Hotel Royal｜2025 Royal Explorer Annual Campaign

Context

"Royal Explorer" is more than an annual marketing campaign—it represents Hotel Royal's authoritative voice in defining "immersive travel." Each year, the group unites its nine properties under a distinct theme, offering fresh perspectives on travel and crafting meaningful domestic tourism experiences. In 2025, JL Design partnered with Hotel Royal for the second time, turning our attention to the often-overlooked hours of dawn. Under the theme "City Awakening Project," we explored the premise of "Change the Time, Discover a Different City"—reframing dawn as the most authentic and vital moment of urban life, and inviting travelers to experience six cities in their pre-awakened state.

Challenge

The core challenge lay in translating abstract concepts like "city awakening" and "experiencing the city at a different time" into imaginative visual design that builds anticipation and sparks travelers' curiosity about each property's unique programming. On the execution front, we needed to establish a highly scalable visual system within Hotel Royal's understated, elegant brand aesthetic—one that unifies all nine properties under the "City Awakening Project" framework while preserving each location's distinct local character, and flexibly extends across social media, web platforms, and advertising touchpoints.

Solution

We established "the morning window" as our core visual symbol, transforming the act of opening a window to greet the dawn into a metaphor for exploring the awakening city—creating an emotionally resonant entry point for what might otherwise remain an abstract itinerary. Nine properties, nine cities, nine windows—each defined as a "dawn sample." Within a unified visual framework, each property developed its own visual identity corresponding to its specific routes and local narratives. These samples function both independently and collectively, combining to form the campaign's master visual. This system preserves individual distinction while offering exceptional scalability, ensuring consistent brand presence and visual impact across digital social channels and physical advertising environments alike.

Local Connections

The form of each "window" was carefully selected based on the unique travel itinerary of each of the nine properties, identifying the visual element most representative of that specific experience. We transformed authentic slices of daily life into entry points for travel imagination—from Taipei's metro car windows to Hsinchu's embossed glass windows in the old street, and Taichung's post office service counter windows...

Documentary Photography

Beyond the visual system, documentary imagery forms the core of this campaign. We personally traversed each itinerary, authentically capturing the moments that moved us along the way. These images exist to allow travelers to envision their journey and form concrete expectations in their minds. Through these authentic perspectives, we aimed to transform "city awakening" from an abstract concept into a tangible travel imagination.

Campaign DM

The DM structure echoes the core "window" concept, linking the act of opening the mailer to the gesture of pushing open a window, allowing the physical interaction to precisely align with the theme. When unfolded, the reverse side reveals the campaign poster, transforming what would typically be ephemeral promotional material into a collectible visual piece, allowing the travel memory to extend into participants' everyday lives.