Shaping a creative strategy to deliver a superior night’s sleep for Millennials.
The Challenge
InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) faced a critical question: how could they encode a culturally relevant understanding of sleep into their hotel room design for Millennial guests? This generation’s unique relationship with rest and relaxation demanded a fresh approach that would stretch beyond traditional hotel room layouts to encompass everything from spatial arrangements and lighting to materials and colours.
Our Approach
We developed an integrated research methodology that combined cultural strategy, ethnographic observation, and design expertise. Through semiotic analysis, we decoded how the meaning of sleep was evolving in contemporary culture, with particular focus on Millennial values and expectations.
Our research revealed four distinct cultural narratives around sleep that could be translated into design principles. These insights were validated and enriched through ethnographic observation in hotel rooms, which highlighted two crucial findings:
- The vital importance of fluid, flexible spaces that could adapt to individual needs
- The significant role of thresholds in creating transitions between different states of being
To transform these insights into actionable design solutions, we collaborated with designers from outside the hospitality sector. This collaborative approach brought fresh perspectives to how cultural meanings could be encoded into physical elements:
- Spatial arrangements that reflected new sleep rituals
- Lighting designs that supported natural rhythms
- Material choices that embodied contemporary wellness values
- Colour palettes that promoted restoration and rest
The Outcome
Our cultural strategy work led to a groundbreaking new hotel room concept that was so innovative it was patented in 2018. The design successfully encoded Millennial sleep values into every aspect of the room experience, creating spaces that deeply resonated with this generation’s approach to rest and rejuvenation.
This project demonstrates how cultural strategy can bridge the gap between abstract cultural understanding and concrete design solutions. By bringing together semiotics, ethnography, and design expertise, we helped IHG create hotel rooms that don’t just provide a place to sleep – they deliver an experience that aligns perfectly with how a new generation thinks about and values rest.
The success of this work shows the power of collaborative cultural strategy. By carefully decoding cultural meanings and translating them into design elements, we helped create spaces that deliver genuine value while establishing IHG as an innovator in hospitality design.
