The Quinte Accommodations and Attractions Association, or QAAA for short, is one of the six partnerships that allows the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board to promote this region for tourism and resident attraction. Needless to say, but we’ll say it anyway, accommodations are a big part of tourism. Without a place to stay, visiting would be rather challenging. So we are quite glad that we have four well known branded hotels to help. The Towne Place Suites by Marriott, The Best Western, The Fairfield Inn & Suites and the Holiday Inn Express give travellers trusted value and take the guess work out of finding a place to stay here in the BoQ. It’s comforting to know a brand especially when it’s where you will be laying your head when arriving somewhere new.
So, as an organization that works to bring visitors to the area we are well aware that hotels are an essential component to travel. But as a marketing organization we were challenged as to how we would tell the hotel’s story in a way that would make our audience take notice. And we knew that a photograph of a room with a bed just wasn’t going to cut it.
Enter crazy, anything goes brainstorm session. We knew we wanted to evoke nostalgia. All of us here at the BoQ HQ remember staying in hotels as kids and what a big deal it was. Jumping on the beds, the little soaps and the pool especially. As adults we relived the thought of walking into the room, dropping our bags and sitting on the edge of the bed staring at the tv, mouth agape, “totally mesmerized”. There is just something about a hotel room after a long journey that unleashes a big sigh of relief. Ahhhhhhh. And then there’s the total wreckage of stuff. Jen and her partner Kitch bet on how long it will take them to cover the entire room with stuff. Pocket contents on desk, receipts, snacks, clothes splayed all over the second bed. It’s a laughable site. We also wanted to bring attention back to hotels versus other forms of home sharing accommodations. And so, it was with these ideas in mind that we started to build our hotel campaign. Two parts equalling four pages.
Introducing Photographer Ash Murrell.
With Ash’s help and open mindedness to the cray cray that is in our heads, we set out to create something unique and on point with a little humour thrown in. It took some convincing and a bit of playing the part, but once Ash realized how far we were willing to go with the unconventional the shots were captured perfectly.
Also perfect were the talent. Morgan and Mark Kotsovos came to mind immediately for this campaign and we had thought of them long before anything else fell into place. We are full to the brim with gratitude for their willingness go the distance in pulling this idea off. We wanted a young, local family who could give us the same aesthetic as a talent agency and we couldn’t have wished for better representation.
Everything was coming together. Now for the location. We had four hotels to choose from, each with something unique to offer but in the end we went with The Holiday Inn Express. This hotel had just undergone a two million dollar renovation and the room was perfect for photoshoot set up.
A little help from…
HAIR & MAKEUP.
and WARDROBE.
SUSTENANCE.
THE K9 UNIT ON STAND-BY.
OUR ENTHUSIASTIC STAND-INS.
The end result? Worth every piece of doubt that was thrown our way. When passion overpowers fear, great things can happen.
and Tah Dah! GREATNESS.
…MORE GREATNESS.
And there you have it folks. A behind the scenes look at how the creativity unfolds here at the BoQ RMB.
Stay tuned as we keep turning the page, giving you more insights into what we do and how we do it.
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