Ginger model on Kolkata streets

Ginger Hotels, a budget-hotel chain of the Roots Corporation, a subsidiary of Indian Hotels Company Ltd, has set up a two-storied replica of a hotel in its chain in Kolkata in an effort to use the out-of-home (OOH) format in advertising to win over clients.

OOH was so long used to create giant hoardings and 3D replicas of a product.

The Kolkata campaign was conceived by Lowe Lintas, Bombay.

Under this campaign, a two-storied structure will be located at a busy location as a modular structure complete with beds, wardrobes, iron stand, staircases, cyber café tables, LCD panels, and other essentials found in any Ginger hotel.

The structure would be detailed so that the furniture, floor tiles, kitchen equipment etc were all exactly like those inside any Ginger hotel..

A person would be moving inside the replica using the rooms and facilities, or watching television, making calls and using the cyber café to show off the comforts of a Ginger hotel. The structure would have Ginger housekeeping personnel cleaning the rooms.

The entire structure was modular to permit its transportation and re-assembly in other cities.

Speaking to Business Standard, Tarun Singh Chauhan, executive vice-president of Lowe Lintas at Bombay, said, "When it came to outdoor advertising for Ginger hotels, we suggested something innovative, offering consumers touch and feel of the product itself rather than just looking at a hoarding."

This modular structure would be up for about a fortnight at the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass of Kolkata.

Passers-by could actually walk into the structure and use some of the facilities on offer.

Prabhat Pani, CEO of Roots Corporation Limited, said, "We set up this modular structure in cities or towns close to wherever we would build our hotel".

Ginger recently set up a 100-room hotel in Durgapur and is planning another in Agartala in a few months.

Kolkata was the metro nearest to Durgapur and Agartala.

Ginger ran the same campaign in Bombay some time ago after it set up hotels in Pune and Nasik.

"We would always want to campaign at a major city so that people can visit the hotel without travelling much of a distance," explained Pani.

Ginger hotel rooms were priced at Rs 1000.

Ginger was looking at properties in Calcutta for a budget hotels but that would mean a low land price, Pani said.

Ginger would be putting up a hotel at the Rail Yatri Niwas at New Delhi Railway station.

"There too, we would offer room at close to Rs 1000, plus taxes," Pani added.