• by Danielle Oster , March 26, 2025

Earlier this year, Choice Hotels launched its “Check Into More” campaign across its 22 hotel brands,

Based on the insight that 95% of travelers prioritize new or unique experiences when planning a vacation, Choice Hotels collaborated with creative agency 72andSunny New York, and actor Keegan-Michael Key on the value-focused campaign, continuing a relationship with the "Key & Peele” alum it began last year.

Marketing Daily caught up with Choice Hotels CMO Noha Abdalla to discuss the campaign, current travel trends, and the role of its celebrity partnership.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: Can you speak to the gap between travel aspirations and affordability? What other insights drove the “Check Into More” campaign?

Noha Abdalla: Travelers want to spend on new or unique experiences -- including things like concerts or sporting events -- or experiencing a location they were inspired to visit by a movie or TV show. We took inspiration from that  insight, along with fact that the average U.S. worker gets 11 vacation days annually, and only take about half of them.

We wanted to answer the question of how Choice can play a supporting role in making sure consumers are getting the most value from their vacation. If they’re getting good value, and the hotel is located in the right place, they can experience more. In all the research we do with guests, location and price are always the top two factors, with brand third.

Marketing Daily: How does the message you’re communicating to consumers with the “Check Into More” campaign differentiate Choice Hotels from competitors?

Abdalla: Some of the other companies that have hotels more in the luxury space position their hotels as a destination in and of themselves. We’re not trying to target that demographic. Our customers  want to feel comfortable, and like they can just be themselves. A lot of what we look to display in our advertising is the basics of clean and  comfortable -- with all the amenities you need, but also very welcoming and approachable, and child-friendly.

It’s that approachability factor that differentiates us. Our guests say that they don't want to pay for amenities that they're not going to use, so we want to provide a range of options based on price point.

Marketing Daily: How does this campaign mark an evolution of Choice Hotels’ marketing, and what does collaborating with a partner like Keggan Michael-Key allow you to accomplish that your might not be able to otherwise?

Abdalla: Choice has always marketed itself as a portfolio of brands. As the portfolio has expanded, our marketing has taken on a different tone.

We started working with Keegan last year, so it’s our second year working with him. His celebrity allows us to raise awareness more easily. Keegan Michael-Key scores really well with our target customer -- within the 96% percentile in awareness and appeal. They love his comedic style, find him approachable, charismatic, and trustworthy.

We target families, parents traveling with kids, empty-nesters, who have a good amount of time and disposable income; and also younger professionals who are traveling, and business travelers more generally, not just white collar business travelers but also more blue collar workers like construction workers, traveling nurses, and others who need to be away from home for significant periods of time.

Marketing Daily: What can you share about the extent and duration of the campaign?

Abdalla: It launched in early January, first on digital channels, and expanded into broadcast TV beginning in February. The broadcast component launched the night of the 50th anniversary episode of ‘SNL’ and has aired during other marquee programs, such as ‘Yellowstone,’ ‘Long Bright River’ and ‘Storage Wars.’

Now it’s running across channels including broadcast and streaming TV, social and digital platforms. It’s a very video-heavy campaign and ad strategy. Video does a nice job of helping you tell more stories, and the campaign includes custom, targeted videos on social channels which are very different from what's on TV. Our goal is to meet customers in the channels where they’re spending the most time. We’ve been experimenting with a variety of AI-enabled platforms that allow us to customize the creative and media buying to specific target audiences.

The campaign will run all year long, through Q4.