LIVE CLIENT
A food & beverage space that attaracts both the bleisure (business + leisure) traveler and the local community.
This work is currently being used by Hilton Hotels’ headquarters in McClean, VA.
Situation
large chain hotels aren’t known for great bars & restaurants.
Food & Beverage destinations are increasingly a high priority for consumers and are key to attracting both guests and locals in the hospitality industry. When creating an F&B space for Hilton, we had to be sure that the experience was customer winning, but still sustainable enough to be repeated across hundreds of locations across the country.
Insight
Women dread the hotel bar.
Solo female travelers are one of the largest growing travel segments. Through business or leisure, they are chasing their right to explore and impact the world at large. But their exploration is marred by fear. That fear, lives at the hotel bar.
Strategy
Hilton inspires women to venture fearlessly.
We discovered that both fear and excitement live in the same part of the human brain. Fear of the unknown and what could happen. We want to turn that fear, into excitement. We don’t travel to stay in our comfortable boxes. We travel to discover what else is out there.
Approach
We asked ourselves, how many women is Hilton losing because they don’t want to venture into their F&B spaces? While we didn't silo women alone, we knew that there was an opportunity to fulfill a human need. When we create an inviting space for female travelers, we create a community that all travelers can benefit from.
Brand Positioning
The Library
Community Hub
A welcoming gathering place for work, study, or reflection.
Evokes Inspiration
An archive for diverse stories to spark imagination.
Well Behaved
All visitors understand a certain behavioral code to abide by.
87 percent of people surveyed said they would feel "comfortable or "at home" spending time at a library.
Launch Strategy
Setting: U.S. “Second Cities”
Location considerations to launch our new F&B space came down to 2 key success factors:
Being a big fish, in a smaller pond. These are mid-sized cities where unique food & beverage experiences can stand out.
Booming solo travel hubs. This would allow us to meet a growing segment where they already are, with experiences made for them.
Business Ventures: #1 Best City for Young Professionals, Forbes // #1 City Competing with Silicon Valley, Entreprenuer // #1 Place to start a business, Wallet Hub
Salt
Lake
City
Travel Ventures: Skiing, hiking, nature destination – with a growing solo traveler population each day.
Creative
Brand Indentity
Customers will be greeted with imagery, typography, and stylings that evoke the inherent intellectual prowess associated with literature while feeling inspired from the wealth of stories surrounding them.
Manifesto
Conflict: User Needs
Discovery
In order to venture fearlessly and write thier own stories, people need to feel inspired to discover more than just thier hotel room or regular coffee shop.
Customer Experience
The Space
The Narrative provides a space for nearly any occasion. Work, play, both or…neither? Customers will have a place to get things done, unwind, try something new, or even get away to recenter themselves. Maybe they’ll even read a page or two.
Bartending
To defeat the threats and fears associated with the bar, we’ll do away with the bar – at least the seating and congregating portion of it. A drink can be ordered there but is encouraged to be taken to any of the many seating areas.
But the most novel experience is to have a craft cocktail concocted in front of you with our bar cart service. Customers only need to fill out a drink card and a waiter/bartender will be with them promptly.
Full Service Dining
For customers looking to have a more traditional meal, The Narrative will accommodate with a familiar but far from traditional dining area, complete with a full service menu (story themed, of course) and an open kitchen to observe the culinary storytelling.
Ads & Extensions
Playful Out-of-Home, sponsored cocktail/culinary classes and events on AirBnB, placed bookmarks in featured in the airport book store, Hudson News, and a feature-rich In-Flight Magazine offering culinary, lifestyle, and other experiences worth stepping out for.
Leave Behind
A fitting departure containing our research and presentation for the client to relay back to his team: A USB stick, under the guise of a skeleton key, housed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Team
Robert Clark (CBM), Kate Fallon (ST), Caitlin Russell (ST), Megan Riley (XD), Chloe Freidman (AD), Josh Perry (CW)