Ritz-Carlton Hotel agency Team One Advertising is jumping on the Web trend of creating six-word stories for a "Six-Word Wows" campaign that focuses on memorable events.
The ads use storytelling as a way to entice users to share or make their own stories, using the hashtag #RCMemories.
"It’s engaging, it’s playful, it’s simple, and it’s interesting. We’re real participants in the conversation," said Clayton Ruebensaal, Ritz-Carlton Hotel vice president for global marketing,
The Ritz-Carlton has rolled out the series of Six Word Wows across social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Sina Weibo, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+, in English and Mandarin.
The campaign is inspired by a moment in literary lore when Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a story in six words and replied, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Chris Graves, chief creative officer at Team One, told the New York Times the six-word wows are "authentic", recounting actual events, "which is important at a time when consumers are saying they are increasingly interested in real stories rather than those concocted as sales spiels".
"Consumers can smell that authenticity," he added, "and the opposite of that."
