Barrington Johnson Lorains has picked up the task of revitalising two of
Granada’s key motorway brands, Little Chef and Travelodge.
The roadside service chains moved across to Granada as part of the
group’s pounds 3.8 billion takeover of Forte earlier this year and have
now been earmarked for national press, radio and television campaigns.
Little Chef, with more than 400 roadside restaurants, has run
advertising through DMB&B since 1992. In contrast, Travelodge, the UK’s
largest roadside hotel chain, has not been supported by any significant
advertising in recent years. However, there are plans to expand
Travelodges away from roadside locations into city centres.
Granada is set to spend around pounds 5 million on advertising across
all its motorway brands, which also include Sutcliffe Catering and
Granada Motorways.
Barrington Johnson has worked with Granada for several years, running
its studio tours business, which takes fans around the set of Coronation
Street.
Following the appointment of John Williams as business development
manager, the agency was asked to handle a project on Happy Eater. The
agency’s performance on this helped it pull in the Travelodge and Little
Chef accounts, according to Barrington Johnson’s chairman, Mike
Barrington.
Media for both brands is handled by TMD Carat Manchester, which won the
business last month (Campaign, 18 October).