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Tommy Hilfiger 

citizenM builds hotels for the mobile citizen: creative, design-conscious travellers who move easily between work and play. Design-led rooms, seamless tech, lobbies that behave like living rooms — affordable luxury across cultural capitals, born in Amsterdam. 


Strategy  Direction  Design            







Insight
Positioned content as a bridge to the guest. A memorable hotel stay typically promises luxury. But how can it be elevated into a real wellness experience — one that keeps the brand's light-hearted, humorous attitude towards standard hospitality promises? And how can we reach new markets audinces? 
citizenM wanted more than visibility; it wanted travellers to see city stays as micro-escapes — as considered as they are convenient. For guests who plan in feed and define value on their own terms, the question was not whether the brand should show up, but how. With limited always-on creator investment to date, the mandate was sharp: scale creator marketing without diluting the brand.



















Challenge 
Making a design hotel native to the feed. 
The obstacle was never awareness alone; it was showing up with culturally relevant stories, at scale, while protecting a distinct aesthetic and voice. With little prior creator presence, the right voices had to be found and the right organic formats established — creators who reflect the mobile citizen, and creative that feels human, visual, and consistent with citizenM's design standards. The programme set out to:



















01

Grow organic discovery through creator-led travel storytelling 02

Give property launches aesthetic-forward content, on time03

Build consideration and engagement across the US and the UK04

Reframe the city stay as a micro-escape












03  Free coffee hooks the scroll 

04  UGC browsing makes dream hotels feel more reachable














Result
Positioned content as a bridge to the guest.


Kyra built and runs citizenM's always-on programme across both markets: travel-savvy creators activated on site during guided trips, a steady cadence held between planned pulses. The strategy is emotional hospitality, not ads — creators working as stylists, storytellers and urban explorers, showing why a stay matters. The US push leans into spontaneity and escapism; London, into purposeful short stays.

My contribution, as an independent creative strategist, is the brief architecture — the connective tissue between the two chapters. Because micro-escapes is not a new idea; it is the well-being thesis, distributed. The 2023 moment library became the brief library. Creators are not asked to make aesthetic hotel content; they are handed a validated feeling to reproduce — the arrival exhale, the shower reset, the window wind-down, the lobby as living room — each one already tested against real travel fatigue, now translated through people instead of scenography.


















Result
Momentum Across Markets  


citizenM moved from limited creator activity to a steady, multi-market presence — recognisable, more bookable, and aesthetically intact. Published programme results:


























Reflection
What the arc prooved   


Experience design and creative strategy are not two disciplines; they are two distances from the same guest. The room was the prototype; the feed is the distribution. Everything that made the moments work in 2023 — validated feelings, rapid testing, scenography over decoration — is exactly what makes creator content convert in 2026. The next chapter writes itself: bring the programme home to Europe, where the brand was born, and license the strongest creator moments into paid as partnership ads. Same system, one funnel deeper.


















Partner with me to create new narratives.

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