Fallon and Senn’s marketing group, Fallon Worldwide, was hired in 1997 to develop a strategy for Holiday Inn to boost the chain’s entrance into the limited-service-hotel-sector. With a budget more tight than that of their competitors, their only chance was to “outsmart rather than outspend” them. The creation of the Holiday Inn Express ‘Stay Smart’ brand is one of several entertaining stories in the book, designed to illustrate the advantages of a creative approach to marketing.

Fallon and Senn maintain that they want “to juice the orange, rather than drain [their] clients’ wallets.” They advocate building a culture of creativity that goes beyond ‘just making money,’ because “only a campaign that makes a genuine human connection with the audience can invite the consumer to participate in your message.”

(Source: “The ad pitch: Creativity, not saturation, is key,” Boston Sunday Globe, Business, August 6, 2006, D2)