When Orlando hoteliers Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Lake Buena Vista and Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Main Gate East approached Orlando, Fla., PR firm Curley & Pynn in September 1995 to help them promote Kidsuites, a new concept in family travel, Curley & Pynn took two risks.
First, they invited the client into the brainstorming process. Curley & Pynn had worked with executives at the Holiday Inn property in Orlando for five years and in 1993 had launched the SunSpree Resort concept for them, a new family-friendly brand for Holiday Inn. The Orlando-based PR firm counts Universal Studios, another kid-oriented firm among its current clients, as well as a range of other mainstream clients.
"People in our business might be reluctant to brainstorm with the client," said Roger Pynn, partner. "But we welcomed them into the creative process and several brainstorming sessions followed."
The first risk had paid off by following a few sacred rules: when collaborating with the client, identify one person as the customer, don't dwell on any one person's idea and generate lots of ideas.
Almost immediately, the campaign's winning concept was born. The goal was to attract as many travel writers as possible to the resort so they could see a Kidsuite in person, with a special emphasis on attracting media representing family-type publications.
The Kidsuite idea was unique in the travel industry: for not much more than the regular price of a standard room, parents could book a Kidsuites room. The room features a separate area for adults and a themed playhouse area for kids which would sleep three kids on bunk beds. Additionally, the kids area is furnished with kid-friendly amenities such as TVs, VCRs, video game players, radio/cassette players, fun phones and kid sized chairs and tables.
The campaign involved inviting members of the media and their kids for a weekend of food, fun and entertainment at the Lake Buena Vista Resort. The hook - and the risk - was that the kick-off press conference announcing the launch of Kidsuites would be attended by children of the media, who would be dressed as reporters in pint-sized fedoras.
In fact, of the 250-300 invitations issued to the press, 20 confirmations were received within one week and more than 60 reporters and100 kids attended th weekend overall. More importantly, the respondents came from exactly the top-drawer family publications the firm was after, publications such as Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens and Child magazines.
The press conference and weekend was scheduled for March 1996. The possibility that the media would not come with their kids was not the only risk. What if the kids press conference disintegrated into a silly free-for-all?
Curley & Pynn hedged its bet by intensive preparation. "We prepared a questionnaire for the kids before they arrived, to explain to them what kinds of questions journalists ask, and before the press conference Roger [Pynn] talked to the kids, who were already sitting in their chairs, about what to expect," said Lorri Trinka, account manager.
The firm also solicited questions from the kids before the press conference so that in the event that kids did not raise their hands with questions, a moderator would take a microphone and start asking the questions the kids had submitted earlier.
When the more than 100 kids, ages 3 to 15, came into the area where the press conference was held, they were issued pint-sized fedoras with a press card inserted into the band, note pads and pencils, and some kids were given disposable cameras to act as photojournalists. The overall look of the event practically guaranted lots of photo coverage in the family publications.
"The kids were very, very, good and asked questions like, 'how much does it cost to construct a Kidsuite,' and 'how much did money did it cost to get everyone here,'" said Dan Ward, account coordinator.
Though the client declined to reveal just how much it did cost to fly the media in, airline transportation for the media and their families did constitute the biggest cost in the campaign, said Trinka.
The cost of launching the Kidsuites Launch Party Weekend was approximately $200,000, including invitations, airline, accommodations, food, ground transportation and gifts. The cost also included the press conference itself (outdoor tents, staging, sound, lighting, photographer and video crew), press kits, release and photo distribution and follow-up.
And according to the PR firm, the pay-off exceeded everyone's expectations. To date, the campaign has generated close to 60 million impressions, including articles in magazines and in the New York Post, the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star.
There were only minor glitches prior to the weekend, said Trinka. Atlanta-based executives from Holiday Inn Worldwide and the operating partner of the Holiday Inn Sunspree did not meet face to face until the Friday before the press conference. At the last minute they made several changes to the press conference's script, such as going into the audience with hand-held microphones rather than asking questions from the podium.
And a glitch with a slightly humorous spin took place at the actual press conference. One of the mascots representing Wet n Wild, a Kidsuites sponsor, was dressed as a huge waterdrop. When it was time for the mascot to walk out on stage and take her place behind Wet n Wild executives, the mascot fell off the stage, landed in front of the kids, and because of her costume's bulky design, could not get up. "We knew that having kids as the focal point might create an element of unpredictability," said Trinka. (Roger Pynn, Lorri Trinka, Dan Ward, Curley & Pynn, 407/423-8006)