allaloft

high tech. high fashion. high ceilings.

aloft hotels Media Plan

callie mansour

eliane cohen s.

jason fitzenberger

executive summary

Thorough research has proven that the following is media plan is a perfect match for aloft hotels. Considering aloft opened its doors for the first time in June 2008, the overall goal of this campaign is to raise awareness, because aloft is just entering the hotel market, so there is currently very low brand recognition. Although the goal isn’t necessarily focused on sales, revenues will increase as a direct result of elevated awareness. The target audience for this campaign is adult businesspeople 25-34 years old. These are people who are always on the go, and depending heavily on technology. They are very work-oriented, but also put an emphasis on their social life and like to have a good time. The goal is to introduce the aloft brand to these young business travel-ers as breaking the mold of traditional, predictable hotels that they are used to. aloft promises its audience a unique, satisfying experience because this is a hotel that understands their lifestyle. The hotel was built with them in mind, making it possible to balance work and play. The entire campaign will have a trendy, edgy tone, reflecting the modern, urban design of the hotels. The tagline for the campaign is “high tech. high fashion. high ceilings.” Since aloft isn’t widely known, the tagline describes the brand both literally and figuratively. The campaign budget is $15 million, which will be split between magazines, Internet, outdoor (billboards), and sales promotion. Magazines will be the main source of traditional media, with ads running in Forbes, Business Week, Sports Illustrated and Elle. Moreover, billboards will be placed in the five cities with the highest estimated value. However, the biggest emphasis of the campaign will be on sales promotion and non-traditional media. The aloft “a-go-go” van will tour 17 spot cities that have been deemed the most effective for the campaign’s objectives. The main goal of this van is to familiarize the audience with the brand, and encourage


them to log onto the aloft website. Current promotions through Starwood Hotels will be continued as well. These include the Starwood Preferred Guest Program and their partnerships with Delta Airlines and American Express. A major emphasis will be put on Internet advertising since research shows that the target audience is very technologically advanced and spends a large amount of time surfing the web. Internet banners will be featured on popular websites such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, and Expedia. Overall, it is clear that this is the ideal media plan that aloft needs to en-ter the market and become a main competitor in the hotel scene. By merely getting its name out there, and increasing the brand recognition, the target will immediately want to try out this new brand. Once these people get into the hotel, they will fall in love with the brand, leading to increased brand loyalty, resulting in increased sales.

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situation analysis

The aloft hotel chain is the newest member of the Starwood Hotel & Resorts company. Aloft joins a standout group of other Starwood brands: Le Meridien, Four Points, Sheraton, Element, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Westin, and W Hotels. It is a less expensive, fun, and more trendy hotel chain. aloft hotels have a very modern feel, and were created with the most state-of-the-art technology and design elements. It is known as a high-design/low-cost brand from Starwood Hotels. Compared to other luxury hotels, aloft hotels are very reasonably priced. Depending on the type of room you desire, aloft’s prices range from about $129.00-$295.00 per night (starwoodhotels.com/aloft). Aloft currently has 19 hotels in service, 17 of which are in the United States. The current hotels are mostly located towards the eastern coast of the United States, with few stationed in the west. There are also 73 new locations set to open within the next 3 years, including 60 United States locations. Most of the locations are positioned in large cities, many being in a close proximity to airports, making it easy for travelers. (starwoodhotels.com/aloft). With its very first hotel opening in Montreal in June 2008, it is clearly a very new brand, and will be experience enormous growth within the upcoming years. Starwood hopes to grow aloft to about 500 properties worldwide by the year 2012 (Boehle 2006). Most of aloft’s promotion and past advertising has been directly through the media. There first advertising strategy began long before their doors even opened to the public. Aloft executives created a virtual aloft online through “second life”. According to secondlife.com, second life is a 3D virtual world created by its residents (secondlife.com). By creating a virtual aloft hotel online, it allowed the public to explore the ideas of

