The Case
Many dream of getting under the sheets with media decision-makers and Wall Street players. Westin Hotels & Resorts staged an "experiential" campaign that seduced the best
of 'em. In May of 1999, Westin was preparing to introduce the "Heavenly Bed," a plush, new amenity for pampered guests. Hotel execs had been bouncing on mattresses and test-
driving pillows for months. The communications team was now charged with giving the bed's product launch enough sex appeal to attract national media attention. And they borrowed
$700,000 from the advertising budget to do it.
The Strategy
Pitching a bed by phone would surely put reporters to sleep. "Saying something has [900 coils] or 250 thread count sheets doesn't jump off the page," says K.C. Kavanagh, VP
public relations for parent company Starwood Hotels & Resorts, based in White Plains, N.Y. Fortunately, the bed made a great photo opp. "In hotels, you usually see a flat
bed with a brown, patterned bed spread. This [bed] is an all-white, puffy confection," she says. The best way to get attention was to let people try it for themselves.
Getting Ready for Bed
Westin armed itself with interesting statistics to spark media attention. In a phone survey of 600 execs, 63 percent of respondents said that a good night's sleep was the most
important service a hotel could provide. An overwhelming majority said they'd take a great night's sleep over great sex, and women said that they missed their own beds more than
they missed their spouses while traveling.
Westin partnered with the media relations firm Dan Klores & Associates to lock in press commitments for its launch day, including an exclusive with USA Today to break the
story. A press kit featuring key research findings and facts about the bed went out to hundreds of media contacts, and a VNR was prepared for broadcast distribution.
A Blanket Approach
National launch events were slated to take place in New York, and Westin hired the event planning firm Jack Morton Co. to help stage the bed's cameo appearances in Manhattan.
But the hotel also hoped to secure local interest in key markets throughout North America. This would be tough, considering the headquarters team consisted of four people, and
many of the hotels in major cities lacked a dedicated PR staff. As a solution, Kavanagh and her co-workers developed a "Bed in a Box" kit featuring "fill in the blank" releases,
b-roll footage, talking points, photography and a booklet of promotional ideas. This was mailed to HR pros, salespeople and general managers at more than 100 Westin hotels.
"Sometimes non-professional PR people come up with the best ideas. We told them what we planned to do in New York and challenged each of them to top our plan," Kavanagh says.
Heavenly Hype
When the opening bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange on the morning of Aug. 31, Westin issued a grand-scale wake-up call to consumers and the media. As Starwood Chairman
& CEO Barry Sternlicht introduced the Heavenly Bed to financial analysts and reporters on the stock exchange floor, sleepy readers awoke to find a cover story about the luxury
bed on page one of USA Today's Money section. Radio and morning television segments peppered the airways in various media markets, with news anchors testing the cushy bed for
themselves.
And around the country, the bed began appearing in strange places. Brokers heading to work on Wall Street were greeted by 30 downy beds lined up in front of the NYSE.
Commuters in Grand Central Station tested 20 beds in the station's Vanderbilt Hall, following an afternoon press conference. In Savannah, Ga., skydivers landed on a bed in the
countryside. Cameras continued to roll when the bed careened down a mountain at the Whistler ski resort in British Columbia, and climbed its way into the observatory of Seattle's
Space Needle.
Major Results
In the end, Westin racked up more than 67 million radio and TV impressions and more than 124 million print and Web impressions. Broadcast hits included CNN, CNBC, CNNfn, NPR,
Bloomberg, WABC and WCBS. Ink in the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and other major papers followed suit.
Westin's guest satisfaction scores (determined primarily through phone surveys) have since increased by 12 percent. And sales of the bed (which is available for purchase via a
toll-free number) have surpassed 1,000. But the sweetest returns have come in the form of testimonials. One hotel staffer, who coincidentally rode down an elevator in Seattle
with presidential candidate Bill Bradley (after Bradley tried the bed) overhead the senator saying, "That's the best night's sleep I've gotten on this campaign."
"From an internal standpoint, PR's stock [with senior management] went up tremendously as a result of this campaign," Kavanagh says. "We got so much more bang for our buck
than we would have if we'd spent the same money on advertising."
Kavanagh says she's never slept better.
(Starwood, 914/640-8339; Dan Klores Associates, 212/981-5137; Jack Morton Co., 212/727-0400)
Minor Nightmares
An original plan to showcase the bed in Times Square caved when the permit fell through. Wall Street proved to be a better location, although concessions were in order.
Westin's plan to distribute hats with the slogan, "Who's the best in bed?" were curtailed when NYSE execs objected to the innuendo. New hats were printed with the tagline, "Work
like the devil, sleep like an angel."
There's more. By launch day, not all Westin hotels had received the bed. To cover its butt, Westin HQ provided bed-less hotels with teaser signage for their lobbies, indicating
that the Heavenly Bed was "coming soon."
Seeing is Believing
In a survey of 300 business execs conducted by Jack Morton Co., 71% of respondents said they expect "experiential communications" to capture a larger share of marcom dollars
in the next five to 10 years. Survey respondents also cited the strategy as having the following benefits:
73% Immediate feedback
62% Active stakeholder participation
59% More person-to-person communication
55% More info via multiple channels
47% Longer lasting brand impressions
Source: http://www.jackmorton.com