See How These Hotel Brands Are Embracing Experiential Marketing

Earlier this month, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts debuted its new global brand campaign, “Experience The Grandest of Feelings,” in New York City, which features a nature-inspired installation, produced by creative agency Timeless Eye with botanicals by exterior design and landscaping firm Manscapers. The launch event also included the reveal of a poem composed by Cleo Wade, Fairmont’s first poet-in-residence, via a video projection.

The installation was located just outside of The Plaza, a Fairmont-managed hotel, and showcased organically harvested materials, a soundscape of nature sounds arranged by composer Henri Scars Struck and campaign visuals. The piece features plant foliage that is being donated and reused. Another floral installation is currently situated at the Fairmont The Palm in Dubai until Oct. 29.

Following a multimillion-dollar renovation, Le Germain Hotel Montréal unveiled a permanent colorful facade as part of a city-wide project collaboration with Mural, North America’s largest urban art festival. Canadian artist Michelle Hoogveld dramatically transformed the hotel’s exterior into a towering 171-foot work of art called “Dazzle My Heart.”

The artist had to work on a platform suspended from the roof of the hotel to apply the 80 different colors.

Over the summer, JW Marriott, Anaheim Resort unveiled its Secret Butterfly Garden and interactive augmented-reality experience where guests are able to navigate a digital forest and sculpture garden using their mobile devices. To interact with the exhibit’s sculptures, guests need to download the Shimé app, designed exclusively for the hotel. Guests are then guided through a performative meditation that involves planting a tree, which takes its color and shape from decisions made during the experience. When the experience is over, the tree recedes into the digital forest. The installation was designed by studio HEAVY in Los Angeles.

Located on the second-story rooftop of the resort, the garden’s 70-foot wall is covered with over 600 blue and green titanium butterflies that illuminate in different shades of blues depending on the light.

Multimedia artist Paola Pivi has transformed the lobby at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas into a playful wonderland of neon-colored baby polar bears, which are on display until Nov. 1. Featuring 51 vibrant baby bears flocked in fluorescent feathers, the exhibit raises awareness about the loss of the animals’ natural habitat.

In 2019, 21c Museum Hotels and MGallery Hotel Collection commissioned muralist Aaron De La Cruz to transform an all-white hotel suite in the middle of Manhattan. Over the course of 24 hours, De La Cruz used his signature black, deconstructed letters and shapes, along with vibrant colors to bring life to the pop-up space. Read more: See How a Hotel Brand's Pop-Up Suite Became a 24-Hour Art Installation

Back in 2018, as part of its #FourSeasonsPopDown series of events, the luxury hospitality company promoted the upcoming opening of its Philadelphia property with giant floral installations, created by floral artist and artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia Jeff Leatham, located at various locations around the city. Read more: Why the Four Seasons Launched an Event Series Outside its Hotels