THE LOST ART OF COPYWRITING: Hans Brinker Hostel

So here’s the thing.

You don’t just run a hostel in Amsterdam, you run a budget hostel in Amsterdam. Your place is the cheapest of the cheap, the lowest of the low, the gold standard of bog standard.

How do you promote it? Spruce it up and take a few carefully positioned photos? Jazz up the copy with plenty of hyperbole and flowery adjectives? Hope nobody notices when they arrive to check in?

Or just be honest?

That’s what a brave client would do. And that’s what Hans Brinker Hostel in Amsterdam did. The budget was very small for this campaign and yet they turned it into a tourist destination.

Everything about this campaign is fresh and original. The copywriting is short and punchy. The art direction is years ahead of its time with bold, minimalist block colouring and stencil graphics.

It all comes together to create a unique, honest, friendly brand and tone of voice that makes you smile and want to book a room. Sorry, bed.

Genius.

Campaign:  Selling the worst hostel in the world

Agency:     KesselsKramer

Client:       Hans Brinker Hotel

And now the original campaign has been developed, but still keeps the same fresh brand and tone of voice.

Even the website is bloody brilliant.