Business Challenge
With a clutter of NYC hotels competing for a guest’s dollar, The Time Hotel had to differentiate itself to draw attention and fill rooms.
Target
Professionals in creative roles and industries.
Customer Insight
The Time Hotel was a small hotel, fewer than 180 rooms. To carve out a niche market and fill rooms, Jan saw that up-and-coming, budget-minded creative-arts guests were bored to death of hotels that were less than inspiring. They were in New York to pique and stimulate their creative juices. Time Hotel’s high-design concept featured monochromatic guest rooms, each custom accessorized in one of three primary colors, red, yellow or blue.
Time Hotel’s CEO, at the start of my work, stated that their brand was “…in the hospitality business.”
But, after listening, really listening between the lines to customer, I presented the Q: “What Business Are You Really In?” and answered that Time Hotel was really in the business of “Inspiring Creativity” which was gold to creative professionals in all industries.
Strategy/Brand Position
A Place That Inspires. Why give them an “ad” or any message for any hotel that does anything less? We were letting creative professionals do what they love to do: discover. Not just “find” a hotel for their travel needs, but “discover” a place created for creators! Imagine that. Creative professionals who lived by the energy of their playful beings.
Creative Solution
Print campaign, room design, and in-room/lounge artifacts (books, etc). No need for the inadequate label, hotel. Not including “hotel” in the logo intrigued our creative client’s curious, playful mind all the more. I shaped the brand with all staff genuinely wired into its own creative culture. The front desk each day delivered a fresh fruit of that primary color. And each room had a small, fun, seriously researched keepsake book on the anthology of that room’s color. For advertising, I created not hotel ads, but stories stylized poetically from esoteric facts about that color, sensually charged, creatively eccentric, making for an irresistible read and creative, playful experience of its own. The key to winning this client’s business was understanding their minds: they craved “play” — the way they best worked.
Results/Business Value
The average time spent looking, much less actually reading a hotel ad, was two seconds. The Time: 2 and 1/2 minutes. A 7,400% increase in involvement. Created lasting buzz spawned by media equally thirsty for something fresh and different in this category. Occupancy rate in a recession-funked NYC, was 65% to 70%; Time’s was 82% through its first year.
To set up a meeting and learn more, contact janzlotnick@gmail.com
To set up a meeting and learn more, contact janzlotnick@gmail.com