In many cities, ibis hotels provide affordable accommodation options that offer excellent value for money, making them the perfect choice for young people on a budget. Nevertheless, ibis hotels were no longer on the radar of their young target group. The time had come to change this and make ibis popular with its young target group again. How could we reach them? With a solution to a problem they all have of course! Instagram kills their vacations. Every moment has to be photographed and shared with their community on Instagram. This is a scientifically proven cause of stress.

ibis was aiming to help its young target group address the problem of digital stress while on vacation. That’s why ibis launched digital detox service “Relax we post”. The 16 most popular influencers in Switzerland took over hotel guests’ Instagram profiles and posted on their behalf during their stay. This allowed guests to enjoy a relaxing city break free of digital stress.

PR formed the crux of this campaign. After all, to reach our target groups, Gen Z and Millennials, we needed more than just another advertising campaign. A strong insight, agenda setting, newsworthy headlines, a service that helps the target audience – all this contributed to the consumer relevance of this PR-centered campaign.

The strategy? Millennials can’t function without social media – something which is scientifically proven to cause a lot of stress. No wonder digital detoxes are trending. ibis hotels had to use this fact to gain recognition among their young target group (Gen Z and Millennials). The solution? A digital detox service was developed. A PR approach was chosen, story pitching with travel magazines, blogs and influencers were tools integrated into this campaign.

ibis’ new digital detox service spread like wildfire within the travel industry, gaining international traction and becoming the most used words within the travel segment.

Phase 1: Service promoted via:

– Media work: PR story pitching and a media release publicize the launch of the new digital detox service.

– Influencer marketing: influencers announce their new roles as social media sitters on behalf of ibis and take over guests’ Instagram profiles.

– Social ads: Promotion using banner and social media campaigns linking to the “Relax we post” booking platform.

Phase 2: Bookable trial phase for the “Relax we post” service:

– Public relations: due to the high social relevance of issues such as digital detox, the media interest in the service spread fast via influencers and social media and the campaign traveled around the world.

– Involvement of AccorHotels’ own communication channels to further promote the service.

– Influencer marketing: the 16 social media sitters produce additional content about the service, thus generating further reach thanks to the authentic and target group-relevant content.

– “Relax we post” garnered enormous media attention with more than a billion contacts worldwide AND over 14 million contacts in Switzerland (this campaign reached each member of the swiss population twice over).

– More than 1.5 million mentions in travel blogs and on social media channels.

– Earned media worth CHF 11 million.

– By involving influencers, over 200,000 relevant contacts were achieved within the target group (engagement rate of 4.79%).

– During the campaign, room bookings rose by 528% within the target group and by 15.1% in general.

Clippings:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-6392791/Hotel-chain-offers-guests-Instagram-sitter-accounts-date.html

https://consent.yahoo.com/collectConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_a9be83ef-2f73-4ca5-956c-7505b28207a0&lang=en-gb&inline=false

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/2018/11/15/ibis-hotel-social-media-stress-instagram-sitter/2011201002/

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2018/11/19/instagram-sitter-ibis/

https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/instagram/683314199-digital-detox-noetig-jetzt-gibts-den-huetedienst-fuer-dein-instagram-konto

https://qz.com/1475378/swiss-hotels-are-hiring-instagram-sitters-to-post-photos-for-you/

https://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/articles/des-hotels-russes-emploient-des-instagram-sitters-charges-de-poster-vos-photos-pour-vous/70832