Accor Hotels Swings Into CNN Great Big Story Deal, Bolstering 3x Its Average Spends In Q418

In the four-part branded content mini-series backed by Accor Hotels, Great Big Story journeys through Singapore, Chengdu and Shanghai to meet passionate architects, musicians and discover traditions that are making a comeback including contemporary Shanghai jazz inspired by the city’s 1930s jazz scene. It will also include an immersive 360-degree video of the restored Raffles Hotel, which will launch in mid-2019, produced by CNN International Commercial (CNNIC)’s global brand studio Create.

The new video series will run across Great Big Story’s multiple platforms and social accounts reaching over 10 million followers and travellers around the world.

“AccorHotels is a long-standing partner of CNN’s, and we are delighted to build on this relationship through this cinematic journey with Great Big Story,” said Sunita Rajan, SVP, APAC, CNN International Commercial. “The power of this campaign lies in rich storytelling, passion projects and the engagement that Great Big Story has with its audience. This is a great alignment of brands, bringing AccorHotels for the first time together with Great Big Story in a campaign to engage audiences across the world through the power of storytelling.”

“We are delighted to work with CNN to inspire people to travel to three of the world’s most exciting destinations and discover our wonderful hotels there,” said Graham Wilson, Chief Marketing and Distribution Officer, AccorHotels Asia Pacific. “At AccorHotels we are always looking for new ways to engage with our guests through storytelling and Great Big Story is the perfect platform for us to provide rich content to a broad audience.”

Since Q116, Accor Hotels has spent slightly over US$1.5m, a mere 0.8% share for its category in the Asian Sponsorship market…It tends to average US$167k per quarter and following a typically quiet first half in 2018, it has so far invested almost US$490k in Q418. Its branded content deals between US$400k to US$450k tend to be its biggest ones, namely deals with Fox International on Welcome To My Room (US$450k, Dec ‘17 to Feb ‘18) and BBC Worldwide’s Asian Business Report (US$400k, Aug ’17 to Oct ’17).