Analysis of Marketing Objectives & Strategies:


the executives, and give feedback before it actually opened. This tactic was widely successful, because it perfectly suited the target audience of aloft hotels, and helped develop the modern reputation they were aiming for (virtualaloft.com). Since opening its doors for business, aloft has been very prevalent in the media, getting a lot of desirable advertising through press releases. Aloft has put on numerous events, such as grand-opening parties and fashion shows, that have gotten their name well-known in the media (starwoodhotels.com/aloft/newsevents). They have also started a partnership with Jet Blue airlines, offering in-flight promotions (starwoodhotels.com/aloft/promotions). As their website illustrates, they are currently offering a promotion where guests will be granted a 20% discount if they book 2 nights. Also, guests can take advantage of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program. According to the Starwood Preferred Guest website (spg.com), this program allows guests access to 860 hotels and resorts in 95 different countries. Since aloft is the eighth brand to join the Starwood team, guests will acquire 8 points for each dollar spent at aloft hotels, earning their way to Free Award Nights. aloft hotels presently hold a very small amount of share in the market, because they have just entered the hotel scene. With several new hotels opening worldwide in the next few years, it will likely become a household name in the near future, with the number of properties increasing rapidly in the next five years. There is an available marketing budget of up to $15 million to assist in creating a higher awareness. The current marketing problem is that is has a very low brand recognition. The objective is to raise awareness, getting the name more well-known among business travelers, which will eventually lead to increased sales resulting from brand loyalty.

5

situation analysis

Competitive Considerations:

Being a new player in the hotel market, aloft has a lot of big-name competitors to contend with. According to Business Travel News’ U.S. Hotel Chain Survey 2008, Marriot International is the top competitor for the second year in a row. Along with Marriot, Hilton Hotels dominates the market as well. According to the same survey, the upscale tier of U.S. hotels is expected to continue an above average performance this year, with 5.8% growth (BTN U.S. Hotel Chain Survey 2008). So this is a great time for aloft to break into the hotel scene and fight for market share. Although there are a lot of extremely successful, well-established hotels already in play, aloft is very unique compared to its competitors. Most traditional hotels are very redundant and conventional. Everything from the lobby and the restaurants, to the bedrooms and bathrooms is very bland and predictable. aloft hotels, on the other hand, are very modern and trendy, targeting a very different audience than the average hotel. This brand of hotels perfectly compliments the lifestyle of young business travelers. According to Starwood, the intent of the new brand is to break through the “clutter of conformity” inherent to the select-service hotel category, which includes competitors such as Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott (Boehle, 2006). Company officials say that it will do this by offering customers loft-like accommodations and an opportunity to experience high-service, stylish design, accessible technology, and a “hip, urban attitude” — all at an affordable price. This vision of W Hotels stirs up the traditional hotel industry with a social atmosphere, accessible technology, urban-influenced design, and style.


aloft hotels combine urban design with technology and an interesting social scene, which gives them their unique personality; the concept behind them is to “mix business with fun” (McKeough, 2008). Given that the hotels are new this year, little has been done in terms of advertising. However, a few distinctive ways to promote the hotels have been used. In 2006, an alternate reality hotel, a virtual version of Aloft hotels in second life, was launched online at virtualaloft.com, in order to produce a deeper experience and connection with the consumer (“virtual aloft”). Also in 2006, ads with the slogan “aloft a go-go” were created in order to create buzz so that people could be excited about the upcoming hotels. The campaign started in New York’s fashion week in 2006 (Strauss and Gale, 2006). There is also a unique-looking van with the logo and slogan that drives around cities where aloft hotels are located, to call people’s attention (See appendix for Photo). Since the hotels are directed towards a younger audience, Starwood has used an approach to advertising that fits their target. In his website, Michael Chaffin, a renowned authority in the hotel business: (regarding aloft hotels)Starwood has resisted the temptation to use a traditional approach of shouting their message AT everyone. Instead, they choose the likely places where key influencers live, start conversations and get them involved in the process. Then, they let the viral, word of mouth effect take over to build interest...just in time for the real opening in 2008.

