IHG’s Holiday Inn is calling on kids to share their views on its accommodation offering in a new campaign called Kids Critics.
The brand, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary, is inviting children 12 years and under to review their hotel stays across Australia and New Zealand and plans to reward them for their efforts with free ice-cream for the month of November.
A research survey will also draw insights from kids and their parents to better understand the needs of families.
Families have long been a focus for the Holiday Inn brand, which offers a global Kids Stay and Eat Free promotion.
Holiday Inn has 4,200 hotels globally, with 31 open or pipeline Holiday Inn hotels across Australasia. It is currently rolling out a refreshed brand identity throughout in the region featuring ‘Open Lobby’ spaces connecting the front desk, restaurant, bar, lounge area and business centre. Holiday Inn Werribee in Victoria and Holiday Inn Queenstown Remarkables Park in New Zealand are among the first properties to showcase the new look.
IHG launches global media campaign
IHG also recently launched its most extensive media campaign investment for loyalty, Guest How You Guest, which encourages guests to embrace travel moments.
The move follows a major overhaul of IHG’s loyalty program with the launch of IHG One Rewards earlier this year.
The vibrant, data-driven media strategy rolled out in the US and UK in August, and is now hitting Australasia with out-of-home placements at Sydney and Melbourne airport billboards and terminals, metro shopping centres and billboards across Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
The multimillion-dollar campaign aims to show how guests can define their own journey at IHG hotels.
“When you look around, it’s hard not to notice that travellers are increasingly left to fend for themselves, and that’s simply not what being a guest should feel like,” IHG’s Global Chief Customer Officer, Claire Bennett.
“We have a mantra we say at IHG – we’re real people taking care of real people, and Guest How You Guest embodies that. The images and content are engaging and beautiful, but they are also authentic and send a message that you don’t always have to do everything. We’re here to take care of all of you.”
Globally, the images and videos will appear online, in television ads, magazines, billboards, murals and subway stations.