• by Tanya Gazdik , November 22, 2017

InterContinental Hotels Group’s Even Hotels is launching a campaign featuring real hotel guests. 

The brand claims to be the industry’s first and only hotel brand built with wellness at its core. This wellness focus has served as the brand’s guiding ethos since IHG launched Even Hotels in 2012, and the brand has intentionally designed every aspect of the hotel experience to empower guests to maintain their wellness routine while on the road.

Even Hotels currently has six locations — three in New York City, one in Norwalk, Conn., one in Rockville, Md., and one in Omaha, Neb. — with two additional locations opening soon (Sarasota, Fla., and Eugene, Ore.). The brand has plans to double the portfolio over the next year as well as expand internationally into Australia, New Zealand and China.

Iris Worldwide developed the campaign creative, while IHG conducted internal research to inform the strategy. IHG’s paid media team is managing all media buying and targeting.

The goal of the campaign is to overcome this skepticism and show travelers who are used to making compromises in their wellness that Even Hotels delivers on wellness in every aspect of the experience and is the only hotel in this space that can credibly make that claim, says Jason Moskal, vice president, brand management, lifestyle brands, The Americas, IHG.

“While the brand still offers the guest a spectrum of healthy and indulgent options, this campaign more clearly helps wellness-minded travelers understand they can be at their best and achieve more when they have access to options that empower wellness on their terms,” Moskal tells Marketing Daily. 

The brand tapped customers straight from social media for the creative, an effort to put the actual guest at the center of the social and digital advertising. The multi-channel content features Caroline, a mother, author and professor who spent productive weekends writing her latest book at Even Hotels, and James, a self-titled “professional amateur” cyclist who biked from Brooklyn to Philly and used Even Hotels as his home base

The brand is targeting the wellness-minded traveler, someone who wants to always be at their best and achieve more, whether it is for business or leisure travel, Moskal says. Brand awareness for business or leisure travelers who are not familiar with the Even Hotels brand and what it offers in another goal, he adds.

Each hotel helps guests keep active with in-room training zones, best-in-class athletic studios and staff-led fitness activities. Even Hotels also offer a signature sleep experience that includes eucalyptus fiber bedding and mood lighting to help guests relax. The hotels’ café, Cork & Kale, also offers a spectrum of menu items so that guests can mirror their typical eating habits while on the road. 

“These are just a few examples of how wellness anchors every touch point of the guest experience at Even Hotels, allowing guests to keep their good thing going,” Moskal says. 

In addition to paid social amplification and display advertising, Even Hotels has partnered with wellness publisher Rodale to develop custom content to build the brand’s wellness credibility with online readers of Men’s Health and Women’s Health.