Creative History:

7

situation analysis

Nowadays, their main campaign slogan is “Say aloha to aloft.” The slogan was created to explicitly say that the hotels are new, while creating wordplay. aloft hotels also go all-out with their hotels’ grand openings. They have live DJs, fashion shows, and many times people working out and dancing, which, according to Starwood Hotels and Resorts, helps set the tone for the hotels and to create buzz about them. (“aloft a-go-go,” 2007). In addition, Internet banners are also being used. Hotmail is one of the main pages where the pink-background banners are displayed to its users quite often.

Since Aloft hotels are “transient-guest focused… and emphasizes the public space experience with its lobby and lobby bar, w xyz,” (Gunter, 2008a), the primary target audience is young business travelers, males and females, 25-34 years old. That age group is the one to which the hotels styles adapt best (Van Dyk, 2008). According to Simmons Market Research (1994), 25-34 year-olds represent 23.1% of all business stays (Index 105). Amongst the age groups, this index is the third highest; in addition, 22.8% of heavy business stays (10+ nights in the past 12 months), come from the 25-34 year-old group, which represents a 103 index. To these people, “aloft aims to give business travelers a ‘fresh, fun, forward-thinking alternative’” (“Hotel Offers…” 2008)

(See target audience profile for thorough description)

Target Audience:


There are currently 19 aloft hotels ready for stay, 17 of which are in the United States (See appendix for detailed location spreadsheet). Most of the aloft hotels are located in big metropolitan areas, and often close to major airports (aloft website, 2008). Regarding the regions of the country where business travelers come from, the Southern region of the country is the one with the most people who stay in hotels for business (35.2%, index 101); the Midwest and the West, however, have higher indexes of hotel stays for business (110 and 104 respectively), so people from those regions are more likely to stay at hotels for business than people form other areas of the country. At the same time, the metro suburban areas also represent a large percentage of the people who stay in hotels for business (50.4% of business stays, Index 106), slightly higher than people form urban areas, and far higher than people from rural areas. (Simmons Market Research, 1994).

(See appendix for complete table.)

Geography:

Current aloft hotels open for stay

9

situation analysis

Timing and Purchasing Cycle:

aloft hotels, owned by Starwood Hotel and Resorts, is a new chain of hotels emerging into the hotel industry. In general business travel is pretty consistent throughout the year. Travel is pretty steady throughout the week with no particular days of the week that are more important than others. According to the Datamontior company report for Starwood, In 2006 Starwood Resort chain earned revenue of $5,979 million, an increase of $2 million over 2005. For the fiscal year 2006, the US, the company’s largest geographical market, accounted for 76.6% of the total revenues. According to Datamonitor Starwood Resorts is considered one of the world’s largest hotel and Leisure Company chain with hotels in more than 100 countries and over 25-timeshare ownership opportunities available around the world. Their major competitors are Marriott International, Hilton Hotel Corporation, and the Global Hyatt Corporation. Advertising should be launched before the peak months to get the promotions out to the public while they’re booking their next vacation. Business travelers seem to be on the go all year around and there isn’t a peak season for them; their travel is consistent throughout the year. Currently, aloft hotels have grand opening weekend celebrations at each of there new hotels. Since last January, aloft Hotels has been running their Go-go van that drives across the country promoting the new hotel brand. The van shows customers a virtual tour of room features so customers know what to expect when staying with aloft (Boehile, Exhibitor online).


Radio and Internet are two media that have a good match with the target audience of business-oriented salespeople, and couples who are looking for a modern and classy hotel to unwind after a long day without the extra services that can be received from a 5 star resort. Most business people listen to the radio and are technologically savvy and this is why radio and Internet advertising fit them well. The majority of business professionals listen to the local news radio station in their area as they drive to work each morning, and they can be reached during those times. Radio and Internet are flexible media because ads can be changed easily and are cheaper than television ads. Television doesn’t seem to be the best fit since the ads last a long time and in the hotel industry there are new specials and promotions developed on frequent basis. On the other hand, television and print ads such as brochures would be a good idea for announcing the grand opening of new hotels. People will want to see pictures to see the features of the hotel in the ads to be convinced to stay there. Since aloft Hotels has a large media budget of $15 million, some of the competitors can be outspent in advertising and promotions. aloft Hotels currently has a low share of voice, since it is a relatively new chain of hotels developing off Starwood Hotels.

