NEW YORK—Starwood Hotels & Resorts has unveiled its new leisure campaign for the Le Méridien brand, which showcases a midcentury-modern aesthetic combined with local elements from various cities and countries.
The upper-upscale brand’s advertising and marketing campaign and visual identity features new elements such as retro typefaces and vintage photography. Inspired by vintage travel posters, the campaign showcases curated global experiences focused on the arts, culture and cuisine.
“Whether it’s the tile work at our property in Istanbul or Atlanta, where the artwork is a stylized graphic of the flight paths between Paris and Atlanta, those are ways we subtly incorporate elements of the destination,” said Brian Povinelli, global brand leader of Le Méridien and Westin. “Today’s travelers want to experience the destination. They want a more casual environment.”
The new leisure campaign was overseen by Julie Frank, global director of design for Le Méridien Hotels as part of the Starwood Global Brand Design Group. In her role, she oversees both the creation of brand three-dimensional design direction, initiatives and frameworks, as well as the design direction for all the hotels with in the brand’s portfolio.
Le Méridien has a portfolio of more than 101 hotels in over 35 countries and a pipeline of 30 hotels slated to open in the next two and a half years. Air France originally established the brand in 1972. Starwood acquired it in 2005 and has since helped transform Le Méridien into a contemporary lifestyle brand.
“The next step in our evolution is the new ad campaign,” said Povinelli. “Our goal is to spread the message of destinations located in iconic cities and countries around the world. We were inspired by travel posters from the 1960s. Those were very sophisticated and a great way to speak more about the Le Méridien promise.”