Joelle Park , SVP and CMO , BWH Hotels |
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to hear the resonance of the campaign . That was exactly our intention . A brand starts with its purpose and , at BWH , it ’ s to inspire travel through unique experiences . Our customers want someone to help them enable their experience , so we are inspiring travel through unique experiences , and they ’ re looking for help in making that possible . We humbly acknowledge that we are not always the destination , but sometimes we ’ re the enabler on the way somewhere . We saw that we highly index with leisure trips and especially among families . We stepped back and said , ’ Okay , we know |
what our value proposition is . We see an opportunity to position the brand . Let ’ s look at the competitive landscape .’ And you know what : There is a lot of the same message in our industry ; let ’ s do something different . The angle we chose was to emotionally connect and stand out and then introduce the rest of the portfolio . We partnered with PMG and music is an impactful way to emotionally connect . So , we paired some rich consumer insights to a song that is a fresh take on a classic and that ’ s exactly what we want people to think of when they think of Best Western , which has a |
nostalgic aspect , but we want them to try us now because there ’ s so many different brands within the portfolio . We used the music as a conduit to memorability .
HOTELS : Back to the song . The Band recorded “ The Weight ” in 1968 and the song still carries weight today — no pun intended . What was the choice there ? Park : We licensed the song . We recorded it . And the texture in her voice really stands out ; she brought this rich-quality , modern feel to it . The lyrics are intentional : “ Take a load off .” That ’ s what we want to do for
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these travelers . We ’ ve actually done something different , even with our audio . We ’ re running the song very simply against the line : “ Check in so you can check out .” It ’ s a different way of advertising .
HOTELS : BWH Hotels has grown to 18 brands in a rather short period of time . Unlike some other hotel companies , whose media campaigns promote the wide breadth of brands available , the “ Life ’ s a Trip ” campaign only showcases Best Western . Why ? Park : It was intentional . What we did was simplify the
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July / August 2024 hotelsmag . com 65 |