Dive Brief:
- Hotels.com has teamed up with designer Lisa Frank and home rental site Barsala to create a colorful '90s-inspired penthouse, the company revealed in a press announcement.
- The Lisa Frank Flat is in downtown Los Angeles and can only be booked on the Hotels.com website. The space aims to inspire children of the '90s to relive their favorite designs. The Barsala penthouse features a technicolor rainbow window display, neon light fixtures, a light-up canopy bed and a wall mural.
- The accommodations are available Oct. 11-27 and reservations open on Oct. 11. The room comes with a free minibar fully stocked with '90s treats. There are also robes, slippers and sleep masks designed for the limited edition room. Guests are encouraged to share their stays on Instagram and Twitter.
Dive Insight:
Creating a limited edition pop-up rental will give Hotels.com and Barsala fodder for social media conversations as consumers talk about wanting to stay there and share images of the room, in addition to content generated by the consumers who actually go through with the booking and have a Lisa Frank-inspired bonanza.
Millennials seek meaningful experiences, according to an Eventbrite study which found that 78% of millennials prefer to spend more money on experiences than on material things. The research also found that 80% of millennials said experiences help shape their identity and create lifelong experiences. A stay in a pop-up hotel designed by a pop culture icon from the '90s fits the bill.
Hotels.com isn't the first to create an Instagramable pop-up hotel room. A Taco Bell-themed hotel opened in June as a move to promote the restaurant chain as a lifestyle brand, and reservations sold out in two minutes. Similarly, Howard Johnson by Wyndham created a hotel room made of candy for an experiential event in New York to show off the brand's first design update in more than 25 years.
By teaming with Lisa Frank, Hotels.com joins the many brands getting in on 90s nostalgia to reach millennial consumers who came of age during the decade.
Reebok's global campaign, "Sport the Unexpected," played up the athletic apparel marketer's history and popularity during the decade. Planters brought back Cheeseballs, a '90s favorite, and ran a giveaway on Twitter to promote the product. Foot Locker got nostalgic with "Discover Your Air," a platform honoring the history of Nike Air products. KFC, a brand that often embraces marketing stunts, hosted a pop-up activation event in Brooklyn that included bowl cut haircuts to promote its Famous Bowl dish.