Premier Inn is to launch a £9m advertising campaign later this month highlighting its new identity, the budget hotel group announced today.

The Whitbread-owned hotel chain changed its name from Premier Travel Inn last October in a £22m rebranding exercise that is due to complete by the end of February.

To communicate the change – designed to create clear blue water between the group and rival Travelodge -  it has recruited Lenny Henry to front a new advertising campaign spanning television, national press, online and outdoor posters.

Premier Inn claims the campaign, which will run throughout the year, marks the largest-ever media spend by a hotel brand in the UK.

Gerard Tempest, marketing director, said the choice of Henry to front the campaign followed extensive customer research.

“Customers like the celebrity approach,” he told Caterersearch. “Henry really spoke to our brand – he is British, down-to-earth and warm.”

The campaign was created by Premier Inn’s newly appointed advertising agency, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe /Y&R.

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By Daniel Thomas

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