IKON makes room for Holiday Inn Express in Indonesia

Even as key Indian OOH players envision business forays into emerging markets overseas, Bengaluruheadquartered OOH entity IKON took the pioneering initiative to execute a multi-city campaign for hospitality major Holiday Inn Express -- a part of InterContinental Hotels Group -- in Indonesia. The campaign, which was planned to promote the launch of Holiday Inn Express in the dynamic South-east Asian country, was principally executed at the arrival terminals of airports of Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya and Semarang. Through this campaign the hospitality major sought to establish deep connect with business travelers in the country.

IKON partnered Singapore-based TPM Outdoor to roll out the campaign that spanned 30 days at most sites. The campaign would also run for 60 days to 6 months at select airport sites. Commenting on the campaign roll-out, Lokesh Kumar, Director, IKON, stated that TPM Outdoor with its sizeable presence in South-east Asian markets such as Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam was best equipped to roll out the campaign end-to-end -- from procuring media, to executing the campaign and monitoring the media.

Like any overseas venture, rolling out this campaign entailed tackling challenges like communication gaps between different stakeholders involved and other local issues. However, with TPM Outdoor at the helm of the project, the challenges were handled with consummate ease, said Kumar, while adding that IKON has always pursued a collaborative approach in doing business and therefore works with different partners in different markets.

To deliver big impact, the lounge area of Jakarta airport was used for the campaign display. Kumar explained IKON makes room for  Holiday Inn Express in Indonesia that while large formats were used at the busy Jakarta airport, small formats delivering high frequency were used at the airports of Bali, Surabaya and Semarang.

Kumar expressed hope that this campaign, launched on October 10, would set the tone for IKON to grow its global business footprints, especially in the promising South-east Asian region. He also said that the experience gained from launching this campaign would serve as vital insights for working with tourism brands in different markets. Notably, IKON took a mere 15 days to roll out the campaign. Kumar said in closing that to do business in competitive markets OOH firms should have to think smart and act fast.