PR Case Study: Sounds of the Neighbourhood

When IHG-owned Hotel Indigo wanted to highlight the influence of the surroundings of each of its hotels, its PR team got TV and radio presenter Edith Bowman to help launch a series of #SundaySocials at three of its top locations, with the help of The Zutons’ Dave McCabe, DJ Mylo and Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B, creating “Sounds of the Neighbourhood”.

Campaign: Sounds of the Neighbourhood by Hotel Indigo
PR Team: IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)
Timing: October – December 2015

Overview

Every Hotel Indigo is influenced by the culture, character and history of its surrounding neighbourhood; from the design of the building to the music guests hear as they enter the hotel.

This campaign saw Hotel Indigo bring the ‘Sounds of the Neighbourhood’ into its hotels by curating locally-inspired music playlists. It launched with a series of events – The #SundaySocials – at the Hotel Indigo in London, Liverpool and Glasgow, hosted by TV and radio presenter Edith Bowman and a local music legend from each location: frontman of The Zutons Dave McCabe (Liverpool); Scottish DJ Mylo (Glasgow) and founding member of British band Soul II Soul Jazzie B (London).

Objectives

Launch a collection of locally inspired music playlists in hotels.
Drive brand awareness and consideration through targeted high-impact coverage and story-telling
Communicate message to target audience, which will allow Hotel Indigo guests to feel connected with the local neighbourhood.
Develop multi-media content for owned and earned media channels (website, editorial, social).

Strategy

Borrow credentials of relevant music experts to connect with/tell our brand story in a compelling and authentic way.
Drive target audience (media, guests and locals) into hotels to engage with our brand.

Implementation

Hotel Indigo teamed up with TV and radio presenter Edith Bowman and three local music artists (frontman of The Zutons Dave McCabe for Liverpool; British DJ, music producer and founding member of Soul II Soul Jazzie B OBE for London, and Scottish electronic musician and record producer Mylo for Glasgow) to curate a collection of locally-inspired playlists from their neighbourhoods.

(NB. These locations represent three of the 19 European Hotel Indigo properties in the portfolio.)

A series of videos were filmed with Edith, together with each musician as they described their own musical journey and playlist inspiration ahead of the Sunday Social events. These videos provided rich content for media and also offered an opportunity to promote the Sunday Social events where Edith, Dave, Mylo and Jazzie B performed live DJ sets.

Brunch and Bloody Marys were served at the events, which were attended by a mix of hotel guests, local residents, media and bloggers.

The events were filmed and photographed to provide content for editorial/PR outreach.

Interviews were also given by Edith, Jazzie, Mylo and Dave to drive awareness for the campaign and to promote the Sunday Social events in the lead-up.

A bespoke music hub was built to house all campaign collateral, including music playlists, videos and images and event information. It continues to be available at: www.hotelindigo/music

A partnership with Spotify helped to engage the audience. Playlists were hosted on Spotify and accessed via the Hotel Indigo hub.

Results

Feedback from the media was positive, as each artist was able to tell a very personal and insightful story about their local neighbourhood and the role it had played in their life and work.

This provided compelling content for media but also perfectly linked back to the brand values. The Sunday Social events provided a great opportunity to engage our target audience and drive them into the hotels, to really experience the brand first-hand.

Stats

141 pieces of high-impact PR coverage across print, online, broadcast media (TV and radio) and social over 3 months
100% editorial contained at least 1 key brand/campaign message
Five videos were produced and multiple music playlists for the hotel’s content hub were created.
A successful partnership with Spotify to engage our target audience.

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