Mandarin makes family pitch to battle Vegas-style rivals

The 'Star Rangers adventure', a space-themed campaign by OgilvyOne, will run until the end of August. The promotion is targeted at affluent families, with young kids, who are multiple credit card holders and are members of joint mileage programmes due to extensive travel. The hotel has partnered with both the Marco Polo Club and American Express to offer joint special deals including extra mileage points and discounted Star Ranger packages. The push comprises print ads in family-focused and travel publications, online banners and website, direct mail initiatives to current customers and American Ex-press customers. The creative banks on the pull of the children's programme and the space related fun activities. The campaign was developed using results of an online survey that was sent out to previous summer campaign users in April. By focusing on children, the campaign aims to differentiate the Mandarin from competitors and keep its market share through developing the family market for the hotel. Competition for the Mandarin has intensified this year, with the opening of The Sands Macau Hotel and Casino and the Waldo this year as part of a Las Vegas-style strip being developed in the enclave. There are other similar developments -- The Venetian and Star World -- in the pipeline. But Mandarin executives say the arrival of new competitors has its upside as well. "The opening of casinos is creating more awareness for Macau as a destination," said James Chow, sales and marketing director, Mandarin Oriental Hotels. OgilvyOne's general manager in Hong Kong, Sean Rach, said the agency expected that the campaign would outperform the benchmark set with last summer's promotion.v