Ibis London Earl's Court Rebranding

Rationale & Goal

The goal for our client, formerly known as Ibis London Earl’s Court, was to leverage our expertise to raise awareness of its transformation into a co-branded property, now operating as Mercure London Earl’s Court Hotel, combining the best of both brands under one roof. Over the past seven months, we have implemented a targeted social media strategy across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These efforts were designed to inform and educate the audience about the changes, build anticipation, and facilitate a seamless transition in preparation for the launch. 

Strategy:

Our social media rebranding strategy for Mercure London Earl’s Court was broken down into four parts: Installing Curiosity (Awareness stage), Building Up the Momentum (Awareness stage), The Reminder (Consideration stage) and The Launch.

Stage 1 – Installing Curiosity:
In the early stages, we published 2 stories per week to capture attention, engage viewers and build excitement. These stories included behind-the-scenes content, teasers, Q&As, and team videos, all aimed to convert casual viewers into curious and interested followers, and generate buzz about new updates.

Stage 2 – Building Up the Momentum:
We then implemented a regular publishing schedule on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to feature the new rooms at Mercure London Earl’s Court. These posts alternated between still images, tile-effects, reels and carousels to generate anticipation and showcase the new offerings, while also allowing users to save posts as calendar reminders or share them with others.

Our goal was to engage the audience beyond mere information. We crafted interactive captions that encouraged speculation, fostered a sense of community, and guided users through a storytelling journey, gradually revealing more about the new Mercure rebrand and the hotel’s location.

Furthermore, we applied the “Reveal but not Reveal” approach to our reels through showcasing developments of the renovation in the rooms and before/after content. To maintain attention and engagement, we intentionally created these reels to be short and quick, lasting only 10-15 seconds.

Stage 3 – The Reminder:
As the grand reveal approached, we launched a teaser campaign that featured branded assets as countdowns and alarm clock stickers. This campaign effectively generated excitement by offering glimpses and clues about the upcoming announcement.

To maximize visibility and engagement, we also utilized Instagram’s “Bell Feature” and LinkedIn for strategic reminders, highlighting the exact launch date and time of the official announcement. These posts were pinned at the top of our feeds to ensure they were the first content users saw.

Stage 4 – The Launch:
On launch day, we executed a targeted social media campaign to officially introduce Mercure London Earl’s Court. We began by posting an announcement across all social media platforms and shared a story to promote room bookings at the new Mercure. Additionally, we completely re-branded our social media pages using Mercure’s fonts and colors.

Given the effectiveness of stories for rapid visibility, we utilized Instagram Stories to unveil the new Mercure branding. This included updated logos and fonts, and highlighted the redesigned rooms, restaurant, bar, and reception area. Our multi-platform approach not only captured attention but also provided followers with a comprehensive overview of the hotel’s new features.

Results

These are the Instagram results we have achieved comparing the week before and the week after the launch and co-rebranding of Mercure London Earl’s Court: