time hotel
Designer Adam Tihany took all of 30 seconds to describe his vision for a new boutique hotel. “Red, Yellow, Blue,” he said. He then drew three boxes on a whiteboard, slashing a single bold primary color into each and asked, “If each room features one dramatic color, one unique experience, how can we do the same for the story we tell of our hotel?”
“Brilliant. No hotel campaign has came close to this kind of customer involvement. The ads themselves are works of art we put in every room.”
– Time Hotel
Exec Summary
Category Thinking: All guests want the same thing: Service, Comfort, Location.
New Insight: Time hotel guests consider themselves creative. They like to play, to discover. They want a unique experience.
New Position: Time is A Place That Inspires.
Result: 90%+ room capacity. Breakthrough awareness for grand opening. Momentum for a sustained buzz and brand engagement.
Full Case Study
Situation: In New York, there was a trend in the hotel industry toward smaller, more personal, designer or boutique hotels. The international designer Adam Tihany had a vision of his own that went beyond the others: Not just trendy, but enduring. Not just great design, but great energy that touches the soul. At the visual center of Tihany’s vision: the primary colors red, yellow, and blue. When you entered a room at the Time hotel, you were seduced by a cool monochromatic space, then charged creatively by a dramatic stroke of one powerful color, as in a red bedspread, a red marble on a white towel, a red fruit in a beautiful vase…
Category Thinking: All guests want the same thing: Service, Comfort, Location.
New Insight: Tihany had something different in mind, a strategic “Zen” to his thinking. Why the primary colors? How could his vision be communicated? What connects Time and its customer? Like the best designers and brand visionaries, Adam’s idea was, in fact, centered on the customer. And this customer was about more than location, comfort, and service. Those were givens. The customer was the on-the-move creative director from San Francisco, the aspiring filmmaker from London, the portfolio-toting fashion designer from Italy. Introducing a hotel was really about establishing a creative relationship, an authentic dialog, with this very self-motivated, discovery-obsessive customer.
Solution: Don’t just be a hotel, be a place of unique and inspiring discovery. A place that engages the creative being.
New Position: Time is A Place That Inspires.
Result: 90%+ room capacity. Breakthrough awareness for grand opening. Momentum for a sustained buzz and brand engagement.
