The developers and Hilton management team at the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby / Detroit Downtown faced multiple challenges when trying to build awareness of the hotel’s opening. The building, which had opened in 1907, had stood vacant for decades. Detroit’s economy was leading the way into recession among regular news of auto industry crises. A larger competitor property with a rich history in the city was further along in its redevelopment and receiving overwhelming media attention. When the Doubletree Fort Shelby was mentioned at all in the media, it was an also-ran in roundup coverage of development in the city.
As the massive $90 million physical reconstruction effort got underway, Hilton’s Detroit management team turned to starrconstand to raise public awareness of the new hotel and its lodging, conference and food and beverage offerings.
In order to break through the larger, louder stories, starrconstand began a campaign of highly-targeted media relations based on regular one-on-one hardhat tours, engaging reporters and editors from the ground up with the project’s themes and building relationships with key hotel management team members. Newspaper photographers and videographers were given access to the site to create ongoing construction packages on their Web sites.
As construction neared completion, the focus shifted to promotion of the hotel’s operations, including a starrconstand-planned sidewalk coffee giveaway announcing the coffee shop franchisor that was covered by print, radio and television and called a “media frenzy” by one local newspaper.
By the hotel’s opening day, the former “also-ran” Doubletree Fort Shelby had become the focus of such an investment of time and resources by local media that it was the site of live television morning show coverage, received virtually the entire front page of a local daily’s newspaper’s business section (complete with floor plan diagram), was the subject of an editorial cheering its completion by the other major daily newspaper and made every major local media outlet’s news cycle, as well as regional and national wire service and trade coverage.
For the hotel’s charity opening gala, starrconstand designed the invitation and signage, generated invitee lists for local dignitaries and opinion leaders, managed onsite media relations and drafted remarks for speakers at the event.
After the opening, starrconstand continued to work with the Doubletree Fort Shelby, promoting the hotel’s food and beverage operations with restaurant reviews and live TV cooking demonstrations by the executive chef and positioning the hotel’s general manager and sales and marketing manager as subject matter experts in the regional hospitality market.
As the massive $90 million physical reconstruction effort got underway, Hilton’s Detroit management team turned to starrconstand to raise public awareness of the new hotel and its lodging, conference and food and beverage offerings.
In order to break through the larger, louder stories, starrconstand began a campaign of highly-targeted media relations based on regular one-on-one hardhat tours, engaging reporters and editors from the ground up with the project’s themes and building relationships with key hotel management team members. Newspaper photographers and videographers were given access to the site to create ongoing construction packages on their Web sites.
As construction neared completion, the focus shifted to promotion of the hotel’s operations, including a starrconstand-planned sidewalk coffee giveaway announcing the coffee shop franchisor that was covered by print, radio and television and called a “media frenzy” by one local newspaper.
By the hotel’s opening day, the former “also-ran” Doubletree Fort Shelby had become the focus of such an investment of time and resources by local media that it was the site of live television morning show coverage, received virtually the entire front page of a local daily’s newspaper’s business section (complete with floor plan diagram), was the subject of an editorial cheering its completion by the other major daily newspaper and made every major local media outlet’s news cycle, as well as regional and national wire service and trade coverage.
For the hotel’s charity opening gala, starrconstand designed the invitation and signage, generated invitee lists for local dignitaries and opinion leaders, managed onsite media relations and drafted remarks for speakers at the event.
After the opening, starrconstand continued to work with the Doubletree Fort Shelby, promoting the hotel’s food and beverage operations with restaurant reviews and live TV cooking demonstrations by the executive chef and positioning the hotel’s general manager and sales and marketing manager as subject matter experts in the regional hospitality market.
Located at the corner of West Lafayette Ave. and First Street in downtown Detroit, the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby / Detroit Downtown opened its doors to serve business travelers and the Detroit community in December, 2008. The renovated hotel, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, features 203 guest suites, 21,000 square feet of meeting space including an IACC-accredited conference center, two ballrooms accommodating up to 300 guests and all of the other amenities that guests expect from a Doubletree Guest Suites property.
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Detroit Free Press
