Home Inns signs Ogilvy RedWorks for Yitel hotel brand

The appointment of Ogilvy & Mather's production and design unit follows a three-way competitive pitch.

RedWorks will be responsible for the design and production of Yitel's corporate website, an e-commerce platform providing online booking, payment and loyalty points tracking services, and its digital marketing strategy, including branding promotion and customer relationship marketing.

Yitel plans to open 50 hotels across China over the next five years with the first scheduled to open in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, in June this year. Openings in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian and Xian are slated to follow.

“We’re eager to see how they will establish the online presence of our new brand through our website and digital marketing,” said Sun Qingyi, AVP of brand management at Yitel.

Lyon Zhang, digital director at RedWorks Beijing, added that there is currently a lot of potential for mid-to-high end business hotels in China.

"The Home Inns assignment will challenge us to apply our knowledge of the domestic hotel industry to find creative ways to generate demand for this new sector,” he said.