Managing PR for one brand is tough. Juggling PR for multiple brands? Even tougher—especially when one of your brands recently rocketed to fame, thanks to being featured in “The White Lotus Season 3.”
The challenge for the international hospitality group Minor Hotels wasn’t just managing multiple brands. It was finding a way to unite them under one cohesive vision without losing what makes each brand unique.
Today we sit down with Dane Halpin, Minor Hotels’ Director of PR and Communications, as he tells us how Minor Hotels’ has unified its global portfolio under one visually cohesive banner while preserving each brand’s distinct identity by using PR.co.
Selling the stay: the hospitality PR strategy challenge
Since you can’t ship a hotel stay out for review like a physical product, managing PR and marketing opportunities for hotels comes with unique challenges.
Like most hospitality operators, one of Minor Hotels’ most significant challenges has always been marketing a purely experiential product. Over time, they’ve discovered that this involves proactively engaging journalists and influencers and encouraging those contacts to generate buzz.
Trust has always been another important consideration. In the hotel industry, guests aren’t just buying a product; they’re buying peace of mind for their dream getaway. So, earning their confidence through PR and marketing is essential.
“A holiday isn’t a commodity you can test-drive,” Dane explains. “it’s an emotional investment in future memories. Our task in PR is to pre-earn the guest’s confidence, so when they finally hit ‘book’, they’re choosing a brand that already feels proven and personal.”
Adding to the above challenges was the fact that the hotel group oversees several brands, which previously operated in isolation.
Each has a unique personality and approach, catering to different market segments, from holidaymakers heading to the most luxurious locales on the planet to business travelers looking for affordable business-class comfort.
A shift away from outbound PR
Minor Hotels has always been a PR-led company. As such, it prioritizes building trust and engagement between its target customers and brands.
In the past, the group focused predominantly on outbound PR, with each brand reaching out to traditional media channels and running through their press lists to connect with journalists. However, Minor took on a slightly different approach in the last couple of years.
Traditional media still play a big part in the strategy, but the approach has evolved into a situation where influencer outreach is more important. Over the past few years, influencer marketing has started playing an essential role in travel-related PR, Dane explains. In fact, research shows most consumers (71%) trust influencer content.
“Success now hinges on owning the discovery moment - so that whether travelers are casually scrolling for inspiration or actively planning a trip, our brands surface first, wrapped in credible creator stories that turn curiosity into concrete bookings.”
The group also shifted its focus toward inbound marketing and PR to increase Minor Hotels’ online visibility. This includes generating high-quality content, like blogs and thought-leadership pieces.
Minor’s PR team also works hand-in-hand with the PR teams of each hotel, engages in multi-brand reputation management, and provides input into each brand’s social media strategy.
Consolidated communications in a single newsroom
Another significant change is that Minor Hotels now houses all the content for its eight major brands in a single PR.co-powered newsroom. By consolidating communications, the company has created new opportunities.
“In the past, we couldn’t focus so much on highlighting destinations because we couldn’t talk about multiple brands simultaneously,” Dane explains. “By centralizing our brand communications, we’ve brought brands together, even in our blog content, which gives us great opportunities for cross-promotion and establishing brand equity.”
Some of Minor Hotel’s most recent campaigns demonstrate that having a centralized newsroom empowers their global brand while still shedding a light on individual brands, with content promoting mixed-brand hotels across destinations like Sri Lanka and themes like destination weddings.
Building out the perfect newsroom
Consolidating all Minor Hotels’ brand content under one virtual roof was a key element of their new marketing and PR strategy.
Dane adds that the team also wanted to emphasize the primary brand’s visual branding and identity, which drew them to PR.co. “The newsrooms just look better and give us a little more room to express our visual identity.”
PR.co platform’s dedicated segmentation and targeting toolkit also supported Minor Hotel’s outbound media strategy, allowing the group to reach the right journalists and publications with every press release.
Additionally, PR.co’s “one-stop shop” approach to housing brand content also meant the hotel group could easily keep its various brand identities consistent. Each contributes to Minor Hotel’s broader strategic initiatives, like a growing commitment to sustainability.
Dane’s team added several custom features to their newsroom to enhance their inbound PR and build links between brands for cross-brand PR campaigns.
These included:
- Regional newsrooms for major markets like the EU and Australasia.
- Fully translatable pages and language support across regions, simplifying the process of reusing assets across campaigns and markets.
- A dedicated media/influencer request form for generating inbound interest and coverage of Minor Hotels—in step with a global shift toward influencer marketing.
A new take on multi-brand PR
By bringing all their content into a single newsroom, Minor Hotels found a way to unite their brands under one cohesive platform, simplifying their workflows, and reducing time and costs.
“What PR.co brings to the table is the ability to streamline our workflows and allow different branches of the Minor Hotels team to collaborate within one platform to meet our goals,” Dane concludes.
“This makes it easier to plan strategically and communicate in an effective way.”
Give your brand an edge with PR.co
PR.co’s software platform helps multi-brand organizations tell their various brand stories more efficiently, gather their assets in one place, and centralize their strategic efforts.
Let’s chat if you’re interested in building your custom PR newsroom or perfecting your approach to luxury brand PR.
