PR was central to 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 ensuring the consumer relevance of this PR-centered campaign.

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.

Our insight? Millennials cannot survive without their smartphones – something that causes stress, particularly on vacation. “Pics or it didn’t happen,” is their mantra. To make ibis hotels more interesting for their young target group, we developed a digital detox service.

Objectives: to make ibis hotels more interesting for their young target group;

to generate reach in their channels such as social media blogs, influencers and in the online press; and to get more room bookings in the target group.

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.

Service promoted via:

–Media work: personal 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 for a weekend.

–Social ads: the video is promoted along with links to the “Relax we post” booking platform.

Bookable trial phase for the service:

–Public relations: due to the high social relevance of issues such as digital detox, influencers and social media fueled the media interest in the service and the campaign has gone around the world.

–Involvement of own communication channels and use of the AccorHotels network to further publicize the service.

–Influencer marketing: the 16 social media sitters produce additional content about the service (prize draws, offer pushes in Instagram stories), thus generating reach thanks to the authentic and target group-relevant

– “Relax we post” garnered enormous media attention with over 14 million contacts (print, online, radio/TV) in Switzerland and more than a billion contacts worldwide.

– More than 700 clippings and more than 1.5 million mentions in travel blogs and on social media channels.

– We generated earned media worth CHF 11 million.

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

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

International media such as the Daily Mail, USA Today, Huffington Post, China Today, GEO, Vanity Fair, and Lonely Planet picked up on the story. “Relax we post” taps into the current zeitgeist of an era that is dominated by social media and social pressure to exude an exciting, cool image via Instagram. “Relax we post” addresses the topical issue of digital detox, the countertrend to the aforementioned social media phenomenon, and provides a talking point on the issue of social media.

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