You may not know the market that SpringHill operates at: Entry Level Business Travel. Within this segment, it has a lot to offer.

But there are challenges: comfort is a critical measure in a business traveler’s mind of a successful trip away from home.

Problem is, if SpringHill is known at all, they’re known as “basic”, definitely not comfortable.

Amidst all the category noise, a message around “SpringHill gives you comfort” was like pushing a boulder uphill. Telling people, especially this audience, wouldn't work. We had to show them. Hence our insight: Don’t tell me you’re comfortable, comfort me.

We comforted 54 million travelers on average, 8 minutes.

106,981,738 PR impressions, including CBS This Morning, CNN, the Wall Street Journal.

Unaided communications awareness increased from 1% to 5% (historically lifted only 2%).

The initiative accounted for 24% of the media budget, yet it drove 62% of overall increase in brand communication awareness.

Trial increased 13%.

We inspired a bigger movement for change. Other airports plan to replicate the design, and we received testimonies from the very people who know a good and comforting thing when they experience it: TSA security agents requested transfers to our SpringHill Suites Comfort Zones.

After pain-staking negotiations with airports, TSA and Security Point media, SpringHill Suites Comfort Zones were implemented at airport security checkpoints: Reinventing the most miserable travel moment to dramatize the comfort credentials of SpringHill Suites.

Among the amenities:

Stylish décor and deluxe lounge chairs.

Relaxing music.

Calming LED mood lighting.

Video monitors and mobile device updates with airport messages and wait times.

Larger, decorated x-ray bins (size matters!).

‘Recomposing’ areas with high-top tables, foot bars for tying shoes, and re-dressing mirrors.

We focused activation on stressful travel times: holidays and summer vacation, when streamlined business travelers intermix with fumbling families.

All parts of travel have felt like a chore for years, but post 9/11, few things feel more undignified than when you go through security: it’s stressful, harassing and overcrowded.

So what a better point to provide business travelers with comfort: during and after the indignities of security. But not just security at any airport, the team identified some of the most gut wrenching airports to clear: Charlotte, Dallas Fort Worth and Chicago.