Best Western launches repositioning campaign

Hotel group Best Western is hoping its first ever TV ad airing next week, as part of a £1m integrated marketing campaign, will help reposition the brand in the UK.

Hotel group Best Western

The campaign takes as its strapline “hotels with personality”.

Head of marketing Tim Wade explains that TV is still the main channel through which to reach the hotel group’s ‘older, more affluent’ target audience.

‘Everyone is moving online, but TV still works – and in terms of reaching a mass audience quickly and changing perception – it’s still an effective medium. We’ve had to stretch budgets massively, but we’re expecting high impact by backing it up with online activity, increasing search capabilities and social media. It’s about combining everything,’ he says.

The £250 000 ad, created by integrated agency Uber, will emphasise the variety of styles and personalities of Best Western’s portfolio of independent hotels. The strapline was created by Foundation.

Raising the profile of the “tired and dated” brand, which has a 32-year history in the UK, and “getting it talked about” is the key aim of the repositioning, says Wade.

“There is an element that promoting Best Western as the parent company of all these hotels is contradictory – that it is a chain and then not a chain – but we have the best of both worlds. You get all the warmth of independent hotels, but you also get the reassurance of quality standards they have to meet through Best Western. Communicating this is the challenge,” he adds.

Manchester agency Brazen has created a social media programme as part of the marketing mix. A ‘Britain’s Got Personality’ roadshow will form the focal point for blogging, tweets and Facebook pages.

Best Western’s campaign is part of a partnership with Visit England to communicate the rebrand’s message to the 600 000 people interested in travel on their database.