In late 1994, a seemingly ordinary breakfast was held at a hotel in Los Angeles with four creative heads from Pixar Studios at the table. During breakfast, they came up with two ideas: a movie in which the monsters in the closet draw their energy from the screams of children; and a movie in which a fish searches for his lost son in the Pacific Ocean. That's how the idea for Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo was born. Nearly 30 years later, Neo's creatives gathered at an Ensana hotel to create the hotel chain's brand launch campaign. See how it turned out!
Our mission:
We can see that hotels, whether in America or Hungary, can be a place for the birth of ground-breaking ideas, but what other experiences can we expect there? First and foremost, comfort, relaxation, but most importantly, wholesome relaxation. Our team was given the task to convey these messages creatively and effectively, promoting domestic travel and, above all, hotels belonging to Ensana.
Target audience:
The campaign was primarily aimed at young couples aged 30+ with no children, and couples aged 50+ who already had older children. As a secondary target group, we identified Hungarian families with the following characteristics: AB status, interested in travel, wellness, health, recreation and relaxation, with nationwide targeting but with a focus on Budapest.
Although the main message of the new brand was to promote health, we had to realise that most of our target group prefer to relax, have a good meal and bathe in the many different wellness hotels rather than to recover, so the campaign also placed more emphasis than usual on various side messages.
Strategy:
The first part of the campaign was launched in spring 2023. It was no small responsibility, as Ensana is Europe's leading spa hotel chain, with 27 hotels in 5 countries, exclusively in famous resorts towns with their own medicinal or thermal water. In Hungary, the brand includes five hotels formerly known under the name Danubius Hotels: the Thermal Margitsziget and Grand Margitsziget in Budapest, the Thermal Sárvár in Sárvár, the Thermal Hévíz in Hévíz and the Thermal Aqua Health Spa Hotels.
We launched the campaign with awareness-raising tools, so we could reach our target group in a cost-effective way. In addition to programmatic impressions, we also supported the campaign with large-scale, strinking creatives, content collaborations, and influencers. In the case of influencers, we worked with real opinion leaders, not overused celebrities.
In addition to using eDMs and PR articles on high reach sites as an educational campaign element, we also launched a special giveaway with Utazómajom, which - in addition to higher engagement – promoted the hotels, informed the audience, and inspired action.
Results:
Our brand awareness campaign far exceeded the expected results and estimated KPIs. In total, we measured nearly 20% more impressions, and achieved double the click-through rates we had planned with our attention-grabbing creative and messaging.
Thanks to this overperformance, our cost-efficiency indicators also delivered outstanding results. What is more, our brand awareness growth survey for the Meta campaign showed a 3.2% increase in awareness of Ensana hotels and a 7.5% increase in the percentage of people who encountered our ads on Facebook during the campaign period.
Conclusion:
All in all, in a highly competitive market, we succeeded in making a breakthrough with a well thought-out, creative, wholehearted campaign. Soon, we'll be off to one of the Ensana hotels to relax after the campaign and to brainstorm on a new project. Maybe yours...
