INK Hotel AmsterdamMGallery by Sofitel

presents:

In the categoryBest Brand Marketing Operation

INK Hotel Amsterdam is a luxury design hotel, where the traditional rules of hospitality are freely translated to the modern

day, rewriting the definition of 'luxury'.

INK Hotel owes its name to the rich history of the building in which, as former home of the Dutch newspaper 'De Tijd', stories were conceived, written and brought to life in ink. INK Hotel is

still the place "where stories are yet to be written".

We at INK Hotel Amsterdam have a strong focus on connecting people. In line with our story writing history, this is in our DNA.

The 4 INK DNA values that every team member follows are: curiosity, courage, connect & attention.

Connections are made daily in our restaurant PRESSROOM, which is the heart of the hotel where both locals and international guests gather to work, eat, meet, drink and share stories. We also

organizes many events, all with the aim to connect different groups of people.

INK Hotel Amsterdam MGallery by Sofitel

INK went P INK for 10 days of P INK Hotel!

Every year during the first week of August, Amsterdam celebrates sexual diversity and gender variance during

´Pride Amsterdam´.

For the second year in a row, INK Hotel Amsterdam became P INK Hotel to take part in this city-wide event.

The hotel was turned into a P INK universe full of sweet surprises between July 27th and August 6th. 10 days of

PINK Hotel were kicked off with a large ‘Disco Dip into the Pool’ opening party. The following days, there was pink

decoration, a Sweet Suite, pink chefs menu, pink cocktail, pink juices, pink brunch and much more!

The concept

What happened during PINK Hotel?

Opening Party No swimming pool at INK Hotel…? Wrong!

P INK Hotel kicked off with the ´Disco Dip into the Pool´ Opening Party.

Everybody was welcome to celebrate. We invited regular guests, clients, influencers, press, hotel guests, celebrities, bloggers, etc. Over 400 people came to

enjoy the party and jump into our sprINKles pool photo booth! Guests could win tickets for Milkshake Festival by getting one of our delicious milkshakes at

the dedicated bar.

The Bottomless Brunch INK went P INK, and so was our monthly Bottomless

Brunch. The Bottomless Brunch, inspired by a trend in

Manhattan, has landed in Amsterdam and combines a rich Sunday brunch with an endless supply of bubbles.

During this edition, everything went PINK: pink bubbles, pink cocktails, pink dishes, pink decoration, pink flowers, pink napkins, etc.

Chef’s menu and drinks

During the 10 days of PINK Hotel, the Chef’s Menu at our restaurant PRESSROOM went all pink! Also sweet items like pink donuts were

added to our breakfast buffet.

Thirsty? Our bartender shook up some creative pink cocktails and served pink local beers.

What happened during PINK Hotel?

Decoration

10 days of PINK Hotel means… pink touches everywhere!

We paid attention to details and brought some pink energy.. Flowers at reception, feathers in the

restaurant, balloons, pink pillows, pink art and a pink bike in the lobby! Every corner of the hotel was subtle

decorated with a touch of pink

Tuesday Juiceday

At INK Hotel Amsterdam, every Tuesday is a Juiceday!

During P INK Hotel, our weekly juices turned all pink to get every one in the P INK mood with a

healthy touch.

Our bartenders created recipes with watermelon, lime juice, oranges and loads of strawberries

The Sweet SuiteWhat’s a PINK Hotel without a PINK Suite?

During these 10 days, we turned one suite into a P INK sweet heaven!

We invited celebrities and inspirational P INK people to spend one night there: several TV

personalities, actors, journalists and influencers had sweet dreams in this sweet heaven.

One of the 10 nights, a lucky couple won an overnight stay by winning our Facebook

activation.

Get into the pink moodCheck out the Opening Party aftermovie HERE!

The main aim of this marketing operation went beyond the obvious aim of stimulating

name awareness and creating more exposure for our hotel.

Mainly, we wanted to show our support to the LGBTQI community.

We aimed to stimulate tolerance, acceptance and open-mindedness in a creative and

positive atmosphere. This was achieved by connecting all kinds of people and

communities: locals, the LGBTQI community, international hotel guests, influencers, press, hotel professionals, business relations, etc.

