Florence — home to endless Italian glamour and artistry, and the launch of the global partnership between St. Regis and Ginori 1735.
At The St. Regis Florence—our exquisite outpost on the Arno River with roots reaching back the Renaissance—we joined forces with the famed, locally-based porcelain design house to launch Café Ginori. The collaboration of these two heritage brands would dazzle Florentine locals and discerning travelers alike with its devotion to the Art of Gathering and the power of Italian allegria — the joy of coming to the table to share in something extraordinary.
Overall objectives:
We looked to brand and property social media, an exceptional launch event, influencers, and press and PR to share the story of Café Ginori.
Although the partnership between Ginori 1735 and St. Regis initiated at the property-level in 2023 at the St. Regis Venice, Café Ginori marked the launch of the global partnership with expanded & continuing collaboration.
Our goal was to show all sides of the experience created by St. Regis and Ginori 1735 in Florence, from playful vignettes to glamorous events to brand moments presented through the eyes of influencers, pulsed out over time to give depth to the partnership and reveal something artful, indulgent, and exquisite.
It all started with a teaser, introducing Café Ginori as an all-day dining experience that can serve as the go-to for local “Luminaries” (St. Regis’s target audience) for any moment of their day. This was depicted through a theme of “morning, noon, and night,” revealing a setting of round-the-clock glamour to the followers of St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Ginori 1735, and The St. Regis Florence through a collab reel on Instagram.
The next element was our launch event and its surrounding coverage. The debut of Café Ginori allowed us to attract PR, fashion, and travel media, as well as luminaries and influencers. The event also set the stage for hero videos, revealing the glamour of St. Regis Florence and the beautiful artistry of Ginori 1735 porcelain during the launch event, as well as moments in the city and at Ginori’s production space — known as the manifattura.
Both the St. Regis and Ginori 1735 brands embrace a whimsical air to content marketing, so it was a natural fit to continue to tell the story of our partnership in elevated and playful way. This was perfectly captured in our hero Etiquette video (shared below). Inspired by Ginori 1735’s ongoing “The Table Manners” series, the video takes the rules of café culture and turns them on their head to illustrate an effervescent take on the art of gathering — a theme central to both the St. Regis and Ginori 1735 brands.
Our subsequent vignettes series made Café Ginori the star of festive season on St. Regis social media, where brand rituals like afternoon tea and Champagne sabrage made the partnership and Café Ginori a high-profile aspect of holiday content.
Influencer content also delved deeper into how the experiences of St. Regis Florence and Ginori 1735 intertwined, bringing them into the world of both brands with carousels focusing on exquisite details of cuisine, hospitality, style and craftsmanship created by each brand, again highlighting the hotel, Café Ginori, and the porcelain brand’s manifattura.
By successfully sharing the experience of Italian allegria at Café Ginori, the campaign performed splendidly.
The big numbers:
To evaluate our awareness impact, St. Regis commissioned a Meta brand lift study. Across each tracked metric, the Café Ginori campaign excelled:
These results surpassed not only other 2024 St. Regis campaigns, but campaigns from other Marriott luxury brands in 2024 as well.
Digging into individual content, social video from Café Ginori also supplied some of the year’s best content — our festive Champagne reel topped the charts for 2024 in impressions, engagements, and video thruplays.
Influencer content and traffic carousels further showed the appeal of our partnership. Our click-through rate (CTR) was 111% over Marriott benchmarks, with the top performing post hitting 280% over benchmark. This high CTR drove over 60k link clinks to explore the partnership, reflecting the traction of our messaging.
The partnership between St. Regis and Ginori 1735 has proved to be a perfect fit, and Café Ginori an exciting new chapter — effectively leveraging complementary brand narratives, styles, and experiences into something new and engaging. By emphasizing glamour, timeless heritage, exquisite moments, and the playful verve of Italian allegria, Café Ginori enhanced the awareness of our partnership with Ginori 1735 and created the irresistible for our guests in Florence.
