Center Hotels Brand Experience Design

For Guests who want to 'Stay like a local'

Expertise

Brand Architecture
Brand Identity
Branded Experience and Interior Design
Web Design
Launch and Awareness Strategy
Art Direction
Hotel Design

Shortlisted for Best Hotel Design

+77%

Direct Online Bookings Uplift Post Website Launch

+35%

Increased Revenue in 2023 Compared to 2018

Watch the Center Hotels brand experience design story

The challenge

Rebrand and redefine the guest experience for Iceland's most loved hotel chain.

With the entrance of various international chains intensifying the increasingly competitive Icelandic market, Center Hotels decided it was time to enhance and future-proof its brand. Being a family business, one of the key goals was for the new brand to better capture the family values and human side of the company. Other key objectives included further increasing their market share, predominantly by differentiating themselves from other hotel brands and enriching the overall guest experience. Our challenge was to help them become the most loved and most talked about local brand in Iceland by creating a memorable and unique Icelandic hospitality experience that captures the essence of the island and makes guests feel valued, welcome and truly at home.

The big idea

The new brand is based around the philosophy of ‘Staying like a local’ by giving a real insight into the heart of the city, the spirit of the people and the soul of Iceland.

In the center of it all

The group-wide rebrand began with workshops designed to help Center Hotels analyse the scope of their proposition and assess the personality of their brand and the profiles of their customers. This resulted in a new modern and youthful logo design for the master brand, along with individual logos for each of their hotel brands. The Circle became a key element of the brand, representing their city centre locations and also acting as a viewfinder into local life and creativity.

A local heart

Iceland has a unique culture, language and personality which was essential to communicate in the brand, so we developed Center Hotels branding with an own-able tone of voice which was bold, inspiring, and proud – just like Icelanders. We worked alongside local artists to bring the brand to life illustratively.

We feel fortunate to be working with I-AM across a full rebrand and proud of the first implementation with Laugavegur which has exceeded our expectations with record sales since the launch.

Sara Kristófersdóttir, CCO at Center Hotels

Rich storytelling

We created a digital experience and marketing strategy that brings the ‘stay like a local’ positioning to life and directly engages with selected audiences by tapping into art, music and local partnerships. The new website focused on using emotive storytelling to inspire the user to explore the hotels and city, whilst also positioning Center as a local expert through curated “what’s on” pages.

Increasing direct bookings

One of the primary objectives of the Center Hotels website design was to encourage direct bookings, an expectation which was surpassed by a 77% increase in direct online booking following the website launch. This was targeted through a combination of giving the user ‘reasons to believe’ with inspiring and quality content, along with an easy-to-reach booking system prompted at considered stages of the user journey.