Presentation

Innovative and original Connecting power

At INK, we truly believe this marketing operation was innovative because we made it possible that a hotel functioned a neighbourhood role by connecting all kinds of brands, companies, partners and hotel professionals to establish this great event.

As mentioned before, during the events we connected locals, competitors, press, international guests, celebrities, neighbours and hotel professionals.

Simplicity The power of PINK was in ‘keeping it simple’. The idea of literally placing a P in front of INK was extremely simple and therefore very effective and

catchy. Everybody loved it!

1 campaign – every aspect of the hotelThe operation was designed to highlight every main aspect of the hotel (rooms, cocktails, dinner, design, brunch, juices). This was achieved by making it

a multiple day animation and all-round program. This is an innovative way of promoting all aspects of the hotel whilst only launching one campaign.

Eye for detailThe events and animations in the hotel were brought to life by all the well considered details. With these details, the concept and story of the campaign

truly became exciting and powerful.

PINK Sprinkle Pool Photobooth – ourgarden featured a pool for 1 night, filledwith plastic sprinkles, functioning as a

huge photobooth

Milkshake Bar – during the Opening Party, guests had a change at winning tickets to

Milkshake Festival by buying a pink milkshake.

Pink snacks – during the party, allserved snacks were pink or candy inspired: churros, pink popcorn,

pink mayonaisse, beetroot macarons, salmon.

Sweet Suite – we highlighted our beautiful rooms by creating 1 Sweet Suite: complete with inroom candy store. For 10 nights in a row a different influencer, celebrity, journalist was invited to sleep & review

our Sweet Suite

PINK Bottomless Brunch – brunch with anunlimited amount of pink bubbles! Bunch

dishes, cocktails, decoration, menu cards, napkins, everything was pink!

The first idea of PINK Hotel has been initiated by the Director of Sales & Marketing who aimed to create

an out of the box concept to connect different communities and show support for the LGBTQI

community.

Right from the first moment, the entire team has been engaged and as a joint force the team of INK

brought this event to live. Throughout the process, the INK team has been in charge of every single aspect

of the operation.In order to assure the best outcome of this concept,

various external partners, companies, brands, press, influencers, pink ambassadors and friends of het

hotel, supported us to make the event a huge success.

Conception

CompaniesTo turn PINK Hotel into a success, various companies and

means have been devised.

Pictures by Chantalle Laurent

Hosts via entertainment agency Entertaiment Matters

Decoration by creative agency Paardenkracht

Social Media support fromTimm&Pimm social agency

Sprinkle Pool Photobooth by creative agency Paardenkracht

Public relations support by Ganbaroo PR

Aftermovie by Roland Pupupin

The INK team The level of involvement within the INK team was impressive. All departments in the hotel were actively involved to make PINK a

huge success. Not only did the team actively brainstorm about creative additions, every team member became a true PINK ambassador and promoted the event within their own network. The impact on the team spirit within the team was huge;

everybody collaborated to make this event to a huge success. Besides, all departments (including the entire back office team)helped out during the Opening Party.

Housekeeping – putting in place pink decoration, cleaning the PINK room

Kitchen – creating a pink 5-course chefs menu, pink snacks during the

party, pink dishes during the Bottomless Brunch

Front Office – informingevery hotel guest about PINK hotel and motivating them to

attent the party

Bar – creating and preparing PINK cocktails, pink juices, pink milkshakes

Technical Department– putting in place the

pink decorations

Guest Relations – placing pink VIP gifts in the rooms duringthe10 days of PINK Hotel

Sales & Marketing – project lead and coordination of all

departments, externalcompanies and partners

Partnerships

Crisp Sheets – pink bed sheets in Sweet Suite

Belzasar Vermouth- of all welcome drinks

Parfum store Douglas- parfum bottles in Sweet Suite

Brandt & Levie – pink soap and books in the Sweet Suite

Milkshake Festival – 16 tickets to the festival. With every milkshake bought at our Milkshake Bar, guests had a chance at winning a tickets

OppoSuits – clothing forstaff members

PINK Hotel was focussed on connecting people and stimulating tolerance and acceptance. Many amazing brands and companies wanted to support this initiative and joined as a partner by providing pink products and services. Some partnerships were initiated by INK but we were also approached by companies that read or heard about PINK. They loved the idea of stimulating tolerance in

such a fun way and volunteered to become part of this initiative.

