In late 2013, Delta Hotels and Resorts® was looking to reposition themselves as the leader in the four-star, full-service hospitality category. At the time, they were generally considered a dusty, three-star brand…but with new properties, new programs and a whole new direction in the works, they were eager to announce that they were setting the bar higher. To help them achieve this goal, a whole new identity was created from the ground up, and integrated across all of their consumer touch points. The primary objective of the advertising and brand repositioning was increased brand awareness of Delta Hotels and Resorts®. The core demographic was males and females, 30-45, with a focus on young professionals – business travelers, meetings planners and those looking to celebrate weddings. The strategic direction was shaped by four key pillars of guest experience, identified through qualitative and quantitative research: Genuine, Elevated, Local, and Personalized. Each ‘pillar’ hypothetically representing one of the brands “four” stars. This lead to the creation of a campaign which emulated these core values and represented the ultimate guest experience. With a tight deadline of December 2014, the challenge was to help Delta meet their objectives in time for the launch of their new flagship hotel – the Delta Toronto®, leaving less than a year to completely revamp and reposition the brand.

First up was Delta’s new brand tagline, Expect Even More™. It speaks to the great things that are currently happening within the organization, as well as the great things yet to come. Delta’s first-ever cross-Canada TV spot was filmed at the Delta Ottawa® – a modern hotel that represents the brand’s new direction. Supported by a nation-wide digital and print campaign, additional video content was gathered to create online vignettes that told a deeper story about each of the core target customers featured in the spot. This included business travelers, meetings planners and wedding bookers. In addition, a full property audit of Delta hotels was performed nationwide in order to observe brand consistency (or lack thereof) and take design cues from the modernized properties to influence the new creative platform – along with the brand’s first official style guide. To ensure that the revamped look and feel remained consistent in the physical space, a digital content management system was launched that allows Delta marketing managers  to customize and print their own marketing collateral – using carefully crafted pre-designed templates.

This work not only helped increase awareness of the brand, it helped generate an increase in hotel reservations as well. In fact, total e-commerce revenue for the brand increased by 6%. In addition, their overall revenue increased by nearly 10% and their conversion rate went up by 25%. Most impressively, their overall guest satisfaction experience increased by an astounding 60% - a true testament to Delta’s success over the past year. With numbers far surpassing the goals set by client, Delta was able to achieve their goal of becoming a leader in the four-star, full-service hospitality category. In fact, Marriott Hotels International took notice of this remarkable transformation. In early 2015, they purchased Delta and are looking to position them as the premium, four-star brand in their global portfolio.