Starwood’s Sheraton Hotels & Resorts brand launched its first marketing campaign in two years on February 3, calling consumers to “rediscover Sheraton.”
The campaign encourages travelers to take a fresh look at the hotel brand, which has refurbished many locations following a three-year global brand overhaul. The $20 million campaign was created to highlight the brand’s $6 billion hotel renovation project.
The initiative, Sheraton’s first created in-house by its global brand design team, includes a host of digital channels, including banner ads, homepage takeovers and mobile. The campaign, targeting business travelers, will run on travel and news sites, including TripAdvisor.com, NYTimes.com, Kayak.com, BizJournals.com and CNN.com.
The campaign’s goal is both customer acquisition and retention, said Phil McAveety, EVP and chief brand officer at Starwood.
“We want to make sure our loyal customers are aware of the new experience that awaits them and also attract a new consumer base that may not have stayed with us before but will now take a second look,” he said.
The campaign’s creative is focused on “bleisure,” travel that involves both business and leisure. Tag lines include, “Who brings business suits and bathing suits together,” “Who brings power walks and power talks together” and “Who brings bottom lines and bottom ups together.” The effort also highlights hotel renovations, including redesigns of 300 lobbies, 70,000 guestrooms, 100,000 beds and the addition of its wired lobby lounge called the “Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft.”
The initiative, which has a total budget of $20 million not broken down by channel, will run through the second quarter of this year.
