The Holiday Inn® Brand Launches New "Journey to Extraordinary" Campaign

ATLANTA, July 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) today announced the next evolution of its Holiday Inn® brand's Change Your View platform, Journey to Extraordinary. This new campaign celebrates the inspiring journeys of its many guests, by sharing their unique narratives through the brand's first digitally-led, multimedia marketing approach. With this campaign, the iconic Holiday Inn brand is brought to life in an authentic and tangible way, while reintroducing the brand and its current offering to guests, whether they are checking-in for the very first time or for their first stay in a while.

"For more than 62 years, the Holiday Inn® brand has played a pivotal role in helping to enable the extraordinary journeys of millions of guests who come through our doors," said Maurice Cooper, vice president, Holiday Inn Brand, Americas. "While they may find themselves traveling different roads in life, there is always a Holiday Inn hotel to meet the needs of our guests and help them move forward on their journey. Each of our guests have a unique connection to the brand and their own story to tell, which the Journey to Extraordinary campaign creatively celebrates, while hopefully inspiring fresh ones along the way."

The Holiday Inn brand has partnered with notable organizations such as Tumblr, Nonfiction Unlimited, International New York Times, Mashable and MBAs Across America (MBAxAmerica) to tell captivating stories that help bring the Journey to Extraordinary campaign to life.  New content will be rolling out starting now through November 2014, with stories added weekly across the Holiday Inn brand's various digital platforms including Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Stories from Holiday Inn Hotels
The Holiday Inn brand kicked off its Journey to Extraordinary campaign by producing "Stories from Holiday Inn Hotels," a series of short videos and social media posts highlighting the unique, stories of real guests at various Holiday Inn hotels. This content was shared on the Holiday Inn brand's Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages.

Tumblr Partnership
The Holiday Inn® brand also teamed up with Tumblr by bringing together two of the platform's renowned photographers, Chris Ozer and Scott Borrero, to capture the extraordinary journeys of guests through compelling photography at Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Resort® brand properties across the United States.

"Tumblr's content-driven platform has helped brands tell stories and appeal to audiences in beautiful and moving ways," said David Hayes, Head of Creative Strategy, at Tumblr. "The Holiday Inn® brand was the first hotel advertiser on Tumblr, and we couldn't be more inspired by their elevated work with our creators to celebrate the individuality and journeys of their guests, and the spirit of their brand in their new campaign." 

Signature Stories Series
Each year, more than seven million guests choose to stay at a Holiday Inn hotel in the Americas, making memories and connections along their diverse journeys. Over the past 6 months, the brand went in search of five real Holiday Inn brand guests to profile in a 'Signature Stories' series, and met people from a social entrepreneur to an award-winning rodeo clown, all of whom were on the road for different occasions and are as diverse as the guests who walk through the doors of Holiday Inn hotels every day. All of the 'Signature Stories' selected will be shared in an unscripted documentary style via Tumblr. The first of these stories features Scott Rigsby, a double amputee who is a marathoner, tri-athlete, world record holder, author and motivational speaker. After years of multiple surgeries, Rigsby made his way down to the Holiday Inn Resort Panama City Beach in hopes of rehabilitating all while facing financial hardship. In Rigsby's documentary short, he is reunited with the owner of the hotel, Julie Hilton, who helped make his incredible future a reality.

To produce Scott's Signature Story, the Holiday Inn brand teamed up with Nonfiction Unlimited and one of its directors, Stacy Peralta, legendary skateboard professional turned award-winning documentarian, including two Sundance Film Festival awards.

MBAs Across America Partnership
Finally, through the Journey to Extraordinary campaign, the Holiday Inn brand will partner with MBAxAmerica for its 'Signature Stories' series, and also serve as the official hotel sponsor. MBAxAmerica is an innovative program that takes MBA students from some of America's most prestigious universities and challenges them to take a journey across the U.S., learning from and working with visionary entrepreneurs who, like the Holiday Inn brand, are committed to service and making a difference in their communities. Additionally, the Holiday Inn brand will document and share the extraordinary journeys of these MBA teams and their entrepreneur collaborators later on through the summer.

"We are thrilled to partner with IHG and the Holiday Inn® brand, and are grateful for their support as our MBAx Fellows travel across the country to learn from and work with the startups and small businesses that are creating jobs and changing lives every day. Our hope is that, together, we can help unleash the potential of entrepreneurship to revitalize American communities – one extraordinary journey at a time," said Casey Gerald, CEO and cofounder of MBAs Across America.

About the Holiday Inn® brand
With over 1,100 hotels worldwide, the Holiday Inn® brand is the most widely recognized lodging brand in the world. In fact, the Holiday Inn brand was one of the first international hotel brands to establish a presence in China in 1984. The Holiday Inn brand provides the services that business travelers need, while also offering a comfortable atmosphere where all people can relax and enjoy amenities such as restaurants and room service, swimming pools, fitness centers and comfortable lounges. The casual atmosphere and amenities such as meeting and on-site business facilities, and Kids Stay and Eat Free programs, demonstrates the long-standing commitment of the Holiday Inn brand to serving travelers and have helped to establish the brand as "America's Favorite Hotel." For more information about the Holiday Inn brand, visit www.holidayinn.com or call 1-800-HOLIDAY. Find us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/holidayinn or Facebook www.Facebook.com/holidayinnhotels.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihg.com/media, www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

Notes to Editors:
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organization with a broad portfolio of nine hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts.

IHG manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty program with nearly 79 million members worldwide. The program was relaunched in July 2013, offering enhanced benefits for members including free internet across all hotels, globally.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,700 hotels and 688,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories, with more than 1,100 hotels in its development pipeline.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

SOURCE IHG Hotels & Resorts