With 59 hotels across Southern Africa, City Lodge Hotels is ranked among the top 250 hotel groups worldwide. While the majority of their business comes from midweek stays catering to corporate travelers, they identified a specific growth opportunity: weekend getaways.

The challenge? For the average urban South African, the idea of a weekend getaway feels so far removed from their busy daily lives that it’s often the last thing on their minds. To break through, we needed a disruptive, attention-grabbing way to reach our audience with this special offer.

City Lodge Hotels, one of the top 250 hotel groups worldwide, set out to challenge South Africa’s typical stay-at-home weekend culture. To do so, they launched a special Weekend Getaway offer at R749 (approximately US$40.52) per person per night.

To communicate the offer, TBWA\Hunt Lascaris introduced a simple yet effective “Bad Idea vs. Good Idea” construct—tapping into relatable cultural insights to develop a series of audio commercials tailored for social media. The campaign resonated with audiences, resulting in a 90% increase in positive online sentiment compared to the same period in 2024.