The Artesian Hotel Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

The Artesian Hotel, Casino and Spa is a luxury resort located in Sulphur, Oklahoma. The Artesian boasts 81 guest rooms, casino, full-service spa, fitness center, restaurants, a lounge, an indoor-outdoor pool and a selection of fine boutiques and shops. August 2, 2018, marked the fifth year of the rebirth of the Artesian Hotel. The hotel originally opened in 1906 but burned down in a fire the night of January 14, 1962. The stately hotel was replaced by the modest Artesian Motor Hotel. In 1972, the Chickasaw Nation purchased the hotel and renamed it the Chickasaw Motor Inn. In 2006, that building was cleared to make way for the new Artesian, which opened its doors on August 2, 2013.

Challenge

The challenge for this campaign was to generate overall awareness of the Artesian’s fifth anniversary celebration. The Artesian is well-known in the region and gains regular media coverage because of its community involvement and leadership. The fifth anniversary of the reopening of the hotel represented significant growth in the south-central region of the state, marking a huge success both for the town of Sulphur and state of Oklahoma. The awareness of the upcoming milestone was important as the Artesian wanted to celebrate with prior guests while simultaneously positioning themselves as a destination for new audiences. Koch Comm’s role was to ensure quality media coverage of the milestone anniversary to tell the unique story of the hotel and to develop a social media campaign to raise awareness among new target audiences.

Strategy

Koch Comm leveraged existing media relationships to develop a direct and personalized one-to-one pitch to ensure the Artesian’s story was told in a meaningful way. Koch Comm’s team created a compelling pitch to The Oklahoman features editor, highlighting the historical value of The Artesian reaching five years of business. A timeline was drafted of the hotel’s history, including its inception, the fire and rebuild to give The Oklahoman some ready-to-print facts, which ran verbatim.

Koch Comm was confident that a one-to-one pitch could convince The Oklahoman to send a reporter down to Sulphur, become invested in the story and package the story in a prominent position in the paper. Koch Comm also further strengthened the personal relationship by meeting the reporter at the hotel, providing a personal tour of the property, a prepared timeline and talking points that would help the reporter in crafting the Artesian’s ideal story. Lastly, Koch Comm provided the reporter with a link to numerous photos of the property, almost all of which were used in the article.

From a social media standpoint, Koch Comm developed a strategic campaign to generate excitement surrounding the anniversary. The campaign included posts that told the hotel’s story through historical photos, unique angles and lesser-known facts. Additionally, Koch Comm developed and executed a photo contest that encouraged participants to submit their favorite photos from the last five years at the hotel. The top five photos were selected by the hotel’s staff and put on display at the hotel during the celebration event. The winning photo was framed and hung in the hotel as a permanent fixture.

RESULTS

Koch Comm tracked the results of this strategy through traditional public relations and social media monitoring, including print and online monitoring services. The public relations results included a teaser mention and photo on page one of The Oklahoman’s Sunday edition, plus a significant story and photos across six columns on the front of the Life section. The reporter completed two stories – a main bar and a side bar – and both also ran on NewsOK.com. In total, there were 172 column inches printed on the story with an earned media value of $204,382. The client was pleased with the coverage, and requested Koch Comm secure extra copies of The Oklahoman so they could frame and display the story in the hotel.