Skift Take
Conrad's "Smart Luxury" positioning is an attempt to expand on the "personal" and "experiential" luxury memes, which have become overused cliches, with more indepth local travel options for successful, well-traveled professionals.
Conrad Hotels is repositioning around its new Conrad 1/3/5 content campaign effective today, designed to differentiate the luxury hospitality brand not just from other upscale hotel groups, but also its sister Waldorf Astoria Hotels flag.
Both Conrad and Waldorf Astoria are operated by Hilton Worldwide.
The new brand initiative provides suggested local travel itineraries for 1-, 3- and 5-hour timeframes in the destinations where Conrad operates. The content is now living on the new StayInspired.com website, which redirects to the brand.com site, and the Conrad Concierge app.
The shift here is that many travel brands are promoting local experiences but their content often highlights the most mainstream options, whereas Conrad 1/3/5 is attempting to showcase more immersive experiences that appeal to ambitious, well-educated, and well-traveled professionals.
The Hilton creative teams are also developing new branded content for as yet unnamed travel consumer media brand, supported with new social media programs revolving around the #StayInspired hashtag and brand tagline.
If up until now you didn't really know the difference between the Conrad and Waldorf Astoria value propositions, you weren't alone. Here are Hilton Worldwide's internal brand identities for the two hotel companies following today's official repositioning of Conrad:
Conrad Hotels: "Smart Luxury" — A launch pad for ambitious, over-achieving, on-the-go professionals to discover a destination through places inspired by that spec
