• by Tanya Gazdik , March 3, 2011

Embassy Suites Hotels is launching a $15 million integrated brand awareness campaign featuring the quirky Mr. More character, who always wants "more of more" and "less of less."

The campaign includes a return to TV spots (breaking March 6), marking the first time the brand has used that medium since 2007. Also included are print, out-of-home and online ads. The TV spots can be viewed at the hotel company's YouTube channel.

"TV lends itself to telling a story in a very playful way and our 'More More' campaign is by nature very visual, bringing to life our key pillars of more breakfast, more drinks and more space," says John Lee, vice president, brand marketing for Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Worldwide.

Mr. More is a "bleisure" traveler (business plus leisure) who is sold on Embassy Suite's two-room suites and complimentary, cooked-to-order breakfast and free beverages and snacks at the nightly Manager's Reception.

TV will air throughout the year in markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Memphis, Houston, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

"We've done a great deal of research to uncover 10 key markets that drive over 50% of revenue," Lee tells Marketing Daily. "We know that our guests are not only traveling for business, but for leisure, often with their families. This information, coupled with additional research we've done, goes beyond the simple demographics of our guests. Now we have insight into psychographics, attitudes and behaviors and actual likes and dislikes that informed our targeting strategy."

In addition, the commercials will be featured on more than 54,000 United Airlines and American Airlines flights in their in-flight programming lineup starting in April, and in May, the spots will appear on the CNN Airport Network in 45 airports nationwide.

"We have a lot of integration and continuity in our campaign this year," Lee says. We will have a robust presence on sites like Trip Advisor and the AOL and Yahoo Networks." Print will run in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, USA Today, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Entertainment Weekly, People, Wired and Golf Digest.

The campaign was created by BBDO-Atlanta, Embassy Suites Hotels' agency of record since 2008. The commercials were directed by Roman Coppola in his first foray in the hotel industry. Coppola (the son of Francis Ford Coppola and best known for directing music videos) says he appreciated the odd sense of humor in the scripts. The commercials were filmed at the Embassy Suites Los Angeles-Glendale.