June 19th, 2024, Bhavika Bansal
According to recent data from YouGov BrandIndex - which monitors consumer perceptions toward brands daily – Premier Inn is winning Ad Awareness in 2024. The Whitbread owned budget hotel chain registers the highest Ad Awareness score amongst all hotel brands in the UK since the beginning of 2024 (i.e. from January 1 to June 13, 2024). Ad Awareness asks consumers if they have seen an advertisement for the brand in the prior two weeks.
Significantly outpacing all other brands on the top 10 list, Premier Inn secures the top spot with a score of 22.8% followed by Airbnb (20.9%) in second place.
In a distant third place, Travelodge scores 14.7% followed by Center Parcs (12.4%) and Butlins (9.6%). Holiday Inn (3.5%), Hilton hotels (3.1%) and Holiday Inn Express (2.2%) bring up the rear of the list.
How has Premier Inn’s Ad Awareness changed since the start of 2024?
Premier Inn’s Advertising Awareness score sees a significant surge between January and April- rising 6.3 points, from 18.5% on January 9 to 24.8% on April 3. The brand’s Ad Awareness score does not register any major changes thereafter.
The surge in awareness may be attributed to a few marketing activities and events including:
Sustainable innovations
The budget hotel brand is set to build a 207-room underground hotel beneath The Brunswick Centre in central London. The announcement, made at the end of March, marks a significant stride in hotel design and innovation. The new Premier Inn hub will include lighting technology that follows the human circadian rhythm. The property will also be powered by rooftop plant and photovoltaic (PV) panels with any additional electricity drawn from the grid expected to be generated from renewable sources.
Expansion plans
Whitbread, owner of the Premier Inn chain, intends to add 97,000 Premier Inn hotel rooms by 2029 in the UK. As part of its £500 million investment plan, the brand is set to sell more than 120 branded restaurants and convert a further 112 into higher yielding hotel rooms.
Premier Inn’s latest multi-channel campaign ahead of the summer travel season
Though the hotel chain’s Ad Awareness score registers a small dip between May and June, reaching a low of 22.6% on June 7, it starts to see an uptick hereafter, possibly as a result of the brand’s new multi-channel campaign.
The third instalment of its 'Rest Easy' platform, Premier Inn's 'Do Your Thing' campaign spotlights the hotel chain as a welcoming and inclusive place, no matter the reason for a guest's stay. Conceived by Leo Burnett UK in partnership with The Diversity Standards Collective, the campaign pushes the brand's key message: “Wherever you’re going, whatever you’re doing – do your thing, we’ll sort the rest”. Centered around a 60-second spot which showcases a range of guests, from businessmen to cosplay enthusiasts, the campaign brings back the iconic voice of Sir Lenny Henry across TV, radio and cinema. The advert also introduces the newly developed 'Next Evolution style rooms' while the supporting social campaign incorporates user-generated content, with creators adopting their own interpretations on the theme.
Whether this campaign will help Premier Inn maintain its lead in Ad Awareness over other brands in the category, however, remains to be seen.
Explore our living data – for free
Discover more agencies content here
Want to run your own research? Start building a survey now
Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members. Speak with us today.
Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s Ad Awareness score is based on the question: “Which of the following consumer brands have you seen an advertisement for in the past two weeks?” Data from surveys of adults aged 18 years and above residing in the UK from January 1 to June 13, 2024. Ad Awareness scores in this analysis are based on a six-week moving average. The change in scores for each brand is calculated by taking the difference between the scores at the beginning and end of the scoring period. Learn more about BrandIndex.