We needed 1,000 bookings in a month. The Art Series Hotels are a luxury group of hotels located in Melbourne, Australia. They needed to ensure occupancy rates were maximised over a traditionally quiet month (mid-December to mid-January), specifically to sell 1,000 beds.

Our brief was to sell 1,000 beds in 4 weeks. The campaign exceeded this by 50%. It generated over 3,083 social media mentions with a reach of 6.7m We generated mentions across print, online news and blogs - which drove more than 105,000 visitors to the hotel website (increase of 112%). PR coverage spanned across 61 countries and was estimated at $2.1m. A 300% return on investment for the campaign, from a budget of only $80,000.As per the interview in case study, Art Series hotel CEO stated it was by far the best campaign that they've ever done.

We encouraged our potential guests to steal a valuable Banksy hanging in the hotel, (valued at $20,000). If they could do so without being caught it was theirs to keep.We spread the word via PR (it was in the Australian newspapers 4 days in a row), and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). We also utilised the hotel's owned assets (social media and mailing lists). We supplemented this with paid media in press, web, search and on and offline travel media. We gave clues via social media (#stealbanksy) as the artwork was circulated between the 3 hotels.

We leveraged the fact that the city of Melbourne has a history of art heists, and decided to create one for ourselves. The hotel is well known for its extensive range of art from Australia and abroad.Theft is synonymous with hotels. People often steal shampoo bottles, gowns and fluffy towels. Banksy’s work is often associated with misappropriation and theft. 'No Ball Games' was once stolen from a London wall. Melbourne has a rich history in art theft. Picasso's 'Weeping Woman' was stolen in 1986 and later discovered in a locker at a city train station.