A new advertising campaign for Hilton called It Matters Where You Stay was launched earlier today, Monday, July 25, 2022 with the announcement of its first global brand platform that identifies what has been missing from marketing for lodging: the hotel stay.
New Hilton Advertising Campaign: “It Matters Where You Stay”
“‘Hilton. For the Stay’ places the hotel front and center, elevating the role and importance of the stay at a time when lodging advertising is a sea of sameness, featuring overused destinations, cliché walks on the beach and generic descriptions of travel”, according to this official press release from Hilton. “Hilton is debuting ‘It Matters Where You Stay,’ a new advertising campaign to introduce the platform, using humor to push against some of the common but unspoken pitfalls of travel, boldly poking fun at what can go wrong when booking or on a trip. The campaign also features the multi-faceted businesswoman and philanthropist Paris Hilton, who grew up living in and staying in numerous Hilton hotels across the world, which gave her a unique exposure to the hotel business early on. Her role in the campaign is inspired in part by the legacy of her family, whose belief in the power of travel and the hotel stay to connect people and cultures continues to motivate Hilton team members around the world today.”
The entire advertising campaign will be broadcast or distributed via television, audio, social media, print, and out of home — launching first in the United States; then the United Kingdom; and then in select markets in both the Asia-Pacific region and Middle East region.
Video Commercials
A total of 17 short video commercials debuted today, with at least some of them to be broadcast on television, with Catherine O’Hara — who is an actress — performing the voice-over in each video.
In Haunted — which is one of the featured commercials to be aired on television — the brand pokes fun at what can go wrong when booking a reservation for a vacation rental, as it depicts a family showing up to a hilariously creepy property that was not exactly as advertised.
Confirmed Together zeroes in on a unique feature of Hilton that addresses a very real pain point of family travel: the importance of securing connected rooms at the time of booking a reservation, which was introduced last year.
The video Dog Travel Essentials | Lonely shows what could possibly happen when your dog does not like to be left at home while you are traveling, as at least seven brands of Hilton are now friendly to pets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbneW6xOno&list=PLLV950EiSCvNryJ0sEhCqOeUudJNO5rIy&index=5
Print and Out-Of-Home Advertising Campaign
Three different advertisements were created in several different formats to be used for print, social media, and other out-of-home applications.
Hilton will lean into social media, experiential, and influencers to extend the brand platform.
Also, Hilton will engage in an already robust conversation around travel and trip disasters across such social media platforms as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter by helping travelers have a better stay — whether planning for a future trip or helping rescue a trip that has “gone off the rails.”
Final Boarding Call
To be honest — as effective as the technique may be — celebrities in advertising have never convinced me to buy or try a product; so I do not really care about either Paris Hilton or Catherine O’Hara being in these campaigns…
…but then again, I usually like when a sense of humor is infused into an advertising campaign.
When I first started traveling for business years ago, I became loyal to what was then called the Marriott Marquis frequent guest program simply because it was introduced to me by the company with whom I was an employee. Achieving elite status was exciting at first; but enjoying the benefits was difficult to do because they often were not available — such as upgrading to a better room and access to a lounge.
My first stay with Hilton was at the Oshkosh Hilton in Wisconsin — at that time, no hotel property from Marriott was located there — which is no longer part of the brand portfolio of Hilton. I was unimpressed and initially thought of Hilton as a lower quality lodging brand — especially as that hotel property was nothing special. However, Hilton upped the ante over the years and became more competitive — to the point where I simply could not ignore what the lodging company had to offer. I earned what was known then as Diamond VIP elite status before the tier was even public — and at that point, I was sold on Hilton being my preferred lodging option. That has lasted for years — and it was not the result of any advertising campaign.
I realize that I am probably not the target market for this new global campaign. Demand for lodging is currently unusually high due to the aftermath of the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic when much of the world shut down for almost two years — but even though lodging options are sold out in many places, this also means increased competition.
What do you think about this new advertising campaign by Hilton? Do you think it is effective? Do you believe that Hilton will achieve — or even exceed — its objectives with it?
Source: Hilton.