Questions about Media Mix:

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Target Audience ProfileMeet Sarah Thompson, a 28-year-old businesswoman. She lives in a one-bedroom loft-style apartment in Detroit, MI with her dog Lucy. She enjoys decorating and doing interior design projects in her spare time. She works as a sales representative for an insurance company; therefore, does quite a bit of traveling to meet with clients. Her current income is $52,000/year. Since she is single, with no family to support, she finds herself with a pretty good amount of disposable income each month. She enjoys having this money to go to movies, concerts, clubs, and restaurants with her friends, as well as spending it on clothing, shoes,

accessories, etc. for herself. Shopping is one of her favorite things to do, whether by herself or with friends. Even though Sarah is on the road a lot, and takes her job very seriously, she likes to have fun as well. She tries to balance her professional life with her social life. When the workday is over, she enjoys relaxing in front of the TV and unwinding with a glass of wine. Her favorite TV shows are “The Office”, “The Real World”, and “Grey’s Anatomy”. On the weekends when she’s not traveling, she likes to go out with her girlfriends to nightclubs or bars; she enjoys meeting people. She and her friends also enjoy going to concerts and other social events. Sarah is currently single because it is hard to develop a relationship when she is working so much. She has always been very goal-oriented and independent; she refuses to depend on a man for survival. After graduating college with a Bachelors of Science degree in business administration, she decided to advance her professional career first and get on her feet rather than looking to get married and have kids right away. However, that doesn’t


Target Audience Profilemean that she is not looking for that; she always keep her eyes open and enjoys meeting men when she goes out or travels. As far as traveling goes, Sarah always has her laptop, her iPod, and her blackberry with her wherever she goes. With her job, it is very important for her to be accessible at all times, and be able to check email, send messages, and contact people 24/7. Her blackberry is perfect because she can do all of these things, as well as entering her schedule and all appointments into her electronic calendar. She enjoys listening to music and watching videos on her iPod while on airplanes, but she prefers listening to the radio while driving to and from appointments in her car. When she stays in hotels, although she usually travels with a couple co-workers, Sarah always stays in a room by herself. Since she is on the road so much, it is important for her to feel like she is at home when she is in her hotel room. Since she has a lot of alone time, she enjoys renting pay-per-view movies or watching DVDs on her laptop. She also enjoys shopping online because she considers herself very fashion-forward. When on the road, after her appointments and meetings are over, she and her coworkers enjoy going out or grabbing a drink in the hotel lobby. It is also fun for them to go out to different establishments and social events around the city they’re in, and meeting people from other parts of the country. Sarah has a membership to the local health club near her apartment in Detroit, so she always tries to workout at least three times a week when she’s at home. She also enjoys putting on her iPod and walking Lucy. She tries to stay very health-conscious by eating healthy and exercising regularly. She eats mostly organic and attends weekly yoga and Pilates classes whenever she’s in town. When she is on the road, it is important that the hotel she is staying in has a decent workout facility so she can stay physically active. She also enjoys relaxing afterwards in the hot tub or sauna.

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Creative Brief

Advertising Objective:

The main campaign goal is to increase brand awareness amongst the target audience. Since aloft hotels are unique compared to the competition, and just launched this summer, the objective is to make aloft well-known amongst young business travelers.

Creative Brand Position:

The audience will see aloft hotels as breaking the mold of the traditional, predictable hotel market. It will be positioned as a chic and social hotel that feels like their home away from home.

Promise:

The audience will finally be able to stay at a hotel that understands their lifestyle, making it possible to balance work and play. Conventional, monotonous hotels will no longer be a reason to dread business trips.


