W Budapest isn't just a hotel - it's a design-led destination in one of Europe's most culturally rich cities. Our brief was to make UK media fall in love with it. So we dug deeper than the obvious, crossed the brief with culture and found a story hiding in plain sight. Chess was having a serious moment in the UK, and has deep roots in Budapest's history. As 2023 marked 150 years since Buda and Pest became one city, we pulled the three cultural threads together into one killer story.

We commissioned multidisciplinary artist Ronan Mckenzie to design a beautiful, bold, groundbreaking chessboard (Budapest is the home of chess and even has a move named after it, The Budapest Gambit) and launched it into the hotel’s top suites and common areas. The design brought together elements of the city and the hotel’s design narrative (which already celebrated icons of Hungary and the Palace’s past) to offer an unexpected yet delightful story for the media to cover.  

The coverage spoke for itself. 39 pieces including The Times, Metro, i-D, Hunger and Wonderland (yes, the exact titles on the brief's wish list), every single one featuring booking CTAs and hotel imagery. Bookings jumped 20% on launch. And because we don't just think in campaigns, we think in relationships... Ronan is now a W Budapest ambassador, giving the partnership legs long after the headlines faded.