.
(The media effort included targeted pitches to business writers, in
which the PR team talked about the travel industry in a post-9/11
world.) In addition to the general 'quirk' factor of the calendar,
the PR effort also won media coverage because of its timeliness; it
came just a few weeks before Christmas.
As part of its messaging efforts, the PR team offered a calendar
give-away during a satellite media tour. Consumers could also
request a calendar through the hotel's Web site, where 5,000 copies
of the calendar were eventually given away.
By way of added material, Cohn & Wolfe was able to offer
reporters a choice of light-hearted or serious events.
Spokespersons from The Boring Institute (a real institution)
offered some statistics and a bit of comic relief, while Geoffrey
Godbey, professor of leisure studies at Penn State University,
signed on to address the more straightforward opportunities with
top-tier media.
Even as hard-copy calendars hit the street, the PR team was
already promoting an online version meant to keep the campaign
afloat once the holidays had passed. "Every time we spoke of the
calendar, we also talked about the online database which would be
available in April," Baka says. "A lot of the stories actually
carried our Web site and just prior to the launch of the Web site
we sent another flurry of releases to the media."
Even with all the research already completed, however, the
creation of the online database, http://www.hamptoninnweekends.com,
was no small feat. For each event it was necessary to input a
location, a phone number, event information and the proximity to a
Hampton hotel. "If at any given time any of that information falls
out of its proper spot, everything gets screwed up," Baka says. To
keep things in order, staffers took the time to manually
double-check every entry. Efficient? No. But effective.
The campaign drew strong business results, with an estimated 300
million media impressions. Stories ran in a number of daily
newspapers including the New York Daily News, which sent calendar
requests soaring. The launch of the online travel database secured
stories on Reuters, Cox News Service and the New York Times
Syndicate, plus the Chicago-Sun Times, Detroit News, National
Geographic Traveler, and trade publications like Hotel Marketing
and Hotel Interactive.
In a sign that the campaign was able to transcend the holiday
season, versions of the "Year of 1,000 Weekends" concept now are
being implements for other Hilton Hotel brands.
Contacts: Jeremy Baka, 310.967.2951, [email protected];
Tori Walsh, 901.374.6383, [email protected]
It's All In The Timing
For Hampton Inn's "Year of 1000 Weekends" campaign, the PR team
at Cohn & Wolfe dug deep, making some 5,000 phone calls in an
effort to nail down 1,000 quirky weekend events. They wanted to
find festivals and outings compelling enough to get people off the
couch and into the car. To that end the PR team employed "every
means imaginable," says Jeremy Baka senior vice president and chief
creative officer at Cohn & Wolfe.
Local chambers of commerce were able to offer contacts as well
as calendars of regional events. Friends and relatives weighed in
with their favorite happenings. (The World Cow- Chip Throwing
Championship Contest in Beaver, Okla.? Who knew?)
Perhaps most important, local hotel operators offered their
suggestions as to interesting events in their areas. Besides
helping build the database, the solicitation of input from
hoteliers helped ensure their embrace of the program. "It helped to
show that every single hotel is equally important to the brand,"
says Tori Walsh, PR project coordinator for the Hampton Inn
brand.