 "OYO Rooms")
Make no mistake: the World Wide Web is still the best place for budget-product marketing. Rupee for rupee, nothing you can do to promote your brand can equal the resulting benefits from having a significant presence on the internet. And if you are a budget hotel, having a great website is hygiene.
Again, make no mistake. Having a great website is not enough for a budget hotel; there are too many of them jostling to find a place in the top-of-mind recall chart. So you start with an optimised proprietary website followed by a well-conceived SEO, web marketing, and link strategy programme. And you also need an attention-grabbing commercial on the medium that still commands the biggest share of the advertising pie.
That's precisely what OYO Rooms is doing three years after launch. Through a new advertising campaign the brand is hoping to woo frequent travellers with an insightful portrayal of the way people behave when they check into a hotel. In the campaign, one sees people who prefer going straight to the window to see the view outside when they reach their hotel rooms, some who like jumping into the bed while still others kick off their shoes as if they are entering their own homes. And then there are those who love to take hotel toiletries back with them. The message comes out loud and clear: "whatever your quirk or habit, you are welcome to stay in OYO hotels". What is also clear is an attempt by the brand to be seen not just as an aggregator of standalone "rooms" but as a de facto "hotel".
To understand the reason one has to go back into OYO's history. In 2013, the hospitality industry in India saw a major disruption with the launch of OYO Rooms, a network of branded hotels that made the "luxury" of hotel stay affordable to the common man. OYO Rooms promised accommodation to travellers at rates as low as Rs 999.
As of 2015, the budget hotel market in India is worth $20 billion. Last year, OYO raised Rs 630 crore from Softbank and other existing investors. Its competitors include Zip Rooms, ZO Rooms, Treebo Hotels and Room on Call. Today, OYO Rooms claims to be India's largest branded network of hotels with properties in as many as 160 locations including Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa, Chennai and Kolkata.
The OneForEveryone campaign comprises eight films that deal with the pet peeves of people during hotel stay. Bhaskar Thakur, head, brand strategy, OYO Rooms, says, "The idea was to create a campaign that removed any ambiguity about our offering, and hence we came up with the concept of #OneForEveryone which subtly equates hotels with OYO." The campaign targets the young, upwardly mobile urban consumer. It has been conceptualised in-house and shot by DZU Film Company. Industry estimates for the campaign is Rs 20-25 crore.
The brief to the agency for the current campaign was simple: establish OYO as a young hotel brand that people instantly think of when they have to travel. Thakur says, "There are subtle hints in each of the commercials of best stay experience manifested through comfortable beds, customised toiletries, vibrant (selfie-worthy) rooms and easy booking via the app." The brand considered a couple of other ideas that revolved around resolution of customer or category pain points while travelling, and settled for the emotional payback of a predictable stay.
Apart from a set of TVCs, OYO Rooms has launched promotional activities across mediums as part of which people are encouraged to come forward with their quirk, views and ideas around hotel stays and post them on OYO's Facebook page.
Brand: OYO Rooms
Budget: Rs 20-22 crore
Agency: DZU Film Company
