HOLIDAY INN SPOT FEATURES SUSAN THE BLOGGER

Marcus: "Zack,are you looking at Susan's Blog?"
Zack:   "She was featured in four of the leading business magazines?"
Marcus: "And she is so humble you would never know that to talk to her."
Ted:    "She doesn't sound very humble to me if she's crowing about her accomplishments on the worldwide net web. She's embarrassing herself. She's embarrassing the company and... hello, Susan"

 

Is Susan the first blogger to be featured in a commercial for a major brand?  If she is, Fallon, the agency that created the spot,isn't ready to take credit. The blog creative was pitched to help promote that Holiday Inn has WiFi in public areas. However, in that original creative, the blog belonged to Ted.

Now, unless you are an afficionado of Holiday Inn's Campaign you are probably not on a first name basis with the characters. Ted is the senior guy who is stereotypically obnoxious.

In the pitch,Ted had blog that he didn't want the public to know about. Ted's blog was about personal stuff including his passion for hot air ballooning. It was on location for that shoot(it did include hot air ballooning)that the creative team decided to experiment with the actors.

"We said to them Ted doesn't have the blog, Susan does. It's a business-focused blog that highlights her accomplishments," explained Paula Maki Biondich who is the copywriter on the campaign. " We said, "Okay,go and it came to life."

The punchline: Marcus says to Ted, " It seems like you should report to her."

Susan's blog is part of Holiday Inn's "Look Again" Campaign that is trying to reposition the hotel from a family, leisure roadside brand to a more business-centric one. This is the second year for the campaign that features the life of "business guys" on the road.

This is cross-posted at Blogher