Choice Hotels Asia-Pac has announced a new direction and positioning of the Choice Hotels brand in the market – including a name change from the previous brand Choice Hotels Australasia. The new name better reflects the company’s activities on both sides of the Tasman.
The new focus for Choice Hotels Asia-Pac is on people and bringing people together through destinations as opposed to the more common promotion of locations and destinations within the hotel industry.
The new brand also better represents Choice Hotels as it extends its network to the wider Asian countries and increasing its offering to a new audience, the millennials.
M+AD talked to general manager marketing Matt Taylor …
Please tell us how these changes “better represents the brand through its developments in China”?
Last year we announced that Choice Hotels had signed a development agreement with Hangzhou-based Boli Hotel Management Co, which is an independent authorised licensee of Choice Hotels. It will be responsible for the development and operation of 30 upscale Clarion and Quality branded hotels in China.
For the past 12 years we have been trading as Choice Hotels Australasia. As the remit of this office widens in line with the developments in China and other opportunities to come from the South East Asia region, it made sense that in line with the launch of the new brand identity that we also changed our name to Choice Hotels Asia-Pac. This ensures our name reflects the responsibilities of the company in this region.
The face-to-face initiative is interesting – the reason is, I guess, obvious, but we’d like a little elaboration on this?
Traditionally hotel companies have promoted themselves by promoting beautiful destinations, but what we’ve realised is that people don’t just travel to visit a destination, they travel to that destination to ultimately connect with other people in some way.
That’s why the new Choice Hotels brand encourages more face to face connection and less online interaction. We believe there is no substitute for offline human connection. The new brand will focus on the reasons of why people travel and why Choice is an important part of that experience. Ultimately we’re trying to establish this brand to be dynamic and engaging with all market segments including the new connected millennial traveller.
Did you use professional agencies in making the change (ad agency, PR agency, media agency)?
Choice Hotels International worked with McCann Erickson in New York on the global rebrand.
The creative execution of the new brand in Asia-Pac has been developed by creative agency Akkomplice Group in Melbourne and production of that creative was executed by The Pound. Our PR agency Undertow Media, which is based in both Australia and New Zealand, has been helping to bring the new brand to life across the region.
Where is Choice Asia-Pac HQ?
The Choice Hotels Asia-Pac head office is located in Melbourne. All departments are responsible for servicing the entire Asia-Pac region, including New Zealand. We also have staff on the ground in NZ and our senior team members visit NZ regularly.
We’re excited to launch the new brand into the NZ market and feel it will present numerous opportunities and allow us to better connect with all of our consumer groups.
NZ contact is Freemans Bay-based Sam Beer (sam@undertowmedia.com; 021 174 8647).
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