Stay Smart with webisodes

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Holiday Inn is returning to branded content in a bid to target Generation X business travellers to the venerable hotel chain.
Called The Smart Show: Season 2 the campaign, at www.hiexpress.com/thesmartshow centres around a series of webisodes showcasing the “quirks, challenges and occasional charms of business travel”. The specially made clips, produced in conjunction with Endemol USA, will air on the site twice a week from July until October, hosted by online TV network blip.tv.

Changes for Season 2 include more interactive functions as well as promotions associated with the webisodes. Extra distribution is also planned and the episodes will be available to view on YouTube, with the aim of connecting with the target audience who are after light and easy engagement while on the road. Additional content includes the Need-er-ator, a discussion forum on which users can ask questions related to their travel needs and receive answers from an online community. Smart Show blogs from industry experts will be uploaded onto the site with relevant travel content from around the web, and users can fill in a Holiday Inn-branded form to find locations, room rates and availability.

Lessons learned from Season 1 include making the content less focused around a road trip and more themed content such as find my dream job and the frequency of uploading is down from Season 1’s every day a new episode strategy.

Associations with The Smart Show have seen online travel resource TripAdvisor promote the campaign on its own website and promotion of the show is taking place across a number of fellow web shows such as Beet.tv and Experiment of the week.

The Smart Show also promotes Holiday Inn’s Priority Club Rewards Scheme in which regular visitors to Holiday Inns can collect points that are redeemable against merchandise, airline miles and free hotel stays – all of which can be bought on the site.

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