TOne:

The overall tone of the campaign will be trendy and modern, yet in a typical, friendly way. Young business travelers care about the latest and greatest, whether it is technology, design or social events. In addition, since aloft hotels are very unique compared to the competition, the message, tone and design of the ads will reflect that individuality.

Tagline:

Since aloft hotels are new, the tagline will reflect the brand both literally and figuratively, letting the audience know what to expect. Being new in the market, the tagline will help create an attitude in the minds of the audience, contributing to making a memorable first impression for the hotel. The tagline will convey a hip attitude, relating to the audience’s lifestyle.

“high tech. high fashion. high ceilings.”

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Objectives and Strategies

1. Target Audience and Media Mix:

Objective:

aloft hotels is a brand new chain that entered the hotel scene in July 2008. Since it is so new, there is currently very low awareness among the target audience. The target audience goal for this campaign is to increase awareness to 50% of our target, which is adult business men and women, ages 25-34.

Strategies:

Magazines will be the main source of traditional media in this campaign. Ads will run throughout the year in the following national magazines: Business Week, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and Elle Magazine. Advertisements will be run in Business Week and Forbes in hopes of targeting young business travelers, because these are two of the most popular business magazines in the United States (http://www.allyoucanread.com/top-10-business-magazines/). Business Week is the #1 business magazine in the US, and it prints issues weekly. Forbes is sent out twice a month, printing issues every other week. The campaign will also utilize two non-business magazines to reach our audience from a different angle. Sports Illustrated will target the men in our audience, and Elle Magazine will target the women. Both of these magazines are also ranked in the top tier of U.S. magazines for the men’s and women’s magazine categories. Sports Illustrated prints issues every week, and Elle Magazine prints every other week. Since the campaign will be kicking off with three months of strong, high frequency advertising, ads will be featured in every weekly issue of


Business Week for the first three months. During this three-month period, advertisements will also be located in every issue of Forbes and Elle Magazine (every other week), and every other issue of Sports Illustrated. After the three-month period, magazine ads will slow down. Ads will run in Business Week twice a month, and in Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and Elle Magazine once a month. The scheduling of magazines will stagger, so as not to have all ads running during the same weeks (see appendix for monthly magazine schedule). Outdoor advertising will also be used on important roads in the top five spot markets during January-March. These cities are: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, Philadelphia, PA, and San Francisco, CA area. These will be placed on high-traffic roads to reach our target audience as they are sitting in traffic driving to and from work.

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2. Sales Promotion and Non-Traditional Media:

Objective:

The main focus of this campaign will be on sales promotion and non-traditional media. The goal of this campaign is to familiarize the target audience with this new brand of hotels, and to get them to visit the aloft website. Since the overall objective of the campaign as a whole is awareness, and not necessarily increasing sales, as long as the audience visits the website, we are confident that they will immediately become more curious and be interested. We are relying on the design and innovative ideas of the brand itself to “hook” the audience and create a memorable first impression in their minds.

Strategies:

The campaign will continue the use of the widely popular aloft a-go-go van. In the past, the van has been used to tour the country in hopes of convincing contractors and developers to invest in building new hotels. For this campaign, however, the van will be used as a promotional tool more directed at the potential customers, rather than the developers. The van will tour the country, hitting the 17 major cities chosen as spot markets. It will spend about a week in each of these cities (see appendix for van schedule). During the time spent in each city, the van will visit different local events, radio promotions, shopping malls, concerts, festivals, etc. At these events, aloft representatives will hand out business cards promoting the aloft website. Each business card will have a promotion code, encouraging people to log on to the website and enter their code for a chance to win prizes. Prizes include free night-stays, discounts on room packages, and tickets to hotel grand opening parties. The amount of people reached


through the van can be measured simply by counting the number of business cards handed out. Also, the number of people who actually visit the website and enter their code can be measured for this purpose as well. The goal for how many people reached specifically using the van in each city will be 15%. This number is based on impressions, including people who merely see the giant logo on the side of the van, rather than exposure. The aloft website will be promoted on the side of the van as well.

