In 2022, The Ritz-Carlton embarked on a new chapter of its influencer program, selecting for the first time an official Artist Partner to represent the brand through a blend of art and travel. After a careful search, The Ritz-Carlton chose Louis-Nicolas Darbon as its official Artist Partner.
The Ritz-Carlton’s goal was to expand and reinforce its audience, developing new credibility and in-roads in the cultural side of luxury, with new visibility and in the world of fine arts. By choosing Louis-Nicolas as the Artist Partner, The Ritz-Carlton was able to align themselves with a partner who understands the luxury world, content creation and how to weave both together with art.
For The Ritz-Carlton, finding influencers to represent their brand is a careful process, hinging on identifying figures that can surprise, delight and represent the tastes and interests of their core audience of experience-seeking travelers around the world.
Louis-Nicolas’ skills as an artist would bring new possibilities to the look and feel of The Ritz-Carlton’s most prominent partnerships, allowing relationships that could at times seem intangible or abstract to come to life through custom, thoughtful, and entertaining artwork and activations that can thrive both in-person and on social media.
Louis-Nicolas Darbon has held art exhibitions around the world and traveled extensively, making him an ideal fit for a global brand partner of The Ritz-Carlton. In addition to being an artist, he is also a Digital Creator, sharing a luxury-focused mix of his art and travel to 320K followers on Instagram.
His fashion- and pop-inflected art style adds a new dimension to The Ritz-Carlton experience, and his lifestyle content further emphasizes the world of The Ritz-Carlton as setting the stage for life’s indelible memories.
Throughout the partnership, Louis-Nicolas Darbon has been a vital part of bringing the brand to life on social media.
Crucially, he has been key to implementing The Ritz-Carlton's strategy as official hotel partner of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team through original travel posters, live art installations, and travel and race content.
At the 2022 Miami Grand Prix Louis-Nicolas created custom wrapped art for cars, and painted original portraits of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, each presented to the drivers in person. In Budapest his art created excitement in one of the city’s most popular districts, as he unveiled a custom mural on the side of The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest during the Hungarian Grand Prix race weekend.
This foray into mixing art, sport, and the luxury hotel experience with Louis-Nicolas as an influencer and content creator has proven to be a huge success. The Miami Grand Prix and Budapest Grand Prix campaigns alone generated 5.86M Engagements, an average 30% Engagement Rate and $0.02 Cost Per Engagement.
Additionally, these activations and other stays have generated assets for The Ritz-Carlton that are key to its evergreen content strategy, maintaining an elevated look and feel that is of prime importance to the brand.
