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 DDB New York Launches $16 million Non-traditional Advertising Campaign for Westin Hotels & Resorts
Seeks to Increase the Brands Relatively Low Brand Awareness
NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2000 - In a bold move amidst a category full of lobby photos, room views and laughing couples, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.�s (NYSE: HOT - news) Westin brand launches a new ad campaign which is a radical departure from its competitors.

Each ad in the campaign is a traditional letter-pressed hand engraved invitation, complete with the tagline/call-to-action �RSVP Westin�. Upon closer inspection, the ads are anything but traditional. Whimsical icons and suggestive copy tout the various innovations Westin seeks to promote. �What makes the campaign so fresh�, says Group Creative Director Tan Shen Guan �is that we took one of the most traditional methods of extending hospitality and used it to describe Westin in a fun, contemporary way. Besides, sending invitations this way beats licking all those envelopes.�

Westin is looking to this new campaign to re-enforce a personality for the brand, as it has excellent customer loyalty, but relatively low brand awareness. �That should change�, says Leo Mamorsky, Group Account Director, confident of his agency�s new effort. This is the first new campaign since Westin launched �Who is she sleeping with?� in 1996 and then later �The Best in Bed� take off in 1999. Sue Brush, Westin VP of Marketing explains, �Who is she sleeping with?� was risque and controversial and received a lot of attention. We are moving onto a more innovative approach that says �style� and �attitude� which we believe we have achieved through this simple yet powerful campaign.�

Prominently featured in many of the ads targeted toward upscale business and leisure travelers is Westin�s trademarked Heavenly Bed�, an overnight success and brainchild of Starwood Chairman Barry Sternlicht.

Print, radio, direct mail, out of home and online media were selected as the best way to reach the selective Westin customer. Print advertising will break in major magazines and newspapers as well as airport out of home in September and direct mail and online media will launch in October.

The new brand work has been done by DDB New York, who picked up the $16 MM billing account after launching a campaign for Starwood�s Sheraton Hotels last fall.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 725 properties in 80 countries and 120,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. 

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Contact:
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc
http://www.starwoodhotels.com

Also See New Westin Sleep Study Says That Sleeping in Hotels Isn't Always a Dream / Aug 1999 
Westin Spending $2 Million on its New Advertising Campaign For Next 3 Months / Sept 1999 


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