With travel spaces getting more cramped every year (i.e. airplane leg room), it became the Home2 Suites' mission to "Stand Up For Space", giving guests the freedom and space to bring the things they want. Only problem is, 7 out of 10 travelers don't know that every room at Home2 Suites is a spacious suite. As the newest and only pet-friendly hotel in the Hilton Suites portfolio, Home2 Suites needed to stand out and catch people's attention on social with a memorable demonstration of its unique offering. So, we challenged ourselves to re-imagine our room, using the space to pull off a feat only our suites could accommodate.
The Hilton Suites Brands–Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites–have made it their purpose to democratize the hotel suite. No longer are suites reserved for special occasions and the elite because, let's face it, everyone could use more space when they travel. Since most travelers don't know every room we offer is a suite, our number one goal was to increase awareness of our unique offering. We needed to create a buzzworthy social video that showcased the space in a way that was breakthrough, engaging and distinctly Home2 Suites.
Home2 Suites' pet-friendly policy sets the brand apart right off the bat. Knowing we needed to highlight this unique difference in our social video, we partnered with Twinkie, the 2016 Guinness World Record Holder for the Dog Who Popped the Most Balloons in a Minute.
To illustrate the sheer size of our suites in a fast, fun and "thumb stopping" way, we filled a suite floor entirely with balloons and let Twinkie go to town. Twinkie set a personal record, popping 120 balloons. For each balloon she popped, we donated $100 to the Warrior Canine Connection–a non-profit that enlists recovering Veterans in the therapeutic mission of learning to train service dogs for their fellow Veterans.
Leading up to the video launch, we created teasers to build anticipation. We use paid support to target consumers, and then re-targeted them when the video was live. The final video went live in May, in honor of National Pet Month.
Turns out Facebook loves balloon-popping dogs. The teaser and hero video generated over 8M impressions, 1.2M engagements and 2.3 video views–Home2 Suites' best performing video to date.
