PARIS—Relais & Châteaux, an association comprising 580 hotels and restaurants in more than 60 countries worldwide, is reinventing its 65-year-old self with a push into new media. A decade after its last campaign, this €1-million (roughly $1.1 million) venture takes a look at the concept “Delicious Journeys.”
“Through the launch of this new digital campaign, our desire is to reach younger clients and to do so, we needed to increase our online visibility and offer appealing content based on our new brand promise of creating delicious journeys,” said Relais & Châteaux President Philippe Gombert. “With the digital space constantly changing, now is the time to showcase Relais & Châteaux as a relevant brand in the luxury travel space today to a clientele that may not be as familiar with us.”
With regard to the campaign’s objective, Gombert said, “It’s to attract new and younger guests (in their 30s and 40s) while growing our online community by creating a digital space for all to share their ‘delicious experiences’ with Relais & Châteaux. Thanks to our new brand platform, ‘Creating Delicious Journeys,’ our members and guests can share their delicious journeys digitally all around the world using the official hashtag #deliciousjourneys.”
“Creating Delicious Journeys” is an interactive campaign that encourages user-generated content, but will also be supplemented with a set of five videos created by Relais & Châteaux that depict a unique moment experienced on-property. Each video opens with the question: What does delicious mean to you?
Directed by Davide Gentile, the award-winning Italian film director best known for his World Health Day “Food For Thought” film, the videos take place in five different countries at five different types of Relais & Châteaux members, including Blackberry Farm in the U.S.; Awasi Iguazu in Argentina; Gravetye Manor in the U.K.; La Grenouillere in France; and Asaba in Japan. All videos underscore the association’s key values of locality, humanity and collaboration, and simultaneously demonstrate a dedication to the human dimension of travel and culinary experiences. A series of photographs for print and online still use were created by photographer-reporter Benjamin Loyseau.
“We have also partnered with influencers, mainly in the U.S., U.K. and France, to create brand content and target their own communities, further connecting to the younger clientele we would like our brand to reach,” Gombert said.
Noting that the word delicious is “a feeling, a thought, an experience that is universally known and recognized,” Gombert added, “It is a simple word, and in a complicated hectic world, like the one we live in today, it’s a poetic invitation to share a moment of enjoyment that we propose to confidently deliver.”
The Delicious Journeys campaign dovetails a modernized corporate visual identity for Relais & Châteaux, including a refreshed logo.