Luxury hotels and programmatic DOOH: Sofitel’s brand awareness strategy
Explore Sofitel’ success story. Dentsu and Displayce deployed a powerful programmatic DOOH campaign to increase brand awareness for the Sofitel hotels in the USA.
About the clients
Sofitel
Pioneering French luxury hostels, Sofitel was founded in 1964 with the opening of its first hotel in Strasbourg. Sofitel blends French spirit with local culture through sophisticated culinary creations, exhibitions of local artists, and their wellness spaces, enhancing the transformative power of cultural connection. This new vision of committed luxury leaves an indelible memory in the hearts and minds of their guests.
Dentsu
Dentsu helps the world’s top organizations grow and transform through integrated solutions. Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, and now present in over 145 countries and regions, it has a proven track record of nurturing and developing innovations, combining the talents of its global network of leadership brands to develop impactful and integrated growth solutions for clients.
The Sofitel DOOH campaign context
Sofitel embarked on a mission to increase awareness of their hotel offerings in the USA to a target of affluent travelers over 35 years old. The campaign ran for a month, from November 2nd to December 2nd, 2023, across six states: Illinois, California, New York, Washington, Texas, and Pennsylvania. We meticulously chose one venue type—airport digital screens—to resonate with Sofitel’s target audience.
With these settings, they broadcasted their creatives on 341 screens across 310 points of interest.
By crafting a programmatic DOOH campaign with relevant and precise geo-targeting, they ensured their ads were contextualized and reached the right audience.
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Using programmatic DOOH for maximum impact and context
The campaign was conducted by Dentsu and supported by Displayce’s DSP. It was broadcasted on JCDecaux and Clear Channel DOOH screens through VIOOH and Broadsign’s SSP. Sofitel strategically placed its messaging across 100% of the international airports in the targeted states. They choose a strategy using different creatives at the same time to exploit multiple panel formats (vertical & horizontal) and be omnipresent in airports.
Additionally, they deployed a precise dayparting and pacing strategy with personalized schedules to specifically target high-end flight companies in phase with their core target. We were able to offset the CPM cost for arrival and departure screens and ensure a full presence at the airport with a flexible CPM. They also implemented a budget breakdown reflecting the volume of screens per state:
- 50% of the budget for the states of New York and California
- 50% of the budget for the other states
The Sofitel’s campaign results
Sofitel’s programmatic DOOH campaign stimulated brand awareness, brand familiarity, and special intent with tangible results.
The campaign generated 15,442,410 impressions and 2 000 000 plays. Displayce relied on Happydemics to conduct a brand lift survey to analyze the campaign results. Seven questions were asked of a group of 300 users exposed to the advertising campaign and a control group similar in terms of gender and age to the population not exposed via Happydemics. The DOOH ads improved both preference and specific intent. With an impressive 44 point increase in specific intent, the Sofitel campaign is placed in the top 15% of campaigns for specific intent. Specific intent refers to the consumer’s willingness to take action related to the brand. The results also showed a significant increase in brand consideration by 27 points. Additionally, the campaign collected an uplift in brand familiarity of 13 points.
Through relevant planning and execution, Sofitel has gained true acknowledgment from affluent travelers over 35 in the USA by effectively tapping into their desires and needs. By covering 100% of the international market in their designated area of diffusion, Sofitel ensured maximum exposure and engagement with consumers at precisely the right moments.
