Travelodge increases UK marketing budget by 20%

Travelodge is increasing its UK marketing budget by 20% this year under its £3.5b plans to open 4,000 new rooms per annum until 2020.

The budget hotel chain, which spent £2.7m on marketing in 2006, is planning to appoint a new head of marketing in the coming weeks to replace Rachel Dawson who moved to Midland Mainline last month. It is also recruiting for a number of new marketing roles.

Chief operating officer Guy Parsons told Marketing Week: "We will continually need more marketers as we expect to have a database of one million customers by the end of the year. We will invest solidly in marketing in the next few years as our US research shows only the strong brands survive.

"We already have awareness levels of 96% and believe we can be on par with one of the ‘superbrands’ like Tesco by the 2012 Olympics," he added.

Travelodge is investing £1m in website development and press, outdoor and radio advertising. 

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By Daniel Thomas

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