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of specialists in lifestyle performance, meditation, movement, nutrition and sleep. She co-developed the Double- Double Glow treatment at Mandarin Oriental, Milan, built around her recovery philosophy. There’ s also a“ Champion Chip” cookie developed with the hotel’ s culinary team.
“ Every partnership must result in something tangible and bookable,” Schellenberger said.“ It has to be an experience guests can truly engage with.”
At Aman, Djokovic’ s and Sharapova’ s programs are explicitly curated with the athletes but available yearround without their physical presence. SunSwept operates differently. Ambassadors are on-site at BodyHoliday and StolenTime, leading sessions and interacting directly with
NBA all-star and Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo partnered with BodyHoliday Saint Lucia, a SunSwept Resort, for an exclusive WellFit training program in August 2025.
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REPETITION MATTERS. THAT’ S THE BEAUTY OF HAVING AN AMBASSADORSHIP THAT IS GLOBAL IN NATURE ACROSS MULTIPLE YEARS
– MEHDI HEMICI, CHIEF LOYALTY
AND PARTNERSHIPS OFFICER,
ACCOR
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In 2024, Hilton announced a global ambassador partnership with Indian actress Deepika Padukone.
guests. The relationships are also reciprocal. When Julien Alfred won Olympic gold, SunSwept hosted her annual charity event at BodyHoliday, raising $ 100,000 for her foundation.
“ Just as these athletes inspire our guests,” Barnard said,“ we aim to create opportunities that elevate and support them in return.”
THE WELLNESS IMPERATIVE Across all of these partnerships, wellness emerges as more than a category add-on: It’ s becoming an organizing principle of luxury hospitality’ s near-term future. Hilton’ s 2026 Trends Report found that the top motivation for leisure travel this year is“ to rest and recharge,” a finding that directly informed the brand’ s ASMR sleep video with Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, recorded using only hotel amenities during the F1 summer break. It generated more than 35 million views,
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with an average YouTube watch time of 18 minutes during latenight hours.
“ A brand’ s job isn’ t to create new fandom,” said Dan Reynolds, SVP of global marketing for Hilton.“ It’ s to show up authentically within the fandoms that already exist and demonstrate that you’ re the brand for them.” In 2024, Hilton announced a global ambassador partnership with Indian actress, producer, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Deepika Padukone.
The sound of a world champion’ s voice helping hotel guests fall asleep, distributed globally via YouTube, is a reasonable summary of where luxury wellness marketing has arrived. The ambassador is no longer just a spokesperson: They are, in the most literal sense, part of the experience. The brands that figure out how to make that feel authentic are the ones guests will remember and return to.
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May / June 2026 hotelsmag. com 17 |