Bedtime Stories

Business travel is not fun. Harvard Business Review reports that 75% of business travelers suffer from stress and lack of sleep. City Lodge Hotels is one of South Africa’s largest hotel chains, with a specific focus on the business travel market. Knowing how stressed-out thia audience is gave TBWA\Hunt Lascaris the opportunity to do something to help them.

They knew that all hotel brands offer very similar facilities and services–which means it’s become really hard to stand out. So in order to build loyalty for City Lodge Hotels among stressed-out business travelers, they would really need to innovate.

While every other hotel offers wake-up calls, no one puts their guests to sleep properly in the first place.

This led to the creative idea: Based on guest profile data, they identified eight different kinds of business traveler and wrote a relaxing bedtime story for each of them: aka, Bedtime Stories for Business People. These misguided meditations were promoted with in-room collateral and also via a targeted campaign on social media channels. In the end, they put the guests to sleep and gave the tired old hotel industry the wake-up call it needed.