Campaign Spotlight: Ads for Rosewood Hotels Hope to Convey ‘A Sense of Place’

Ads for Rosewood Hotels Hope to Convey ‘A Sense of Place’

A company that operates high-end hotels and resorts is joining the ranks of marketers in the lodging and travel categories that seek to sell potential customers on accumulating rich experiences rather than expensive possessions.

The company, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, is introducing a campaign that carries the theme, “A sense of place,” which is complemented with another phrase, “A true journey never ends.” The budget for the campaign â€" including print and digital ads, online video and a redesigned Web site â€" is estimated at $8 million.

The campaign presents striking shots in a “living canvas” style by a Danish photographer, Anders Overgaard, of interesting and unusual things to do in cities where Rosewood has properties. For instance, one image, titled “Getting Lost in the Moment,” depicts a Temazcal ritual at the Rosewood Mayakoba in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

A second ad, titled “Behind the Magic Curtain,” shows a couple in formal wear backstage at a ballet in New York, where the Carlyle is a Rosewood hotel. A third ad, titled “Hitting All the Right Notes,” features guests enjoying a pianist at the Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle.

Other experiences that are highlighted in the campaign include sailing a dhow and riding bicycles in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where Rosewood has one hotel and intends to open a second, in 2015; and getting fitted for a dress and taking a calligraphy master class in Beijing, where Rosewood is to open a hotel early next year.

The campaign arrives as the company proceeds with expansion plans that involve doubling the number of properties under the Rosewood brand umbrella within five years. In the short term, in addition to the new hotel in Beijing, a Rosewood hotel is scheduled to open in London next month.

Beyond that, the company has proposed opening seven additional hotels, in markets like Bali, Indonesia; Chongquing, China; Nassau, the Bahamas; and Phukut, Thailand.

The campaign is being created for Rosewood by AgencySacks in New York, which specializes in advertising aimed at consumers at the upper end of the market; its slogan is, “We influence the affluent.” The Web site redesign is being handled by the Hong Kong office of Isobar, which is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network division of Dentsu.

AgencySacks has been working for Rosewood since 2004 and was kept on after the company changed hands in 2011, when the previous owners sold to New World Hospitality, a unit of New World China Land, for $800 million.

Rosewood is “a very-well-recognized brand,” says Sonia Cheng, chief executive of the company, which has offices in Dallas and Hong Kong. “We saw the opportunity to take it to the next level and expand Rosewood aggressively.”

The campaign is intended to be part of efforts to “completely revamp” Rosewood “from a brand identity front,” she adds, to “keep up with what luxury travelers are looking for.”

The campaign theme represents “a strong philosophy,” Ms. Cheng says, that gives the brand “a more modern look and approach.”

“What Rosewood has right now is special,” she adds. “We want to make it as ‘un-hotel’ as possible.”

By that, Ms. Cheng explains, she means that she wants to distinguish Rosewood from lodging chains that, as they grow bigger, “focus on quantity” rather than quality and make staying at each property “a cookie-cutter experience.”

Rosewood, by comparison, tries to make each hotel “individualized,” she says, and let each have “its own personality that embodies local culture.”

“What luxury travelers are looking for is not extravagance, but experience,” she adds.

A campaign for Loews Hotels and Resorts, introduced in July, also seeks to portray staying at each property as a unique experience. The Loews campaign, which carries the theme “The room you need,” is created by the Catch New York agency.

After Ms. Cheng came to Rosewood following the change in ownership, a brand consultant and graphic designer, Robert Louey, “helped us with the direction” of the makeover, she says. Then AgencySacks was brought in to work on a new campaign.

In many instances after a company changes hands, one of the first things the new owner does is look for a new agency. In this instance, Ms. Cheng says, she wanted to keep AgencySacks because “they know Rosewood inside out.”

“It was a smart choice to make,” she adds.

Introducing “A sense of place” as the new theme for Rosewood speaks to the desire to “create experiences for the guests,” Ms. Cheng says, in a “living canvas” approach.

As part of that, the company is bringing experts it calls “curators” to the hotels, she adds, “and give the inside scoop on each location to the guests.”