Intercontinental Hotels Group
Company: INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Company Description: InterContinental Hotels Group is the world’s most global hotel company and largest by number of rooms which owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites® and Hotel IndigoTM.
Nomination Category: Corporate Literature & Investor Relations
Nomination Sub Category: Best Press Kit
Nomination Title: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts Media Guide
1. The date in 2004 on which this nominated press kit was first distributed or otherwise made public:
January 2004
2. Briefly describe this nomination’s communications objectives and how it met those objectives (up to 100 words):
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts enjoys a prestigious and well-established
reputation internationally. However, the brand is less well-known in the Americas,
specifically among U.S. travel media. In an effort to increase editorial
coverage for the InterContinental brand, a new media guide was developed showcasing the brand’s offerings and highlighting specific details regarding each hotel property within the Americas. This visually compelling and very comprehensive media guide tells InterContinental’s story by communicating the brand’s strengths and unique features in a concise and detailed manner. The design is reflective of InterContinental’s upscale positioning within the industry by its sophisticated design, beautiful photography and utilization of the brand’s colors and tagline.In past years, InterContinental provided the media with a simple press kit
consisting of a plain white folder full of various fact sheets and press releases.
This uninteresting design gave the recipient a feeling of indecisiveness and ever-
changing details. The kit did not provide the media with a focused overview of the
brand or specific details about individual properties. The new design and layout
helps illustrates the solid concepts behind the InterContinental brand and also
showcase the offerings of each individual property.The objective of the press kit is to: enhance InterContinental’s
visibility and awareness in North America – by illustrating the brand history and
amenities and showcasing individual properties and establish the InterContinental
brand as a driving force within the upper upscale arena in North America and
keeping the brand top-of-mind among media.InterContinental developed a high-end, comprehensive media guide that features a
permanent shell with all brand information and secondly, individual fact sheets for
each property. The shell was designed to tell the overall brand story to the
media. The individual fact sheets highlight each hotel property and location with
interesting background and history, beautiful photography and specific details
about that hotel.The challenges of creating the new media guide were mostly design-related. The
layout and design needed to reflect the goals and direction of the brand. The
guide had to illustrate the upscale brand offerings, but also have the ability
to be updated as new hotels were added to the portfolio. It needed to have a
shelf-life of two-three years.By designing the shell portion of the guide with the overall brand information, we
were able to illustrate to the media that this brand is well-established and is
committed to its offerings and points of differentiation. By including a fact
sheet for each hotel, we stress the importance of the individual properties to the
overall brand, and illustrate the company’s commitment to continue growth as new
sheets can be added at any time.Another challenge was writing the individual fact sheets for each hotel. A great
deal of time was spent doing research, contacting each property and then fact-
checking all details.The new media guide has proved to be a beneficial tool to help the media become
more familiar with the InterContinental brand and how it fits into the upper
upscale hotel industry within the Americas. The media guide serves as a tangible resource for reporters to reference as they write articles and stories. The guide
complements other brand initiatives including the Web site and the HTML media
newsletter, Inside InterContinental.A 200-person media list was developed for the initial mailing and the guides will
continue to be used for more intensive outreach in specific markets where
InterContinental properties are located (e.g., Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, New
York, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, etc.). Though it cannot be directly correlated to
the media guides or other 2004 initiatives, it is apparent that these resources
have helped elevate brand awareness as media coverage for the brand increased from 2003 to 2004. The total number of news clips during the 4th quarter of 2004 was 164 as compared to 63 in 2003.
3. List the appropriate creative and production credits for this nomination: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:
Stephanie Bezner, Senior Manager, Public Relations, InterContinental Hotels
Group; PR Agency: GCI Group Atlanta