Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has redesigned and relaunched its branded in-house magazine.
The new Four Seasons Magazine, published by Pace Communications, was released April 1 in guest rooms and common areas at all Four Seasons hotel and spa properties. It will be published quarterly.
“In basic terms, the magazine is an amenity to enhance the guest experience,” said Craig Waller, CMO at Pace. “It’s a magazine that reflects both the lifestyles and attributes of that readership, so it talks about the world in a way that that demographic sees it. There’s a lot of retail and travel, and the subject matter is as you would expect in an upscale title.”
Key to the branding element of Four Seasons Magazine, Pace increased Four Seasons’ presence in its editorial content. The idea, Waller said, was to clearly connect Four Seasons with the experience of reading a quality magazine.
Designed in partnership with Pentagram’s Luke Hayman, Four Seasons Magazine now boasts an oversize format, more in tune with luxury magazines than the previous version. The goal is to build Four Seasons’ clout as a media brand while providing guests with a value-adding amenity.
“Four Seasons’ brief to Pace was to make the magazine more contemporary, more global and to take it to the next level,” Waller said. “They felt that there had been an increasing disconnect between the Four Seasons brand and the magazine, and what we came up with went with where they are as a brand and where they’re going. The redesign was not in response to a rebranding by them, it was more to bring the magazine to reflect what the brand was.”
Pace is researching potential distribution outlets for the magazine outside of Four Seasons properties, but none have been decided upon yet. Newsstand sales are also a possibility.
Four Seasons Magazine features advertising from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada and other luxury brands. Waller said that ads were an important aspect of the publication, but that it is not entirely ad-supported.
