The Rubens Brought In To Sex-Up Hollywood Hotel

Breakout Sydney indie band The Rubens have been enlisted by Hollywood's Redbury Hotel to be the face of their $100,000 marketing campaign to sex-up the brand and align it with both rock'n'roll and Australian.

As part of the deal, the band filmed their latest film-clip – for The Best We Got – in the hotel.

According to The New York Times, The Redbury, which is owned by the SBE Hotel Group, has launched a campaign with a budget of somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000 and includes the video and a behind-the-scenes clip, as well as website, email and social media marketing.

In the video the band – who were today nominated for the Independent Music Awards' Breakthrough category – play in various parts of the hotel, including on the roof and in a room, while girls dance around them, and at one point shower together.

The hotel is located is in the heart of Hollywood and across the road from the famous Capitol Records building, and the clip aims to play up on the fabled 'Hollywood rockstar hotel' image. Specifically The New York Times reports that Matthew Rolston was commissioned to create a campaign that would attract more Australian guests, which is the hotel's largest international market.

A representative from the band's Australian label was not immediately available for comment, but Veronica Smiley, Chief Marketing Officer at SBE, told the Times, “The Redbury brand is rooted in rock'n'rock and Hollywood. It's a brand in its infancy in the life style category and for us, relevance is so critical in our relationship and appeal to guests and prospective guests.”

On the “limited budget” she said that they decided to “zero in on an important consumer segment, Australians.”

She added, “We went to Matthew, our established partner on this brand, and challenged him to develop a campaign to amplify the Redbury's awareness and connection to rock'n'roll and Hollywood.”

The timing is good for The Rubens, whose debut and self-titled album will be released in the US 10 September through Warner Brothers Records. Warner's Senior Vice President For Marketing, Xavier Ramos, said “the artist has to like the brand at the end of the day” and that the band “did their research” before agreeing to the partnership.