The Hotel Affair

This was one of our first Hotel assignments. The owner had dropped in at my Brother in Law’s place to give a message to him and that is when he met me. He casually asked me what I was doing for a living. When I told him that I was in advertising and PR business, he asked me whether I could develop and produce a brochure for his Hotel. That was beginning of a long relationship. I visited the place, spent a couple of days with his staff, checked out wild life sanctuary and told the staff that every single one of them (from security guard to the general manager) must not only be wild life enthusiasts but “tour guides”. They must learn about animals, fauna and flora, the whole nine yards.

For the concept I used a small child with Hotel staff where photographs of different staff members pointing out to the wonder of the wild around to this little child were used. There were frequent visitors to the Hotel – a lone Elephant, a Wild Boar, a Rabbit, who sneaked in to the outer sections of the Hotel. The copy was written in poetic style to bring out highly charged emotions. The idea that is was a safe location was conveyed. The luxury of the hotel that was amidst of a jungle was made obvious through carefully planned and art directed photography.

I worked on the outdoor branding as well. I supported the marketing manager to build databases and carried out direct marketing campaigns supported with PR articles in local newspapers and offshore travel magazines. Couple of years later, when the owner was negotiating a price to sell this hotel to one of the key conglomerates in the country, he got the price he wanted because of the brand equity we had built. One of the greatest compliments came from a rival advertising agency who worked with the new owner. “We wish we came up with an idea like that” they told me.