Naked Communications Melbourne ‘Overstay Checkout’ wins WARC Prize for Innovation

Naked Communications has won the International 2013 WARC Prize for Innovation for its “Overstay Checkout” campaign for the boutique Art Series Hotel brand.

An idea that mixed PR, word-of-mouth and new product development, the “Overstay Checkout” tapped into the common irritation travellers experience around check out times and allowed hotel guests to overstay their rooms for free – until those rooms were needed by other guests. The campaign generated an estimated 359% return on the campaign investment.

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Says Howard Draft, executive chairman of Draftfcb, the agency network, and chairman of the Prize judges: “We had high quality entries to review in this year’s Warc Prize for Innovation and several of them stood out for their original thinking and powerful creative. The Overstay Checkout campaign was the Prize winner because it showed us that, as well as flawless execution, you need to have a genuinely new and compelling business idea at the heart of your campaign to create truly effective innovation in communications.”

Says Adam Ferrier, partner at Naked: “This is just brilliant news, we are so proud to have won the WARC Innovation award.  Thanks WARC for providing such a public platform to recognise and encourage true innovation within the marketing communications industry – the calibre of entries on the shortlist is testimony to how seriously we all take genuine innovation.  The Art Series Hotels are a brilliant client who not only back, but contribute to innovative ideas.  We’re all really pleased – thanks.”

Says Lach Hall, digital strategist on the Art Series Hotel account, and co- author of the paper: “Art Series Hotels have been true partners in our quest to do innovative, category defining work. Thanks.  And thanks WARC- this means so much to all of us.  We all want to do great, innovative work – so when it happens it’s wonderful to get it recognised.”

Says Will Deague, CEO, Art Series Hotels: “We are extremely proud to win the global WARC Innovation award with Naked Communications. The Art Series Hotels hold the concept of innovation close to our hearts, as we constantly look for new and interesting ways to improve our business and customers’ experiences when they stay with us.  Our relationship with Naked is extremely strong as they too share our passion to innovate and smash category conventions.”