IHG aligns Asia creative

The boutique agency, which currently has offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney, secured the business following a review that included DDB, McCann Erickson and Arc Worldwide.

The Marketing Store will handle above-the-line, merchandising and collateral.

IHG currently operates seven hotel brands, four of which - InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express - are expanding rapidly across several market segments in Asia-Pacific. According to IHG SVP of sales and marketing Gary Rosen, the growth comes amid a shift in preference in favour of branded hotels.

“We are seeing a major shift from unbranded hotels to branded hotels in the hotel industry. In an increasingly electronic and sophisticated world, customers are looking for brands they are familiar with.”

Rosen added that the marketing review followed the commissioning of a major research study, surveying 18,000 consumers worldwide to gain better insights into consumer attitudes. Last year IHG added nearly 100 hotels to its regional pipeline, 70 per cent of which were for hotels in Greater  China.