To survive the fallout of the pandemic, City Lodge (a local hotel chain on the verge of a permanent checkout) implemented austerity measures across the board. And the first thing they came for was the marketing budget… So we got thrifty, swopping spoken dialogue for subtitles to create ads that could be reused over and over again.

Life is hard. Check into Easy. 

Shot with no spoken dialogue, the despairing characters in this campaign communicate silently using subtitles. This not only gave us a great hook, but allowed our ads to turn tactical by simply updating the subtitles. Changing the spot about your bad wifi connection to one that responds to the weekend’s incoming heatwave using a dose of some much needed comedic relief. 

No spoken dialogue meant we could dial up the comedy by leaning into the drama of these everyday problems… So to ensure upfront scenes were played entirely straight, we wrote emotionally charged dummy scripts to illicit big, Oscar-worthy tears for seemingly small, everyday problems. 

Our initial three ads became many, many more - turning the lack of money into social currency for the brand. The campaign doubled annual profits and resulted in an 18,8% increase in revenue - single-handedly bringing City Lodge back from the nearly dead.