Mango PR increases profile of Threadneedles to leisure guests

The Brief

Support sales & marketing team in building leisure sales across The Eton Collection with a particular focus on Threadneedles hotel in the City.

The Idea

Identify some opportunities that would make the hotel more interesting for the feature, lifestyle and travel pages.  These opportunities should also emphasise the hotel’s location as being in the centre of London and ‘at the heart of it all’.   The first partner identified was the British Museum who were about to launch its major exhibition The First Emperor.

The Strategy

MPR approached the British Museum with a view to becoming a hotel partner for their key exhibitions and agreed a number of initiatives.  

• An exclusive weekend with the Emperor package was negotiated with the British Museum marketing team in association with Threadneedles. This was a one night weekend package (12 January 2008) including a champagne reception with the Curator at Threadneedles, dinner in the hotel’s restaurant and, a guided private tour of the exhibition the following day. The package was promoted by Mango PR and the British Museum’s press team.

• The package was launched to the press - ‘A Weekend with The Emperor’ co-hosted by Threadneedles and the British Museum in October. The event consisted of a press weekend with drinks and dinner at Threadneedles on the Friday night hosted by the Curator of the British Museum, alongside the general manager of Threadneedles. On Saturday morning the press were then given a private guided tour. We were overcome with responses and had to whittle the group down to ten members of the press. Press attendees included The Times, The Observer, Times Online, Bristol Evening Post and Manchester Evening News

• Agreed a special package and promotion with Vanity Fair in France and Germany

• An email marketing campaign was agreed between British Museum and Threadneedles and their respective databases. Links to each party’s website were set up

• A weekend ‘friends and family rate’ for Threadneedles was extended to all 3,000 employees at the British Museum for the duration of the exhibition

The Results

The British Museum weekend at Threadneedles had sold out by 10am on Saturday morning following The Times’ lead piece on it.   The team at The Eton Collection went on to organise two other exclusive weekends in January which also sold out.

Feature coverage appeared in The Observer, The Independent on Sunday, Times Online, The Glasgow Herald, Birmingham Mail, Western Morning News and Western Daily Press. Several other media opportunities had to be turned down as the package had sold out.