ATLANTA – Holiday Inn is giving kids and families the world this summer – all 360 degrees of it.
Building on its kids-eat-free promos, the lodging giant has teamed with the Discovery Channel, Coca-Cola, and Visa for an educational-themed promo with values for kids and parents. Bean bag plush toys join free zoo passes and themed menus in a campaign aimed at keeping kids busy and parents feeling good that their kids are learning.
Explore Your World at Holiday Inn “activates 360 degrees,” or plays throughout the hotel. It runs to Sept. 8.
With the Discovery Channel as a partner, the chain is offering an educational dimension that parents in panels said they want, and links with a show with family demographics close to Holiday Inn’s, says Lisa Hallam, product manager, marketing, Holiday Inn Hotels, which is owned by Bass Hotels and Restaurants, Atlanta.
Strategic partners VISA and Coca Cola will receive major exposure as 12 million guests, 55-to-60 percent of them families, check into participating hotels in the U.S. and Canada.
“The promotion is a first-of-its-kind for us. We are trying to bring real value and make an experience that extends beyond the front desk,” says Hallam. “Families traveling with children ages four to 12 want more than fast-food-type promotions. We’ve brought in the educational reality of the Discovery Channel,” she adds.
BEN Marketing Group, Stamford, handles. TV and print ads were produced by Scaros and Casselman, Stamford, CT.
Families are exposed to the promo wherever they go in the hotel. Each child gets one of five bean bag toy animals, each with a collector card attached with a picture of the real animal. For instance, kids can learn why the male Emperor penguin is a good father or why lizards sometimes lose and eat their tails.
Kids get a themed activity book and Crayola crayons. Full-size wildlife standees in lobbies portray a kangaroo and a Coca-Cola polar bear with a stick for measuring kids’ heights.
Hotels have set aside separate “explore your world” play areas in assistant managers offices or lobby areas where they can pursue fun activities including watching Discovery TV videos or reading Discovery books. Hotel pools feature inflatable globe beach balls. Restaurants will exhibit themed place mats, menus, and Coke/Discovery souvenir cups.
Adults who pay for their rooms with a VISA card get a summer value pack booklet featuring an MCI 15-minute phonecard and coupons for values like a child car seat from Hertz, and discounts on Golden Books and Motophoto. The pack includes a free child’s admission to 12 of the top zoos and aquariums in the US. Alamo, Hertz, Northwest Airlines, and U.S. Airways are other promo partners.
Most of the offers will be a surprise to families because they will not have been named in the print or TV advertising, says Chris Milhous, co-president, BEN Marketing.
“These are offers they are not expecting. Not only are we saying we are family-friendly. We are making it that way. says Milhous.
“Discovery is one of the few programs families are watching as a group, and skews very high with kids ages six to 11.”
The promo leverages Holiday Inn’s kids eat and stay free theme that traces back to when the chain was founded by Kemmons Wilson. Wilson got the idea to start the chain on a 1952 road trip with his five kids when he found that hotels charged for each child. Holiday Inn allows kids 19 and under to stay free in parents’ rooms.
The promo won major acceptance from franchisees who make up virtually all the 1,220 full-service hotels in the U.S. and Canada where the promo is running. About 90 percent of hotels are participating, says Hallam.
“Franchisee excitement was at an all-time high. We brought them a program they couldn’t get on their own,” she adds.
TV spots that broke on Disney’s Magic Kingdom program May 31 were so popular the chain has shifted all its TV from brand promoting spots to the promo spots, Hallam says.
The spots show kids mimicking the featured animals; belly rolling like an orca whale, pouncing on a parent like a lion cub.
One sign the promo is hitting home: call volume for Holiday Inn reservations was up by 30 percent last month.
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