Group project in Corporate Communications.

1. InterContinental Hotel
Group (IHG)
Anna Maley
Lindsey Hurst
Erin McGuiness
Madison Phillips
Natalie Morris

2. Who is IHG?
● The InterContinental Hotel Group, most commonly referred to as IHG, is a
leading multinational hotel company comprised of 12 different brands that
operates as a franchisor, manager and on an owned and leased basis respectively.

3. Global Reach
100 different countries
744,368 hotel rooms
5,070 hotels
globally
3rd largest hotel
group in the
world
Over 350,000
employees
$597
million $86
million
$78
millio
n
$70
million

4. IHG Background
● Strategy- Innovative technology and mutually beneficial relationship with third
party vendors
● Target Audience- Upscale and luxury accommodations in hotel industry
● Mission Statement- To create great hotels guests love
● Vision Statement- To build the hotel industry’s strongest operating system
focused on the biggest markets and segments where scale really counts

5. IHG Brands
● Competitors
● IHG owns largest hotel brand- Holiday Inn
● Each brand has own campaign that is brand specific
● IHG created a “winning model” which had building
preferred brands as their #1 priority

6. PR Structure
● Event Management
○ Large scale events
● Internal Communication
○ Newsletters, employee events and communication within
● Corporate PR
○ Devoted to external communication
○ Handles executive visibility, financials, development, technology, reputation management, and
crisis communication
● External Brand Communication
○ Conducting large scale, nationwide PR campaigns
○ Facilitate new hotel openings
○ Manage travel and holiday PR
○ Write trend pieces
○ Supports brand marketing group

7. Corporate Social Responsibility
● IHG Green Engage
○ Reducing carbon footprint and water use per occupied room, efficient lightbulbs, Green team, etc.
● IHG Academy
○ 1,215 programs in 68 countries
○ 832 scholarships
● IHG Foundation
○ Disadvantaged groups and young people,
disaster relief, protecting the environment, and
Grassroots community support
● Larger guest and/or stakeholder list

8. Media Relations
● Print
○ Global Press Releases
○ “Americas” Press Releases
○ Boiler Plate, PR Media Toolkit
● News
○ Positive vs. Negative
● Social
○ IHG Accounts
■ Facebook
■ Twitter
○ Individual Brands

12. Social Media
● Social Marketing Team- guest marketing, brand team and PR
● Zaaz Agency: “Global brand social media planning and strategy partner.”
● Social Media Outlets- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube
○ 13 Facebook Pages- IHG, IHG Careers, IHG Rewards Club, etc.
○ 8 Twitter Accounts- @IHG, @JoinIHG, IHGService, etc.
○ 3 Instagram Accounts- IHG, IHG Rewards Club, Life at IHG

14. Reputation Management
IHG Best Practices
● Formal Mechanism: Crisis Manual/Plan
○ Notify risk management, collect information, collaborate with appropriate, internal report, develop
statement, address media & public, evaluate
● Risk Management
● Media Relations
○ Never say no comment, One point of contact, consistent statement, News crews do not have rights
to film on private property
○ Social media = Reactive Response
● Monitor Competitors
● Manage Stakeholder relationships

15. Reputation Management
Internal Communications
● Preferred communication of employees
● Communication Bulletin - weekly newsletter
● Intranet - Murlin
○ Post internal stories
○ Inform employees
● Consistent Message
○ Everything comes from Internal Communications
○ Tone of voice
● Employee Engagement Survey

16. Reputation Management Crisis: Protest group projects vulgar
statement on Crowne Plaza Hotel in
Midtown, Atlanta
● Corporate PR team
● Media Coverage
● Risk Management

17. Financial/Investor Relations
● Focused on Disclosure and Materiality section
● Formal Disclosure- filing financial and business information formally
● 2015 Form 20-F- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) form
○ Foreign private issuers
○ Use this form if fewer than 50% of voter shares are U.S. investors
● 2015 Annual Report-
○ Considered “free writing”
○ Corporate marketing brochure (Doorley & Garcia, 2015, pg. 234)
○ Investor Information Section- following best practices
○ IHG gives the shareholders an opportunity to appoint a proxy for them
○ Financial and operating information

18. Conclusion
● Although some practices are operating more efficiently than others, each of these
are vital to IHG’s success.

19. Recommendations
● Social Media
○ Condense the amount of social media accounts and hashtags
● Media Relations
○ One press release per day because multiple releases on the same day creates an artificial feel
of accuracy
● CSR
○ Continue corporate social responsibility activities
● Reputation Management
○ Update crisis management plan more often
● Financial/Investor Relations
○ Continue effective communication with investors and shareholders