About City Lodge Hotel Group
City Lodge Hotel Group is a South African-born hospitality Mother brand with five distinct sub-brands in its stable, providing customers with comfort, at a level that suits their pocket. These go all the way from the Road Lodge, with its basic, functional rooms, all the way up to Courtyard Hotels with their magnificent luxury studios. This variety means CLHG provides a range of ways for their guests to experience unbelievable service and exceptional accommodation at different price points. CLHG has also extended their footprint further into the African continent as well. is also not only situated across South Africa, but have extended their footprint into the African continent too.
The Challenge
Historically, women used to be seen as the weaker sex, particularly in male-dominated workplaces. However, as workplaces become more equitable, days women are rising up and assuming greater roles and responsibilities in our society. They are strong, intelligent, independent and breaking new ground in industries across the board. Pilots, doctors, firefighters, you name it and chances are you will find a woman fulfilling a vital role in that profession. In fact, when you look at what some women are accomplishing these days, all you can do is stand back and say, “Whoa!”.
The dictionary describes the word “Whoa” as an expression of surprise or wonder. Digitlab wanted to do something different for the City Lodge Hotel Group for Women’s Day that catches people’s attention. We wanted to create a campaign that celebrated these strong women in a fun and different way. We decided to combine the words, “Whoa!” and “Women”, resulting in our creation of the “Whoa-men’s Day” Campaign.
Our Role
Digitlab was brought in to not only help CLHG create a Woman’s Day campaign that celebrates all that women are to our society but, from a CLHG business perspective, drive accommodation bookings as well as a Women’s Day breakfast special.
Our Solution
The Creative Work
Firstly, we wanted to introduce the “Whoa-men’s Day” Campaign concept to our consumers and remind people of all the amazing roles that will fulfil in our country. The question is how does that tie into driving room bookings at City Lodge? We’re glad you asked since the tagline for our campaign was: “Even strong women deserve a break.” This gave us the opportunity to show the special room rate, encouraging women to put themselves first for a change and get some well-deserved downtime at CLHG.
“We hold the belief that great creative drives great return in digital channels, this campaign is a great showcase of this truth.”
– Marc Fielers | Creative Director
Execution
As this is a Women’s Day campaign, we wanted to make sure the creative look and feel had a feminine yet strong quality about it. The female symbol was integrated into the logo and also used as a background element.
The Results
The optimised performance drove 4 times higher return on investment on the click-through rate. It also delivered 9 times more impressions than similar campaigns that City Lodge had run before.
“We love finding ways to improve client return by unlocking channel innovations in the way the target customers”
– Serena Pillay | Head of Media and Search