The Merchant Hotel has only been around for 3 years and therefore needed a huge amount of exposure to generate interest from potential customers national and internationally. The Merchant hotel enlisted LJK Communications to come in and help them get their name out there. It was vital that LJK Communications got themselves exposed immediately, as they had just spent 16million pounds on an extention for the hotel itself, building a Spa, Roof Top Garden Terrace and a Jazz Bar.
LJK communications produced a 12 month media relations campaign, using every form of media possible!
From print media right through to broadcast media.
LJK Communications developed a detailed 12 month media relations campaign that
included a vast range of creative PR activities that would continually drive international,
national and regional coverage throughout the year. Highly tailored messaging,
reflecting key aspects of the hotel was composed and delivered via a range of diverse PR
tactics which included:
Media, VIP and Ministerial launch events Tailored news releases announcing key developments for
each section
Month-on-month photo-calls and creative PR photographyA media reviews programme, incorporating hotel, restaurant and cocktail bar reviews
A seasonal features programme• Media piggybacking of key national calendar dates, ranging from ValentinesRecipe features from the Head Chef
Quirky media deskdrops•
Timely, high profile publicity stunts•
Engaging competitions
People profiles from proprietor to concierge
Local ‘Hero’ campaigns around key international awards
Online PR incorporating tightly controlled social media activities and features on key online broadcast channelsLJK Communicatiosn won the Gold CIPR award for 2010 for best use of media relations and the reason why they won it was for the above campaign they carried out for The Merchant Hotel. They always generated 1.2 Million pounds for the hotel by doing this campaign. LJK received 100% positive coverage which is fantastic, as we all know how much journalists love to critise good work and 100 journalists stayed at the hotel through out the 12 months.
What i would like to know is if you think this was a great campaign and if there is anything that you could recommened or think they may of missed out? What are your thoughts girls and boy :)
xxxxxJadexxxxx
A seasonal features programme• Media piggybacking of key national calendar dates, ranging from ValentinesRecipe features from the Head Chef
Quirky media deskdrops•
Timely, high profile publicity stunts•
Engaging competitions
People profiles from proprietor to concierge
Local ‘Hero’ campaigns around key international awards
Online PR incorporating tightly controlled social media activities and features on key online broadcast channelsLJK Communicatiosn won the Gold CIPR award for 2010 for best use of media relations and the reason why they won it was for the above campaign they carried out for The Merchant Hotel. They always generated 1.2 Million pounds for the hotel by doing this campaign. LJK received 100% positive coverage which is fantastic, as we all know how much journalists love to critise good work and 100 journalists stayed at the hotel through out the 12 months.
What i would like to know is if you think this was a great campaign and if there is anything that you could recommened or think they may of missed out? What are your thoughts girls and boy :)
xxxxxJadexxxxx
I think it was very brave of the hotel to let 100 journalists stay at their hotel during the campaign, but it obviously worked in their favour!! The fact that they received only good coverage from all of these journalists just proves how good the campaign was and also how good the hotel must be. I would reccommend that the PR company that was used targeted travel and tourism companies, particularly online, so that the hotel can become more well known in the relevant industries.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way they utilised the extension for events. They obviously realised that journalists love something for free!...i do agree with Natalie though;it was very brave. Doing something like that will show that they have nothing to hide and it will have worked in their favour.They used a large range of tactics which will have given them a nice big target audience!
ReplyDeleteI think the tactics they used were succesful... however generating £1.2million for the hotel is not quite the £16million they spent!!
ReplyDeleteDid they use any celebrities to endorse the hotel as this maybe the kind of target audience they should aim for??
I think that after spending soooo much money on the extension they made the right more in getting LJK communication to do some PR work for them to generate publicity!
ReplyDeleteThey were extremely brave letting all those journalists stay and I think it just shows how nice the hotel is not getting one bad piece of coverage! Journalists are renowned for writing bad stories instead of good, if they can! Honestly, who does get a kick out of reading something negative as opposed to positive, we are all human!
Seeing as the campaign was 12 months long I can't help but think they could have done something more. I know they achieved a lot of coverage, but they could have utilised the new services they now offer and specifically target the market that will hopefully be their future long term customers?!
I think this campaign offered many opportunities for feedback, and like everyone has mentioned, letting 100 journalists stay over the course of the 12 months was a very brave thing for the hotel to do.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of how they targeted the media, and their audiences, they could have done with using a bit more print based material in order to gain maximum coverage
I agree with Georgina! That is very brave! But it was obviously a great idea as they generated 1.2 million for the hotel. I can quite clearly see why they won the gold award, but 12months to me seems like a very long time. Perhaps there is a way they could of done a little more especially with the amount they spent on the extension.
ReplyDeleteI think the hotel is obvoiusly an amazing one and only needed help in getting the word out so maybe wasntthat hard a job for the PR company, it wasnt like they had to change peoples negative perception of a hotel that maybe had a bad rep. Having said that the campaign had incredible results so well done them!
ReplyDeleteFree Hotel nights for Journalists- wow, hardly a new idea, and one that is almost certain to get you good PR. Why bite the hand that has just fed you? This is a bog standard practice in the tourism media and it does raise questions about bribery and corruption, albeit on a small scale...
ReplyDelete