The Brief

To generate point-of-sale enquiries and bookings for the launch of the Hard Rock Hotel in Penang.

Creative Execution

Considering our audience of rock and roll fans, we needed to promote our new hotel in a manner that would capture their attention. An ad-like poster wouldn’t have provided the cut-through we wanted. Locals and tourists have always taken a keen interest in the rock memorabilia at the Cafe and the stories behind them. With this in mind, we produced our own memorabilia to promote the hotel. And by doing so, we highlighted what The Hard Rock Hotel is all about - The place where rockers will always feel welcome.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

With its steady stream of loyal customers, the Hard Rock Cafe was the perfect place to launch the Hard Rock Hotel Penang on a small budget. Rather than the usual autographed guitar, we replaced Hard Rock Cafe’s memorabilia with authentic-looking pieces of our own. These ambient items featured never-before-seen ‘artefacts’ from the infamous stays of rockers at other notable hotels. And the unpleasant welcome they received. Every piece was faithfully produced to look like an original Hard Rock memorabilia. Together with this, we included a call-to-action for reservations.

Results

Our memorabilia contributed to the overall campaign’s success with The Hard Rock Hotel Penang consistently recording an average occupancy rate of 95% after launch. This is especially important when occupancy rates for neighbouring hotels during that season usually averaged 65%.