Cal Ripkin Goes to Bat for Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts has signed baseball icon Cal Ripken, Jr. as its newest celebrity to promote the brand’s Look Again marketing effort.
Under the campaign, Ripken will be featured in TV, print and online ads and hotel and online promotions this spring. This latest initiative takes a humorous approach to life on the road for today’s business travelers.
Holiday Inn is targeting what it defines as the “modern everyday hero”, which includes Generation X to Baby Boomers. The goal behind Ripken’s involvement is designed to drive awareness of the hotel chain as a first choice for business travel.
To promote the campaign, Holiday Inn will give guests free audio access to listen to the 2007 regular season and postseason Major League Baseball games live at MLB.com. Select hotels will also offer viewing parties throughout the season.
In addition, from May 31 to July 31, the company will distribute 2 million packs of Upper Deck baseball cards to its Priority Club Rewards members who stay at a Holiday Inn hotel in the U.S. or Canada. Each pack will contain a Cal Ripken, Jr. card with a promotional code. Guest can enter the code online at HolidayInn/Baseball to play instant-win games and register for the grand-prize—tickets to the 2007 World Series.
Ripken joins a growing list of athletes that are backing the Holiday Inn brand and campaign, including NASCAR drivers Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer.
Holiday Inn chose Ripken in part based on research findings. It found that six in 10 guests are self-identified MLB fans. In addition, the MLB attendees make up 24% of the company’s guests and account for more traffic to the chain than attendees of any other sport, according to the survey.
Print ads, handled by OgilvyAction, will appear in the first week of April in USA Today. TV spots, created by Fallon, Minneapolis, air nationwide starting April 2. Agency 16W Marketing executed the deal for Ripken.