aloft “a-go-go” van

business card front business card back

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The campaign will also continue current programs through Starwood Hotel & Resorts. One of these programs is the Starwood Preferred Guest Program. This program offers customers chances to collect points towards earning Free Award Nights at up to 860 hotels and resorts in 95 different countries that are part of Starwood Hotels. Members can get quadruple “Starpoints” exclusively at aloft hotels. The current partnership with Delta Airlines will continue as well, offering customers two miles per every $1 spent on qualifying charges for Starwood Preferred Guest Members. The existing partnership with Starwood and American Express will be extended to aloft hotels as well. With the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card, cus-tomers will receive 10,000 Starpoints with first purchase, 2 Starpoints for every eligible dollar spent at participating Starwood hotels and resorts, and one Starpoint for every eligible dollar spent elsewhere. The current credit card was the winner of the “Best Affinity Credit Card” at the 19th Freddie Awards as voted on by frequent travelers (starwood.com/promotions).


As for non-traditional media, Internet will be the main source of advertising. Internet banners will be displayed on popular Internet sites. These sites will include Google, Hotmail, Expedia.com, Facebook, and Yahoo. These are all websites that are visited frequently by the target audience. Internet users will be able to click on the banner, and the link will bring them directly to the aloft website, which helps meet the objective. Although it is extremely difficult to measure internet usage, an estimate can be made according to the number of clicks on the website. The number of clicks will be documented now, and again after the campaign has launched to determine if it has increased or not.

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example of internet banner

3. Reach and Frequency

Objective:

aloft hotels plans to optimize frequency rather than reach since this is a new hotel brand. Since business travel is consistent throughout the year aloft will run ads 12 months out of the year because there isn’t a peak season. However, aloft will run a stronger drive from January-March to kick-off the new campaign. For the first three months, aloft hopes to achieve a 65% reach. For April-December, the goal is a 50% reach. Frequency for January-March will be 6, and 5 from April-December. Source: Media Fight Plan

Strategies:

Traditional media will kick off the first week in January. They will be running color ads in Business Week, Forbes, Elle, and Sports Illustrated throughout their campaign. Traditional media will peak during January through March with 390 GRP’s. April through December, the GRP’s will drop to 250. The aloft hotel industry hopes that using non- traditional advertising over the Internet and outdoor advertising on billboards will help increase the overall awareness of the campaign.



Flowchart:

** The numbers for Reach and Frequency in the above chart are only based on information for magazines. Most of the Reach/Frequency goals will be met through Internet and Outdoor, as well as Sales Promotions. The information for Internet and outdoor billboards are measured by different means. Internet impressions will be measured by number of clicks on the website, and outdoor billboard impressions will be measured by the number of cars that pass each billboard.

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4. Scheduling and Timing:

Objective:

The first three months of aloft’s campaign will be the strongest. During these months, aloft will have to generate a higher reach and frequency than the rest of the year. The remainder of the year will be a steady campaign, since business travel is generally consistent throughout the year. aloft’s campaign will be a continuous campaign throughout the year, since business travel is stable year around.

Strategies:

aloft’s campaign will launch on January 1, 2009 to start off the New Year. January through March will be the heavy campaign period, generating a higher reach and frequency than the rest of the year. With the target being the steady business travel market the campaign will remain steady from April through December. The purpose of this entire campaign is to raise awareness and to simply get the name visible as much as possible so people are introduced to this new hotel brand. Aloft hotels will be running the “a go-go van” across the 17 spot cities. The van will be touring the country visiting each of spot market cities. Length of stay will depend on estimated value rankings (See appendix for detail). The van will be visiting sporting events, malls, and shopping centers in the selected areas (See appendix for “a go-go van schedule”). aloft will also be running billboard ads in the top five spot markets on major highways leading into the city including New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Bay area in California.


high tech. high fashion. high ceilings. 25


5. Geography:

Objective:

To reach the audience nationwide through Internet and magazines, and to advertise and promote aloft hotels heavily in 17 DMAs, where spot buys and special events will be held.

