A TV campaign launched this week underlines the importance of brand equity by featuring a double-barrelled brand name – the result of a joint venture deal between two hotel chains.

Choice Hotels Canada, based in Mississauga, Ont., was formed last summer when Choice Hotels International, of Silver Spring, Md. and one of Canada’s major hotel management companies, Journey’s End, of Belleville, Ont., agreed to market their properties together.

The deal links 120 Journey’s End properties in Canada and 54 Choice properties.

Choice, although recognized worldwide through its network of more than 3,000 Comfort, Quality, EconoLodge, Clarion, Rodeway, Friendship and Sleep Inns, did not want to lose the strength of the Journey’s End name in Canada.

As a result, hotel signs are being changed to Quality Hotel, Quality Suites and Comfort Inn signs with ‘by Journey’s End’ tags to maximize the recognition of the international brand for travellers to Canada and to maintain the loyalty of Canadian travellers to Journey’s End.

As well, a 30-second tv spot in Canada, featuring former hockey star Eddie Shack, also stresses the Choice-Journey’s End brand name.

Shack, who acts as spokesperson in the spot by Robins Sharpe of Toronto, makes his pitch for the double-barrelled brand from a sportsbag, a tactic based on the Choice ‘suitcase’ advertising in the U.S.

In those spots, celebrities pop out of suitcases and expound on the benefits of staying at a Choice property.

In Canada, a different spokesperson will be used for the French-language advertising.