Travel Agent – pink luggagerack in Sweet Suite

In order to spread the word about PINK Hotel as wide as possible on both a local and

national level, the communication campaign was focussed on multiple channels targeting in-house hotel guests, external guests, hotel

partners and business relations.

Awareness of the event was gained by both our own channels, press publications and the

involvement of pink ambassadors.

Communication &

Implementation

Internal promotionsOur national and international hotel guests were invited to mingle with

locals and celebrate Pride Amsterdam together. They were invited at first by personal invitation upon check in, also reached via flyers in the room, elevator promotion, PINK welcome letter, pre-arrival emailing with event

information.

Elevator & Typewriter promotionIn-room flyer, external flyer

and e-mail invite

Bill cards promotion

In-room P INK Hotel promotion

E-mail signature

External promotions – own channelsThe external promotion via our own channels consisted of a press release

to national press, personal invites towards influencers and press, activation on own hotel websites, flyers to neighbours, social media

campaigns, etc.

PRESSROOM website

INK Hotel Amsterdam website INK Hotel Amsterdam website

My Web Valet – hotel directory

P INK Hotel Amsterdam website

Press Release

External promotions – social mediaTogether with our Social Media Agency, a social media campaign was created. The campaign was mainly

focussed on the power of repetition. 1 month prior to the opening, all Social Media channels of INK Hotel and restaurant PRESSROOM turned completely pink. Throughout this month, different aspects of PINK Hotel were unveiled to our followers in

order to stimulate their curiosity.

PINK ambassadorsSince the aim of the event was to connect people, a large part of the campaign was focussed on activating

‘pink ambassadors’. Stimulating tolerance and acceptance is a topic many people and communities can relate to, they were happy to spread the message among their engaged network.

Milkshake Festival An annual two-day dance festival to kick off Pride Amsterdam. A festival for ‘all who love’

focusing on the thought that everything is possible by connecting different communities.

Promoted the event by announcing PINK as their official hotel partner, via database emailing, online publication, personal network, press

release and social media promotion

Chantalle LaurentWell known influencer, socialite and event

host in Amsterdam.

Promoted INK via: social media, extensivepersonal network,

word-of-mouth

WINQ Magazine International glossy magazine for gay gentlemen with a large reach in the

LGBTQI community.

Promoted INK via: personal network, inviting people to the party, online

publication, print publication

EvaluationThe impact of PINK Hotel was above all

expectations! It became the news of evening since two of the main Dutch TV shows attended our

party and broadcasted a live item. We received countless amazing compliments and a huge amount of social media posts was published.

Live on television, PINK Hotel was mentioned to be ‘’The new official opening party of Amsterdam

Pride Week!’’

But most important, the aim of the evening, to connect people was achieved above and beyond.

New connections were made, hotel guest were mingling with locals, neighbours from the hotel met

each other for the first time, hotel professionals shared business opportunities and everybody was

having an amazing time!

Results – facts & figures - 2 items on Dutch television- Total PR value of €180.000

- 19 online publications (e.g. Vogue, ELLE, Hospitality Management)- 169 social media posts from guests/influencers/press (total reach of over 1.500.000 followers)

- An impressive amount of extra F&B revenu - Over 400 attendees at the Opening Party & a fully booked Bottomless Brunch

- Over 50 personal ‘Thank You emails’ after the party

SBS Shownieuws

~ Click here for the replay ~

RTL Boulevard

~ Click here for the replay ~

Results – impact - The comments during the Opening Party were amazing. Many people mentioned this to be the first time a hotel

organized such a creative and inspirational event.

- Live on national television, PINK hotel was described as ‘’The new official opening party of Amsterdam Pride

Week!’’ by Bastiaan van Schaik – Dutch celebrity and television host.

- Even two months after the event, new guests attended the restaurant and bar mentioning they saw PINK on

television and got curious about the hotel.

- Within AccorHotels, PINK Hotel really put INK on the map as an innovative, vibrant and creative hotel. An

example for hotels throughout the AccorHotels network.