La Quinta Inns & Suites is bringing their corporate slogan, “wake up on the bright side,” to new use - as title for a series of comics advertising the company’s service. The “advertising as content” storm has been brewing for some time but rarely has it been implemented as explicitly as in La Quinta’s new campaign, which pokes fun at the annoyances of travel in order to highlight the importance of hospitality at the end of the road. The cartoon on the left showed up on the front page of this morning’s “Marketplace” section of the Wall Street Journal.

In this author’s humble opinion (and despite less than fantastic personal experience with La Quinta), it’s effective.  The business crowd isn’t used to catching comics in the Journal and this one’s actually funny.  It’s also huge, notably larger than a standard comic and taking up perhaps a third of the below-fold page space.  The ad stands out as content, which is exactly what “advertising as content” is all about, giving one pause to consider the brand. 

More importantly, it’s just a comic, not a sponsored article on the importance of sleep during business travel or similar work which can incite bias fireworks, and a quick page turn.  What’s the difference, then, between sponsored content (which is arguably more effective in a B2B setting) and “advertising as content”?  The latter is a brand-integrated, entertaining piece of work which grabs attention first as content, and later as ad, doesn’t shy from its bias, and leaves one with a favorable impression of the advertiser in the process.  The La Quinta ad is first funny, then informative.  One laughs at the troubled passengers, then catches the small print: “Enjoy free breakfast and comfy beds while you earn free nights faster with the La Quinta Returns program.”  An afterthought, almost, but crucial, of course, to the advertiser.  There’s research, I’m sure, that has established the benefits of creating a positive mental state, as this ad does, before delivering one’s pitch.  (Note to aspiring entrepreneurs: for mass consumer advertising, such setup works.  For business plan pitches, a polite set up that leaves investors in a neutral or better frame of mind is just fine.  It’s easy to go overboard on the humor and risk downplaying the seriousness with which you will attack the market.) 

Here, I like the use of formal cartoon as ad and the slogan as title takes the cake.  Anyone know if LaQuinta’s campaign was developed in-house or via an ad agency?

Click through for more of La Quinta’s comics.

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