• Brandweek, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:45 AM

Even with the business travel slowdown, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts is set to put more money into marketing conference rooms in an attempt to pull in corporate execs who might enjoy some golf amid the seminars. "The down market is the time to put your message out there loud and clear," says Gina LaBarre, vice president of brand management for the Crowne Plaza parent Intercontinental Hotels Group. "It's not the time to cut back on your marketing spend ... for us a lot of it is due to an increase of supply [in business meeting hotels], so we're going full force ahead."

New TV ads feature golfer Phil Mickelson in a Crowne Plaza conference room with different groups of fans and break this week. The hotel chain is keeping its "place to meet" tagline in the new campaign, which launches on the Golf Channel. Ads will also be on network programming through September, and while the precise budget is under wraps, LaBarre says spending will par with 2007 when Crowne Plaza laid out about $14 million, up form $1 million the year before, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

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