introduction
When booking platform Profitroom set out to elevate their profile and reclaim UK market share, they needed a B2B PR partner who could bring their proposition to life through a strategic campaign using creative storytelling.
Hoteliers were losing revenue and they weren’t aware of the solution to fix it. They were essentially asleep on the job, with revenue being lost as a result of an over-reliance on Online Travel Agents (OTAs).
Despite Profitroom’s expertise in driving independent hotels’ direct bookings with high-converting websites, its messaging wasn’t hitting the right note with its target audience.
Profitroom turned to Smoking Gun’s B2B team to help them gain stand-out coverage against the competition with a PR campaign and new value proposition that raised brand awareness and reaffirmed their key messages.
Objectives
Armed with a deep understanding of the target market, our team sharpened Profitroom’s narrative and positioned Profitroom as the go-to tech provider for hotels ready to supercharge their success.
Our strategists uncovered the barriers holding UK hoteliers back from capitalising on Profitroom’s offering.
Enter the Wake Up campaign, aimed at jolting UK hoteliers into action by demonstrating the game-changing power of Profitroom’s tech solutions.
strategy
Smoking Gun is renowned for its creativity and proud to challenge the status quo with strategies that shift what target audiences think, feel and do. This was an essential part of building Profitroom’s creative strategy.
The team immersed themselves in Profitroom’s key target audience, their concerns, what keeps them up at night and what stops them from choosing Profitroom’s product. This included time pressures, cost pressure, bad past experiences and having no idea just how much they were losing to OTAs.
This insight-driven approach shaped messaging development and activities that addressed these barriers head-on.
The Wake Up campaign was the perfect fit.
It provided a call to action, for hoteliers to do things differently and wake up to poor industry practices.
Hoteliers needed to know there was a better, more efficient way of doing things. The key was to be bold and brave with any comms and focus on championing the benefits of Profitroom, rather than the product itself.
The campaign messages included:
WAKE UP… to increased conversion
WAKE UP… to a slicker site
WAKE UP…to a liberated team
WAKE UP… to a devoted support team
WAKE UP… to increased revenue
Through this smart campaign, we were able to:
Creative Campaigns
across tier one trade and business titles, alongside coveted spots in The Times and Daily Mail
with key messages featured in 96% of coverage
across trade titles that usually require paid placements, including The Caterer, Hotel Owner, Hotel Management Network and Boutique Hotelier
after just nine-months of working with Smoking Gun
strongly resonating with peers and prospect clients
client impact
“The impact that Smoking Gun has had on our salience with our target audience and peers has been remarkable. The Wake Up campaign effectively demonstrated that prioritising Profitroom drives hoteliers success across every metric.
“The results have far exceeded our expectations, but what we’ve valued most is the team’s unwavering commitment. They’ve embraced every opportunity to support us, consistently going above and beyond with strategic advice and insights.
“We have been on such a huge growth journey in the UK and none of this would have been possible without the impressive press coverage the team secured.
“Now, our demos and initial calls with prospective clients are much warmer, thanks to Smoking Gun’s clever communications that have given the market a clear view of us as a business.
“While we measured success through its impact on prospect clients, what surprised us most was the outstanding response from peers and potential employees, many of whom now want to join our company after seeing our work and brand personality.” – Jane Young, Regional Marketing Manager for UK, Africa and Enterprise at Profitroom.
Why stop at global stardom and incredible sales? When our clients work with us, they get the silverware to boot. We’re not into tooting our own horns, but the awards we’ve won with our clients are too good to miss…