Inter-Continental makes room for Identica website

Identica has revamped the website for Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts. The site, www.inter continentalhotels.com, will be relaunched this week, for a fee believed to be close to six figures.

The company carried out an internal review of the previous site before appointing Identica and this strategic work fed into the creative brief, says Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts director of e-commerce Peter Gerstle.

Gerstle says, ‘We wanted [the website] to carry the brand in a stronger manner, with a more upscale, luxury feel, while retaining speed and functionality.

‘In addition, it needed to cater in a more understandable way for our customer segments, both business and leisure travellers.’

Identica account director Jessica Woodburn says, ‘The strong blue of [the brand’s] existing identity was used to convey a corporate yet luxury image.

‘A globe graphic was [included] as a background image to reinforce the international aspect of the brand.’

Identica also commissioned new photography and a more upbeat copy style to reflect the atmosphere of the cities in which the brand’s hotels and resorts are located.

Navigation improvements include a quick reservations section on every page and the introduction of an interactive map to express the theme of ‘exploration’. The map enables users to choose destinations, read reviews and go on virtual tours of 135 hotels and resorts across 73 countries.

The design employs lines of latitude and longitude to ‘home in’ on particular locations, Gerstle comments.

He adds, ‘Browsing a website should be informative and fun. We were the first luxury hotel company to launch our own website in the 1990s and we’ve learnt a lot from our experience. Our guests want detail, and quickly too.’

The site was designed by Identica creative director Simon Drew and the consultancy was appointed following a four-way creative pitch in August.