Strategies:

Since there are currently 17 aloft hotels in the United States, 17 markets with high numbers in five specific areas regarding population, age, travel within the USA, frequent flyer membership and Internet usage were chosen using data from the SRDS 2008 lifestyle analysis (see appendix for map). Total numbers, rather than indexes, were used because the main advertising objective is to increase awareness, and indexes can mislead to small towns where reach would not be enough. Data from the cities was weighed in a spreadsheet to calculate each DMA’s estimated value.

(See appendix for full spreadsheets).

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List Spot Cities in Ranking Order:

1. New York, NY

2. Los Angeles, CA

3. Chicago, IL

4. Philadelphia, PA

5. San Francisco – San José – Oakland, CA

6. Dallas – Forth Worth, TX

7. Washington, DC

8. Atlanta, GA

9. Boston, MA

10. Houston, TX

11. Seattle – Tacoma, WA

12. Detroit, MI

13. Phoenix, AZ

14. Minneapolis, MN

15. Denver, CO

16. Miami – Ft. Lauderdale, FL

17. Orlando – Daytona Beach – Melbourne, FL

high tech. high fashion. high ceilings. 29

6. Media Budget

Objective:

The 15 million budget will be split between traditional media and non-traditional media / sales promotion so as to be able to reach the goals in both areas. From there, the non-traditional media and sales promotion objective will be split between Internet and the van and other events, and part of the traditional media budget will be saved for spot radio to promote the hotels.

Strategies:

The $15 million budget will be used as follows: *7 million for magazines *8 million for non-traditional media and sales promotion, of which: -1 million outdoor (budget will be split according to the 5 DMA’s %EV). -6 million Internet -1 million to run the van


46%

40%

7% 7%

Media Budget Strategy

magazines:

internet

outdoor

a-go-go van


46%

40%

7% 7%

Media Budget Strategy

magazines:

internet

outdoor

a-go-go van

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Appendix

Business Stays Heavy (10+

stays)

Total Adults(000) 36042 1169

Vertical % 100 100

Horizontal % 19.2 6.2

Index 100 100

25-34 years old(000) 8331 2666

Vertical % 23.1 22.8


Index 105 103

Employed Full Time(000) 24038 7644



Index 126 123

Northeast(000) 6071 2164



Index 82 90

Midwest(000) 9531 2948



Index 110 105

HOTEL STAYS FOR BUSINESS IN THE U.S.


South(000) 12673 4054



Index 101 100

West(000) 7767 2503


Horizontal % 20 6.4

Index 104 104

Metro Central City(000) 9922 3168



Index 89 88

Metro Suburban(000) 18160 6107



Index 106 110

Non-Metro(000) 7960 2394



Index 102 95

*Source: Simmonns Market Research Bureau, Inc. 1994

Business Stays Heavy (10+

stays)

HOTEL STAYS FOR BUSINESS IN THE U.S.

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References

All You Can Read. (2008). Top 10 Business Magazines. http://www.allyoucanread.com/top-10-business-magazines/

Baker, M.B. (2008, March 24). BTN U.S. Hotel Chain Survey, 2008. Business Travel News. http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/images/pdf/hotel_chain_08.pdf

BBC Commissioning (2006, July). 25-34 year olds Audience Information. Retrieved November 17, 2008 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/marketresearch/audi-encegroup3.shtml

Bowers, B. (2007). Regional performance offers insights into future. Hotel & Motel Management, 222(14), 16-16.

Chaffin, M. (2006, September). Star In The Margin: Hotel Opening. http://www.mi-chaelchaffin.com/hotel_opening/

Correspondent, A. C. G. (2008, September 7). New properties spice up lexington hotel trade aloft , element garner praise. The Boston Globe, pp. Reg3.

Eisen, D. (2006). Lofty expectations for starwood’s aloft brand. Business Travel News, 23(5), 18-18.

