'Where's Dave'?

Channel 5 TV Sponsorship Idents for Hampton by Hilton

Our brief

Hampton by Hilton is a midscale hotel brand that is part of the Hilton portfolio. They have over 2,500 hotels around the world, with the majority in US & Canada (where the brand is best known). Elsewhere across EMEA and APAC the brand is in its infancy. To help build brand awareness in the key market of the United Kingdom, the brand have a TV sponsorship with Channel 5 and their Travel & Adventures programming.

Following the success of our 2018 sponsorship idents for Discovery, our role was to create a series of engaging advertising stings that would run as bumpers into shows across multiple shows relating to Travel and Adventure, establishing the brand strategy ‘Real Travel’ – highlighting the real reasons we travel and the stories established in these moments.

The challenge was to gain cut through and create brand affinity.

Creative Approach

Introducing 'Dave' - the slightly oblivious guy who always seems to make the smart decision (booking a room at Hampton by Hilton)

We created a series of holiday and travel related scenarios in which our protagonists seem to find themselves - weddings, parties, trips abroad, festivals and sporting events. Unbeknownst to them our third character ‘Dave’ has always bailed and checked into the local Hampton by Hilton abandoning his friends for a comfy bed, a refreshing shower or a filling breakfast. 

This worked particularly well as a way of highlighting the brands USP’s without using traditional advertising methods prohibited in sponsorship. 

With a fairly tight budget, a small crew and creative solutions to locations we created 6 idents, that also extended into wider marketing integration; both through social media and in-hotel.