Shangri-La launches new Global Advertising Campaign

"Heaven and Earth" is the new global advertising campaign launched October 3 by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. The ads will run in key business, news, lifestyle and travel magazines in Asia, Europe and North America through 2005.

The ads feature a single, evocative photographic image, suspended between bold "Heaven" lettering above, and "Earth" below, superimposed with the question "Where will you find your Shangri-La?"

"The message is that Shangri-La is a state of mind and moment in time, an idyllic episode between Heaven and Earth," says Brendan Inns, Shangri-La's vice president of corporate marketing. "We wanted to elicit an emotional response, according to whatever one's own vision of paradise might be, with the underlying suggestion that these moments can be found at Shangri-La's Hotels and Resorts."

Some of the images include a woman making sand "angels" on a deserted beach at dawn; a male executive savoring the evening grandeur of the Hong Kong skyline while working peacefully on a closed pool deck; and a couple in formal wear dancing on a terrace opposite the Shanghai Bund, shielded from the evening drizzle by a Shangri-La waiter's umbrella.

"This is a bold approach with high emotional impact," adds Martin F. Waechter, chief marketing officer. "Rather than traditional, boring guestroom-and-lobby advertising, we sought to communicate the magical moments that can happen when one is treated to the finest Asian service and hospitality. Even though all are shot in Shangri-La locations, none of the photo backdrops are identified, so the concept is universal, appropriate to Shangri-La's rapid expansion within and beyond Asia-Pacific."

The ads were designed by TBWA/Hong Kong, part of the Omnicom Group, and photographed by Harry de Zitter of Florida, USA.

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