InterContinental Hotels Group confirmed it has consolidated its global marketing communications business at Team IHG, a new WPP Group initiative.
Team IHG’s initial focus will be Holiday Inn, following IHG’s $1 billion worldwide relaunch of the brand. Ogilvy & Mather is leading that effort, the company said in a statement. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express has been handled by McCann Erickson, N.Y. since 2009, with the Interpublic agency creating Holiday Inn’s first global ad campaign. In 2011 combined U.S. ad spending on the two Holiday Inn brands was $33.6 million, according to Nielsen. That amount does not include business-to-business or Internet marketing.
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 4,500 hotels in nearly 100 countries and territories. The British hotel operator said Team IHG at WPP will work globally and locally on the business and has been given responsibility for creative, media planning and buying, social media, design, PR, market research and other marketing services across IHG’s brands. The shift came after IHG appointed Larry Light as its global chief brands officer in April, with the former McDonald’s CMO replacing Tom Seddon, who left the company last July. Light also has an agency background, having held top positions at Bates Worldwide and BBDO.
In addition to the Holiday Inn brands, IHG’s hotel portfolio is comprised of InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and its new brands, Even Hotels and Hualuxe Hotels & Resorts.