Grand Opening, PR, and Special Events
Hilton Santa Clara Hotel, Santa Clara, CA

In August 2000, we were asked to handle the opening public relations, advertising, marketing and special event activities to promote and introduce the Hilton Santa Clara to the Silicon Valley, Northern California and the nation. The hotel was scheduled to open in January 2001.

In addition to press announcements generated on behalf of the opening and new management team, which were sent to local, regional and national travel, consumer and trade media, we also set up and conducted hard-hat pre-opening tours of the hotel for local newspaper, magazine and freelance travel reporters prior to the opening. We produced pre-opening collateral materials and signage for use by both our staff and the hotel's sales and marketing team.

We recommended that the format of the opening activities consist of two separate, yet intertwined events; a civic luncheon and a gala buffet dinner, highlighting food from around the world, as well as an outdoor ribbon cutting ceremony preceding the luncheon and hotel tours conducted by the sales staff throughout the day. The luncheon and the evening events would each be targeted to different demographic groups with some crossover.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, VIP Event and Evening Gala

For the ribbon cutting ceremony, which was held at 10:30 a.m., we had all of the employees positioned in front of the hotel, in crisp new uniforms, serving as a backdrop. We set up a 200- red velvet ribbon with bow, large ceremonial scissors and podium and microphones for speeches. The audience for the ribbon cutting ceremony included political leaders, including the mayor of Santa Clara, members of the boards of supervisors for both Santa Clara and San Jose, other city department heads, fire/ police chiefs of both cities & officials from the Santa Clara Chamber/Convention Bureau. Representatives from both Hostmark Management and Franklin Croft were also on hand. We arranged a Santa Clara "Official City Proclamation" to be presented by the mayor to the hotel's general manager, Roy Truitt, as part of the event.

Media were also invited to the event, including reporters and editors of the San Jose Mercury News, KNTV/11, KEZR Radio, Santa Clara Weekly, Discover Santa Clara, San Jose Magazine, VIA, Senior Travel Tips, Sacramento Bee, KCBS Radio, e-traveller.com, Sunrise Travel Publications and Business Travel News, to name a few. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, the sales staff started the hotel tours.

As the event planners, we developed guests lists, designed and mailed invitations, handled RSVPS, provided and distributed badges, check-in for both events, soliciting donations for the raffle, soliciting coupons and small gifts from local merchants for goodie bags; writing, designing and printing programs and signs, designing Hilton Santa Clara shopping bags and mementoes, ordering photography, etc. On the media side, we wrote and produced the press kits; invited and confirmed over 50 reporters and assisted them with interviews and photographic needs.

A select group of civic leaders, media, businesspeople, tourism managers, the management team and owners convened for the luncheon event in the ballroom. Media kits, hotel collateral, programs and gifts were given to all attendees.  The proclamation was re-presented by the mayor of Santa Clara in front of 175 guests. Speeches by the hotel ownership and management team, as well as civic leaders, were also on the agenda.

For the evening event, we planned and executed a gala; international party which took place at the hotel. Food and beverage was served in the ballroom and meeting rooms; the lobby, which was situated between the ballroom and meeting rooms, was utilized as well for entertainment and the program. Food stations were set up representing cuisine from around the world, establishing the continental background of the executive chef.

Fund-raising/ Partnerships

We asked the Santa Clara Ballet Association to partner with us for the event and held a large raffle on their behalf. We solicited over 150 valuable prizes and asked that the younger members of the Ballet (from 6 to 18 years of age) wear costumes and sell raffle tickets. We provided the mini Hilton Santa Clara shopping bags for tickets and money for 20 ballet dancers and instructed them on selling techniques. They raised nearly $10,000 during the raffle. Approximately 500 guests attended the evening event.

Results

As a result of this promotion, the Hilton Santa Clara enjoyed considerable and immediate media coverage valued at over $75,000, in San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, San Mateo Times, San Jose Magazine, San Jose Business Journal, Valley Scene Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Ink, globestreet.com, Silicon Valley citysearch.com, Ronald Mars Taste of the World, Frequent Flyer Magazine, Meetings West, TravelAge West, Yahoo! On-line, etc.

Both the ownership as well as the management team were extremely pleased with the events and initial interest in the hotel. Over the following months since the opening, we have generated an additional $225,000 worth of media coverage and the hotel has enjoyed a profitable occupancy, despite the recent economic downturn. To date, the campaign has been highly successful in branding both the Hilton Santa Clara and the hotel's Mediterranean restaurant, La Fontana, throughout the Bay Area and beyond.