Lastminute.com is aiming to drive consumer trial of its Top Secret Hotels offering with a digital campaign highlighting the benefits and intrigue of the sub-brand.
Created by Y by PI&C, the European office of People Ideas & Culture, the video-led campaign dramatises the Top Secret Hotel brand and positions it as a ‘secret worth knowing’. Launched today on the lastminute.com site and YouTube channel the video centres around a female character’s experience of arriving at a Top Secret Hotel blindfolded. Seeking to make the intrigue of the experience desirable and reassuring the story-telling follows the central character’s journey to her hotel room; starting with a romantic hand-written clue, followed by a journey through the hotel’s five-star interiors before the final reveal of a luxury hotel room. In a bid to reaffirm the sub-brand’s USP and tone of voice the creative has a high-end look and feel, representative of the four and five-star properties on offer. "We know that when customers have tried Top Secret Hotels it has been the start of a lasting love affair. This isn’t just because they have accessed wonderful four and five-star hotels at really great prices and saved up to 35 per cent – they also enjoyed the intrigue and excitement of the Top Secret Hotel booking process," explained Sarah Bartlett, chief marketing officer for lastminute.com."We wanted to dramatise this and gamify the qualities of the brand, whether that is ‘booking blindfold’, looking for hotel clues or arriving at a hotel you couldn’t have imagined. This video campaign embodies the essence of our love living brand message: help and reward the spontaneous, so customers make more of their free time."Doug Raboy, chief idea architect at Y by PI&C added: "If there are two things people love, it’s knowing a good secret and getting a great price on an amazing hotel room. Top Secret Hotels combines both of these things. This video is a sexy visualization of how Top Secret Hotels work, and will get people excited about the big reveal of the hotel they’ve booked."The digital campaign will be available to view on the lastminute.com YouTube channel and paid spend will be put behind its launch, including VOD, seeding and social advertising. Check out behind-the-scenes images from Roberto Zampino below.
