How do you make one small hotel in Paddington stand out in a crowded market, become a global talking point and a must-visit destination? That was the brief given to us by the PR-savvy Eleanor Conroy at InterContinental Hotels Group way back in 2009.
I think we only had a few days turnaround from brief to competitive pitch (against three others) so we cleared our diaries, visited the hotel in question, and went to work to find what the pipe-smoking David Ogilvy would call the ‘Unique Selling Point’. Don’t get me wrong it was a very nice hotel, but the only real feature seemed to be that the flowers changed according to the seasons… This, we were informed, was the USP, so we just went with it and presented three scamped-up ideas with a floral theme.
The Hanging Gardens of Paddington, the world’s biggest hanging basket that would be affixed to the side of the hotel, was thought of and pitched purely because of the word play on Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the ancient wonders of the world. It made for a funny picture-story and would create a reason for media to write / talk about the changing flowers. We won the pitch. And I broke into a cold sweat as I soon realised we’d have to make the idea a reality in days.
I immediately called Brian Dowling at Helix3D who specialises in making the impossible possible on a daily basis. He figured out the build, calculated the engineering and oversaw the installation. Before I knew it we had a 20ft hanging basket stuck on the side of Hotel Indigo in Paddington.
Ken Lennox, the four times British photographer of the year, former pic-editor of The Sun, News of the World and Daily Express, and therefore the most over-qualified photographer operating with a junior account manager (i.e. me), turned up ready to capture the basket, edit the pictures and wire out to the world’s press.
The only issue was the driving rain, which had made the installation tricky and meant we were shooting at dusk. Ken was confident he got a set of usable pictures so we sat in the hotel to go through the review and edit. And at that point my luck ran out. I was young, but experienced enough to know that a job never runs smoothly, there is always an issue. On this occasion the lack of daylight had resulted in a set of pictures that, despite people saying they were “fine”, I just didn’t think would be published.
The massive basket was already becoming a social media talking point; it was attracting the attention of the local council who were arguing against my rationale of it being ‘temporary signage’ and insisting the structure came down; the client needed coverage to hit; Ken was booked on another job the next day; and I had run out of budget (I was pulling favours as it was).
Ken knew that the “fine” had broken me – it’s the one word that completely crushes a creative PR – so to his amazing credit he suggested we shoot again at first light (six o’clock in the morning) and he would wire out and follow up on the phone on his way to his next job. I could have kissed him, but hugged him instead.
The next day Ken, Claudia Davies (complete with red jumper) and I turned up at 5.30am with the hotel basked in glorious sunshine. Claud climbed into the hanging garden clutching a make-shift watering can (otherwise known as a teapot) and Ken went 100 metres down the street and shot on a long lens. The issue this time was too much sunlight meaning too much flare and another unusable set of pictures. Ken had to be off to his next job so I prayed for a bit of cloud cover, which eventually came and allowed us to get four usable shots, which were immediately wired off before Ken took off with his bags over his back and a black coffee in hand. Claud, still shaking from her stint of ‘flower-girl’, and I set about selling in the story to wires and newsdesks.
“Alright Dan, I can do a few pars on it and I’ll stick the images out, but I don’t think I can use the ‘world’s biggest’ line as it’s not Guinness World Record approved”, was the feedback from one of most reliable wire contacts. I called him up straight away, “I’m telling you”, I said, “no-one is daft enough to think of, let alone build, a hanging basket this big so you can include the ‘world’s biggest’ line even if it’s not bloody verified by a drinks company”. “Can I quote you on that?”, he joked. “No, but I’ll send you some flowers if you put it out with the ‘world’s biggest’ line.” (he did and I did).
Thankfully the coverage started to roll in and snowballed into TV crews from around the world descending onto a little hotel in Paddington giving it a few days of fame, an increase in visitors and a surge of bookings – all before the killjoy council did eventually make us de-rig a few days earlier than planned.
It certainly wasn’t the best PR campaign in the world (it was conceived off the back of a pun after all…), but it did get shortlisted for a few industry awards and led to more work from IHG. More importantly it taught me a valuable lesson that if, in the pit of your stomach, you’re not happy with something – even if colleagues and clients say it’s “fine” – then don’t let it go out. Some of my most successful work has been at the second attempt and there’s no shame in that – you just need to take your client and colleagues with you, and that often means showing you care more and will work harder to grind a creative result out no matter what.
A load of old Barnum. 
Reblogged this on Helix – design and fabrication and commented:
It is always exciting to work on a really fun idea for someone who has the passion to see it through. Projects with Dan rae always like that an dthis was no exception. There is nothing better than a talking point in our workshop and a challenge like this fires up the team to create something special.
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