Rebranding Millennium Hotels & Resorts

We are delighted to see our rebranding programme for Millennium Hotels and Resorts coming to life. The above is a print campaign running in Singapore, written, art-directed and produced in-house at G.A Brand Design (the typography of the line "More than Meets the Eye" is unique and hand-crafted here). This is just the tip of the iceberg as we roll-out our new Millennium brand across all touch-points in the coming months...

This project was complex. Millennium & Copthorne are listed on the London FTSE250 and have 140 hotels globally, spread across 12 brands varying from heritage properties like The Bailey's Hotel in London to designer hotels such as Studio M Singapore and global chains such as Copthorne. 

As a hospitality company, their range of brands is variegated and unique, with each hotel offering an individual experience. Rather than seeing this a weakness (say versus the 'giants' like Hilton or Accor who are more regimented in their approach) we embraced this individuality as a core brand strength. This approach resonated with our research on the guest - who desired a more personal and less 'cookie cutter' hotel stay. Furthermore, when we interviewed key Millennium staff, they told us they had more freedom and flexibility to express themselves versus other hotel chains. They were less scripted and therefore better able to accommodate the guests' requirements in their own personal manner, rather than working from an impersonal 'manual'.

With validation of our approach internally and from the management, we proceeded to streamline the brand architecture around 3 key 'collections' (more on that soon) to simplify the navigation process. This included negotiating several legal and trademarking issues, to ensure that all the brands would exist in an IP framework which the client could protect. We also had to rebrand certain hotels in the portfolio - such as The Bailey's Hotel and The Chelsea Harbour Hotel - to fit into the new framework.

Next we articulated visually and verbally our 'challenger' brand positioning, with the brand tag-line "More than Meets the Eye" - an invitation to existing customers to reappraise the company, whilst hinting at the personalised (and non-cookie-cutter) approach that is true to the founder's vision of Millennium.

Finally we implemented the new brand across a comprehensive brand manual, covering all the sub-brands globally, along with support and guidance for the roll-out including creation of communication such as the print work above. Throughout the process, we interfaced with our G.A Design colleagues in London, on certain brands where we are developing the interior design space concept along with the brand positioning.

We will keep posting with more updates as the work goes live, but a huge thank you to all both on the client and agency team for the support and hard work in bringing this brand project to life.