Exhibitor Online (2006, June). Aloft A-Go-Go. Corporate EVENT Magazine. http://www.exhibitoronline.com/corpevent/article.asp?ID=1033

First element opens with aloft next door.(2008). Hotel & Motel Management, 223(15), 24-24.

Gunter, H. (2008). Starwood’s c.e.o. maps out journey. Hotel & Motel Management, 223(13), 4-40.

Gunther, H. (2008). Element LEEDs brand-wide movement. (cover story). Hotel & Mo-tel Management, 223(15), 4-24.


Hip Hotels – aloft Hotels: Contemporaty & Modern Rooms. http://www.starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels

Hornik, J., & Schlinger, M. J. (1981). Allocation of time to the mass media. The Journal of Consumer Research, 7(4, Special Issue on Consumption of Time), 343-355.

Hotel offers ‘hip’ competition. (2008). Retailing Today, 47, 21-21.

Mandelbaum, R. (2008). Hospitality. Buildings, 102(1), 42-42.

McKeough, T. (2008). The jetblue of hotels. Fast Company, (127), 60-61.

The next generation of hotel brands.(2006). Association Meetings, 18(3), 28-29.

Now boarding. (2006). Latin Trade (English), 14(2), 38-38.

Reeves, M. J., & Rafferty, A. P. (2005). Healthy lifestyle characteristics among adults in the united states, 2000. Archives of Internal Medicine, 165(8), 854-857.

SRDS The Lifestyle Market Analyst. 2008. Equifax

Starwood hotels & resorts worldwide, inc Datamonitor.

Strauss, K., & Gale, D. (2006). Create BUZZ. Hotels, 40(3), 12-13.

Van Dyk, D. (2008). The generation Y hotel. Time South Pacific (Australia/New Zealand Edition), (24), 55-57.

Virtual Aloft (2007). www.virtualaloft.com

Watkins, E. (2006). Brands take charge. Lodging Hospitality, 62(5), 16-20.

39


aloft hotels Media Plan

callie mansour

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2

Situation Analysis 4

Target Audience Profile 12

Creative Brief 14

Objectives and Strategies 16

Appendix 32

References 38


“aloft is a reinvention of the travel experience, an oasis where least expected-

a spirited neighborhood outpost where uncomfortable cookie-cutter mediocrity is the norm and inovation a long forgotten

luxury... until now!”-virtual aloft

executive summary

Thorough research has proven that the following is media plan is a perfect match for aloft hotels. Considering aloft opened its doors for the first time in June 2008, the overall goal of this campaign is to raise awareness, because aloft is just entering the hotel market, so there is currently very low brand recognition. Although the goal isn’t necessarily focused on sales, revenues will increase as a direct result of elevated awareness. The target audience for this campaign is adult businesspeople 25-34 years old. These are people who are always on the go, and depending heavily on technology. They are very work-oriented, but also put an emphasis on their social life and like to have a good time. The goal is to introduce the aloft brand to these young business travel-ers as breaking the mold of traditional, predictable hotels that they are used to. aloft promises its audience a unique, satisfying experience because this is a hotel that understands their lifestyle. The hotel was built with them in mind, making it possible to balance work and play. The entire campaign will have a trendy, edgy tone, reflecting the modern, urban design of the hotels. The tagline for the campaign is “high tech. high fashion. high ceilings.” Since aloft isn’t widely known, the tagline describes the brand both literally and figuratively. The campaign budget is $15 million, which will be split between magazines, Internet, outdoor (billboards), and sales promotion. Magazines will be the main source of traditional media, with ads running in Forbes, Business Week, Sports Illustrated and Elle. Moreover, billboards will be placed in the five cities with the highest estimated value. However, the biggest emphasis of the campaign will be on sales promotion and non-traditional media. The aloft “a-go-go” van will tour 17 spot cities that have been deemed the most effective for the campaign’s objectives. The main goal of this van is to familiarize the audience with the brand, and encourage

allaloft

Documents

hotel market

new brand

hotel chain

hotel scene

increased brand loyalty

low brand recognition

starwood hotels

entire campaign