Winner: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) – Holiday Inn Launches ‘Honeymoon on Us’ with an SMT by Reality Star Melissa Rycroft
Amid the relaunch of its Holiday Inn brand that included a $1 billion investment in refurbishing and updating more than 3,300 hotels, IHG wanted to increase its share in group business. To do this, it targeted a new segment for Holiday Inn hotels—wedding celebrants. The company paired its effective “Honeymoon on Us” promotion with reality TV star and newlywed Melissa Rycroft who had recently appeared on the cover of two wedding magazines. The SMT from IHG team members Karyn Sarago, Lindsay Cameron, Monica Smith and Natasha Gullet took place on June 1, 2010, inside a ballroom at Holiday Inn Downtown Disney in Orlando, and was successful in positioning the refreshed Holiday Inn brand as a viable location for wedding events, as it attracted a total broadcast audience of 8 million-plus viewers. —SP
Fast Fact: IHG’s online segments with Rycroft received 1.9 million unique visitors per month.
Honorable Mentions:
GE – GE Optima 430s 1.5T Product Launch SMT: Professional golfer Jim Furyk paired up with Dr. William B. Morrison, a professor at Thomas Jefferson University, to highlight the nature of GE’s new extremity scan machine in an SMT that generated over 16.3 million impressions.
Porter Novelli Public Services, Washington, D.C. – SOYJOY Super Bowl SMT with Leslie Bonci: Porter Novelli tapped Pittsburgh Steelers nutritionist Leslie Bonci to spread the pre-Super Bowl word on SOYJOY. The SMT reached a total of 25 million people.
Weber Shandwick Chicago – Degree Ultra Clear SAG Awards SMT: To promote Degree Women’s new fragrance, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch each hosted SMTs to promote Degree Women’s new fragrance. Combined, the initiatives generated over 9.4 million media impressions.