Across 7 years and over 200 portraits, the citizenM hotels became the world’s most artful billboards, featuring portraits of neighbours curated according to an opening theme for each hotel from Los Angeles to Copenhagen. Here is a selection.
Bowery, New York: 62 portraits, 180 windows, one local photographer (Christelle de Castro) and a lot of positive press attention, much needed since the hotel build was frowned upon by angry and fiercely protective local residents. Asides from the window exhibition, we produced a website alongside films telling the stories of the community, which included a punk filmmaker, jeweller to rap stars, and assorted idiosyncratic individuals.
Downtown Los Angeles: Only just post-Covid, we rushed out an exhibition to promote struggling local businesses and artists. The theme took Hollywood celebrity and the staple of casting shoots - the Polaroid - and blended them to celebrate and document a cross-section of society, from entertainers to human-rights advocates, queer club night promoters, musicians and chefs. The campaign appeared on tiktok, other socials and got a nice boost from Polaroid’s insta channel.
Zurich: A city of big financial corporations which are traditionally seen as male-dominated and conservative. Women were only allowed to vote from 1971 (and in some areas not until the 1990s). Women in positions on Swiss boards of directors are rare. And they take home nearly 20% less in wages than men. We wanted to show a progressive side to the city, with a citizens of Zurich exhibition focussing only on women entrepreneurs, innovators, business owners. And in this way we position citizenM as the most modern, forward facing business hotel.
Copenhagen: Actually the second exhibition and launch after Bowery, this hotel opened in the dead of Danish winter, meaning we wanted to be bright, bold and punchy. We worked with Marie Hald and captured the world’s happiest city, in all its diversity, with a light show for all participants, care of Jackob Kvist, and a bunch of youtube vids telling the stories of 5 of the individuals.
Seattle invented grunge and Pictionary. Coffee culture and Chuckit, the dog’s favourite toy. We tapped into this spirit of innovation to celebrate locals behind the city’s most iconic ideas. Photographer Leila Fakouri captured 18 Seattleites, from Sub Pop’s Bruce Pavitt to Hololens developer Dona Sarkar, in a series of portraits, gifs, and films that launched on social and lit up the hotel’s windows.
Rome: There’s a story here about a modern renaissance, allowing us to sculpt these citizens of Rome as digital marble busts, bringing the juxtaposition of old and new worlds to life. The campaign launched with teasers featuring snoring, reclining marble statues pointing out the new location. The project culminated in OOH in key Italian cities and a 5 story building exhibition. Do they look like violently decapitated heads? No. No, they do not.
Washington DC & London Victoria: Eschewing the need for locals in these window exhibitions, we instead tied portraits of sleeping citizens, in all their glory, shot from the pillow point of view, together with two hotel openings in the US and London through a US Awareness campaign.
