Reigniting a British Icon

Unlocking Potential

Travelodge is a national treasure and a key player in the budget hotel sector. But with competition fiercer than ever and external pressures growing, there's a constant need to innovate, to maximise the potential of the brand.

We’ve now partnered with Travelodge for 5 years, helping to build awareness, grow consideration, and crucially, sell more rooms. Everything started with our Brand Reset™ Programme.

The Brilliant Base

The most critical work happened upfront, talking first to consumers, and then to internal stakeholders right across the organisation, from team members to senior leaders. This employee engagement included a range of one-to-one interviews, as well as our Collisions™ workshop.

The output of this stage was a clear, confident new brand positioning, constructed from a simple but powerful insight; that people don’t go to Travelodge to stay in, they use it as a base to go out and ‘do their thing.’

This was captured in an energising new Brand Idea, the Brilliant Base; initially brought to life through a manifesto, playbook, and internal brand film.

Living the Brand idea

With a clear, and simple Brand idea, Travelodge challenged the organisation to deliver and excel against it. What does it mean for products and services? What does it mean for every individual? What initiatives and innovations should they do? How could everyone within the business, from the boardroom to the frontline housekeeping staff, play their part to make Travelodge the strongest it can possibly be?

Driving consideration

To drive consumer consideration, we created a highly populist, fame-making campaign, “Better get a Travelodge”, reinforcing the brand’s role in everyday lives, and strengthening positive impressions of the brand. An integrated approach with native content for every channel was required. TV, OOH and Radio ran in high impact bursts, while Digital and Social remained always-on, keeping Travelodge front of mind across key category entry points, driving relevancy, engagement, and conversion for both businesses and consumers.

From kids’ summer holidays to away football matches and train strikes, our programmatic display and paid social content met people in their moments of need, wherever and whenever they realised that they’d Better Get a Travelodge.

Cultural Fame and Record Profits

The foundational brand strategy work ensured that Travelodge’s Brand Reset delivered tangible impact right across the business.

Since launch, brand consideration, trustworthiness, and perceptions of ‘good value for money’ have all increased significantly and campaign recognition scores show that the work achieves tremendous cut through.

It has also started to achieve cultural fame, with the end line ’Better get a Travelodge’ increasingly referenced in everyday language.

Commercially, the campaign has contributed to significant growth within the business, with Travelodge recording over £1 billion in revenue for the first time in its 39-year history, and EBITDA up 14.6% to £243.9m in 2023.