Worldwide Hospitality Awards

ibis budget launched its brand passion: Smart Sport, designed to turn every place into a playground and make sport accessible to all, in-hotel and online. -- ibis budget affirme sa passion pour le Smart Sport, imaginée pour transformer chaque lieu en terrain de jeu et rendre le sport accessible à tous.

WHY ?

ibis budget is a well-known Accor brand, recognized for its great value for money proposition but does not perform well on modernity, comfort and emotion, lacking animation in hotels.

In order to fix this and become the best-known smart choice brand on super eco segment, ibis budget has initiated a complete transformation in 2020. From product to communication, everything has been rethought to provide a new experience to the guests.

In addition, with Covid, French have become accustomed to doing sport with little money and tools: a quarter of them (24%) have taken up online sports, fitness or weight training courses, while 15% of them have never done so before. We already had solutions in mind for them!

HOW?

In 2020-2021 we began to transform our hotels in smart and comfortable basecamps to everyone eager to live a life full of everyday adventures.

Our concept is creation and deployment our new brand passion: Smart Sport by ibis budget. Smart Sport means staying active in everyday life by turning every place into a playground :

• Routine is an opportunity to exercise
• Everyday objects can become sports equipment
• Places could be playgrounds

"Turn your waiting time at check-in into an express workout? "Use your bath towel as your only piece of sports equipment" "Turn the stairs in our hotels into a sports course". It's all this and more with Smart Sport: Smart Sport is sport by ibis budget: smart, economical and accessible to all!

WHAT?

At Accor we have developed a new and innovative way of exercising without any fitness equipment and using all the hotel assets (furniture, stairs, reception, room, towels, chairs). The concept is hybrid with both in-hotel and digital content to promote a seamless experience in all 355 hotels.

The Smart Sport experience began this year with:

• Indoor signage to create a mobility parcours in the customer journey. By scanning the QR code, the client discovers the tutorial video to make squats, steps or crab walk etc..[DA2]
• Decathlon kits available in the lobbies or on request at the reception to lend to clients and Décathlon equipments choosed by the staff
• A personalized running trail has been created for each hotel in France to allow our guests to venture around our establishments, powered by Strava
• A website has been created to digitalize the experience and find all content : https://smartsportbyibisbudget.com/
• Event roadshow to promote sport for locals and transform our hotel parking in a sport playground for more than 100 events co-organised with Décathlon from June to December 2021 in 52 ibis budget hotels in France to introduce the general public to Smart Sport
• Newsletter for teams with ideas and best practices

COMMUNICATION

1. DIGITAL AND OOH CAMPAIGN

Through the staging of furniture, the film of the smart sport campaign shows ibis budget's desire to offer its customers an enriched experience, by inviting them to divert everything around them in the hotel. An opportunity to "get up on [their] feet" as the soundtrack accompanying the film cheerfully repeats!

Special operations were launched with media brands synonymous with good deals or social trends: Le bon coin - Brut - l'ADN - Le Bonbon

2. SOCIAL MEDIA

A geolocalised campaign was being launched to inform customers about the Smart Sport Tour event: nearly 60 posts are planned until the end of 2021 - one post per hotel with the aim of generating traffic to the registration site.

To communicate around Smart Sport, two videos are relayed on Social Media platforms with an objectif of video views:

• Manifesto video, to remind people of ibis budget's brand passion
• Branding video, in order to introduce the Smart Sport Tour at a national level

WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?

First results are encouraging for our teams in the field and we are already thinking on ideas for the future to promote Smart Sport by ibis budget on New playgrounds :

• Develop and amplify our partnership with Décathlon
• Welcome schools to promote Sport for Children
• Rethink of room design to diffuse Smart Sport
• Program for workers within our teams

WHY THIS PROJECT DESERVES TO WIN?

• Innovation : guests do not expect to be able to play sports in a super economic hotel. ibis budget innovates by creating the concept of Smart Sport by turning furniture and spaces into a playground
• The project is for everyone and mostly people who want to take care of themselves, even if only walking in the neigborhood. 
• Super eco brands can enrich customer experience in phygital
• The success is due to our incredible teams in the field
• The project was deployed in 100% network (> 350 hotels) with great satisfaction from general managers and clients