Holiday Inn Express Extends ‘Stay Smart’ Ads To Web TV
-- Hotels, 12/31/2007 11:00:00 PM
The Smart Show, the most recent component of Holiday Inn Express’ “Stay Smart” advertising campaign, ran on the Web from October 1 through November 30 last year, chronicling the daily adventures of co-hosts Henry Dittman and Joan Lauckner as they traveled 6,500 miles across the United States from Boston to Los Angeles, identifying “smart” findings in various cities along the way.
Created by Holiday Inn Express in conjunction with HBO, AOL and Digitas, the show’s “webisodes” ran on a dedicated Web page, www.hiexpress.com/thesmartshow, where they remain available.
The idea was hatched after brand executives sought out a way to extend Holiday Inn Express guests’ connection with the brand’s personality and its Stay Smart campaign into a more interactive environment.
“For years our guests have given us feedback on how they would like to see the ‘Stay Smart’ campaign evolve, and with The Smart Show we truly put the control in their hands,” says John Merkin, senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn in the Americas. “Not only did consumers have the chance to audition to host The Smart Show, they were able to vote on the winner (Lauckner, a yoga instructor from Los Angeles) and then guide the journey (by submitting suggestions for stops along the way).”
The initial results of The Smart Show were very pleasing to Merkin and his colleagues, he says:
“The first half of the campaign successfully drove awareness of Holiday Inn Express and the show, generating almost 300,000 page views. And more important, the show generated [thousands of] community members who registered with a profile and actively engaged in the Web site and the show. On average, visitors stayed on the site almost 18 minutes, with the highest viewing traffic [during] evening hours, indicating that viewers engaged with the Web site during their personal time and during the hours of primetime television. And almost 70% of the online community falls within the ages of 25 and 44, which aligns with the primary target audience for Holiday Inn Express.”
Merkin did not mention whether the dedicated Web page on the Holiday Inn Express site was effective in driving viewers to book hotel rooms, or what the cost of producing the show was to the brand.
Top 10 Most-Viewed Smart Show Webisodes
10. Episode 36, Indoor skydiving (Las Vegas) – Henry wants Joan to overcome one more fear, so the pair end up at Flyaway Indoor Skydiving, a popular training resource for sport skydivers, competition teams and military units.
9. Episode 22, Montgomery Flea Market (Montgomery, Alabama) – Joan’s family joins them as she and Henry visit the Montgomery Flea Market, a 75,000-square foot (sq. m) flea market which claims to be “just like a mini-mall.”
8. Episode 16, Civil War Re-enactment (London, Kentucky) – Henry and Joan join opposing forces when they participate in a civil war re-enactment held on the actual Confederate encampment site from which the Battle of Wildcat was staged.
7. Episode 8, The Mütter Museum (Philadelphia) – Henry and Joan visit the Mütter Museum, which was founded to educate future doctors about anatomy and human medical anomalies. The collection now boasts more than 20,000 unforgettable objects, including: the plaster cast of the torso of world-famous Siamese Twins; Joseph Hyrtl’s collection of skulls; preserved body of the “Soap Lady;” collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people’s throats; cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland; and the tallest skeleton on display in North America.
6. Episode 26, Hebert’s Specialty Meats – Home Of The Turducken (Maurice, Louisiana) – Henry and Joan get hungry on the road so they stop for turducken (a popular Cajun dish and Southern tailgate party staple) which is literally a turkey stuffed with a duck that is stuffed with a chicken. The modern version of the elaborate entree originated at this small butcher shop, where the staff can remove all of the bones from a raw chicken in less than a minute.
5. Episode23, Halloween in New Orleans (New Orleans) – Henry and Joan take the Bloody Mary tour and celebrate Halloween New Orleans-style on Bourbon Street.
4. Episode 7, Philadelphia Insectarium (Philadelphia) – Joan and Henry take in the Philadelphia sites and visit The Insectarium; Philadelphia’s only all-bug museum, which is filled with thousands of mounted insects from all over the world in addition to live species in naturalized habitats.
3. Episode 11, Mayor of Hillsdale(Hillsdale, Michigan) – Henry and Joan go to Hillsdale, Michigan to meet 18-year-old Mayor Michael Sessions. While visiting the town of 9,000, they help rescue a cat out of a tree.
2. Episode 1, Fluff Festival (Boston) – Henry and Joan begin their journey in Boston, at the second annual “What the Fluff Festival,” the Union Square tongue-in-cheek celebration of the marshmallow spread invented in Union Square.
1. Episode 42, Woo at the Zoo (San Francisco) – Joan and Henry get behind-the-scenes info on wildlife at this adults-only “sex tour” at the San Francisco-zoo. “Woo at the Zoo” includes lessons on the mating behavior of animals, animal reproduction, population maintenance, and how the zoo breeds animals.
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