Motel 6 is debuting its first work from Barkley after appointing the Kansas City-based shop AOR in November following its break with longtime partner the Richards Group. The new campaign, which offers an updated twist on the budget chain’s decades-old tagline “Leave the light on,” is designed to attract the expected surge in road trippers who are hitting the road following virus lockdowns.

“While the hotel industry overall has been among the hardest hit from health crisis, the economy lodging segment has continued to sustain business momentum,” says Adam Cannon, VP of brand management at Motel 6 parent G6 Hospitality. “We are optimistic about future growth of the travel industry as more become vaccinated and travel restrictions are lifted.”

In researching the brand, Barkley found that even during the pandemic, a lot of customers continued to use Motel 6 despite shutdowns of other hotels—long haul truckers, or frontline workers, for example, according to Chris Cardetti, chief strategy officer at Barkley.

“We started to think about their audience—not just as economy lodgers but as economy movers—people who move the economy when we all shut down,” he says.

The new campaign takes that movement into account by telling the stories of travelers who are utilizing Motel 6’s 1,400 properties. In one spot, grandparents travel to meet for the first time their grandbaby who was born during quarantine. Another commercial tells the story of Omar, who uses two vacation days to pick up his parents’ old rocking chair so his sister can rock her new baby to sleep. The spots continue the brand’s tagline, in use since 1986, “We’ll leave the light on” but add personalization, such as “We’ll leave the light on for Abuela & Tito” or “We’ll leave the light on for Omar.” Longtime spokesman Tom Bodett continues to do the voiceovers in the spots.

The tone is a departure from Motel 6’s previous humorous work, according to Katy Hornaday, chief creative officer at Barkley. “The pivot here is to be more sincere and have more storytelling versus being a line-up for jokes,” she says. “That was great for the brand for a certain time, but we’re now using this as an opportunity to connect with their consumer more.”

The new push includes two 30-second TV spots that will run in both English and Spanish, as well as six English-speaking radio ads and three Spanish-speaking radio ads. In addition, Motel 6 is running long-form content in partnership with the AARP that reunites grandparents with grandchildren following COVID quarantines.

Motel 6’s appointment of Barkley follows 34 years with Richards Group. The brand cut ties with the agency following racist remarks made by founder Stan Richards about a campaign for Motel 6. He allegedly said during a creative review that a proposed ad was "too Black" and would not resonate with Motel 6's "significant white supremacist constituents." The motel chain in an October statement condemned the remarks as "not only completely inaccurate" but "in direct opposition of our values and beliefs as an organization."

The review process began before the incident, which led to significant backlash against the agency and multiple client departures.