Red Roof Listened, Took Action and Now Markets a New Segment

film from the trucks point of view as it travels the highways and arrives at stops. A videographer captures activities outside during prize giveaways and other activities.

Video is captured for two purposes: to be used internally to send to franchisees to get them excited about visiting the truck tour and to produce short vignettes that will be posted this summer on the brand’s YouTube channel, integrated into RedRoof.com site and posted on Facebook and twitter as the leisure travel season shifts into high gear. (View a video)

“Right now video is top of line for all of us because we have such a great story to tell,” says McDonald, who still gets customer reviews in a weekly summary. “But it’s about how to use it in the right way and that it has the right message to the consumer.”

Video is a staple for Red Roof marketing and this year brought production in-house.

A new staff member graduated from film school and is passionate about story telling through film. The plan is to produce and post between 20 to 25 videos this year with a budget of under $100,000. Short-form video is a marketing tactic Red Roof uses to engage consumers with multiple experiences on multiple devices. It typically produces videos that range from 10 to 30 seconds.

“It has to capture their attention and has to be absorbed quickly,” McDonald says. “We want to keep it fresh and bring them back to see what else we have to say and to book a room. They have to be short, they have to be quick and they have to be fun. You can’t be selling all the time.”

A video contest will launch this summer or fall for entrants to submit eight-second videos about how they get to a Red Roof destination and what they do when they get there. A photo contest last April encouraged customers to document their travels with their pets (Red Roof is pet friendly) during Pet Appreciation Month. It was so successful that the contest is transitioning to the upcoming video contest.

To measure the effectiveness of the PLUS+ launch campaign, data is collected from different contact points to populate a dashboard: consumer engagement, loyalty, social, media value, numbers of franchisee and consumer visitors who went through the mobile unit combined with data like new franchisee sign ups and lifts in business and consumer travel.

Email addresses are collected followed by email campaigns with offers and information on new hotels; Facebook likes are followed by posts and other content to keep the communication going.

“We have created a new segment in lodging—upscale economy—so that’s really something,” McDonald says.