Ovolo CMO details its brand evolution

Hotel group, Ovolo, has set out to create a brand evolution which celebrates the unique character of each hotel, along with its eclectic portfolio of restaurants and bars.

The central idea is to package the sentiment in onto one all-encompassing brand positioning known as ‘Wonder. Full’ It’s aimed at capturing the moments of wonder in the hotel experience along with the inspired interiors and details to convey each hotel’s unique character and offering.

Ovolo Hotels group marketing director, Stephen Howard, told CMO the brand evolution came about because of the company's expansion. All hotels have been refurbished and several new ones added new ones, all of which required the group to express its brand vision in a different manner. He said the ambition is to showcase that Ovolo experience destinations are brimming with character, full of eye-catching art and vibrant atmosphere.

“We needed to get that creativity, that charisma of what Ovolo stands for, in its current state and express that in the market with all our branding, including all our touchpoints,” he said.

Howard said Wonder. Full. has come to life across a suite of key guest touchpoints, covering everything from hotel key cards to print advertisements, in-room ‘loot bags’, website, social media assets and beyond. 

“Wonder. Full. not only demonstrates the alignment with Ovolo’s hotel experience, but also our commitment to continually innovate and create an enhanced customer experience,” he said. “That hotel experience, across f&b, the design, architecture, arts, and human touchpoints, is quite experiential. And the old branding of ‘There's something happening here’ really didn't align with that.”

Ovolo wanted to look for a message capturing how the product has evolved the time to become a lot more quirky, different, designer and higher end. The work also takes its cues from Ovolo's well-travelled founder and CEO, Girish Jhunjhnuwala, who was propelled to take a particular personal approach to informing the brand’s identity and how it’s expressed. 

“Creating an experiential hotel stay along with the idea for all the guest inclusions, including free mini-bar, gym, self-laundry, social happy hour, were all things he yearned for himself as a traveller,” Howard explained.

The brand evolution also entailed introducing the By Ovolo Collective into the brand architecture, a reflection of the move from a branded house to a house of brands. It’s a brand signature which can be applied to “a number of different hotels across our portfolio, which will stand for something different or have a different experience or in a different location, but they are the epitome of what Ovolo stands for”, Howard said.

The notion of evolution is critical to the way the hotel group has approached the process of developing the brand while remaining in touch with its core personality, he added. 

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