OUR WORK Palmaïa-the house of AïA
Opening a wellness hotel during Covid.
FINN Partners launched Palmaïa – The House of AïA, a luxury all-inclusive wellness resort in the Riviera Maya, in January 2020. We began our work with the client three months prior to opening and were tasked with generating widespread and meaningful coverage that highlighted its unique plant-based culinary concept, immersive wellness and music programming, and spa menu designed to treat emotions rather than pain. In March 2020, COVID-19 disrupted the world, forcing the property to close just three months after its grand opening. Our challenge? To adjust our opening strategy and sustain momentum for Palmaïa – The House of AïA leading up to its impending re-opening.
GOAL
Launch a progressive wellness campaign during a global pandemic.
SECTOR EXPERTISE
Wellness and Travel & Tourism
The Work
To generate interest in advance of, and coverage to run in conjunction with the opening, we organized a New York City media tour with 11 top writers and editors in wellness, travel and business, including media from WSJ. Magazine, Women’s Health, Travel + Leisure, AFAR, Hemispheres, and others. Following our first-look conversations, we implemented an aggressive media relations campaign targeting travel, lifestyle, trade, food, and wellness outlets, to generate fast-breaking coverage of the resort and secure inclusion in 2020 opening round-ups. We also organized an intimate group press trip with writers from Condé Nast Traveler, Modern Luxury, Delta Sky, Parents and others, and organized highly targeted individual visits for select trade and travel media. In just three months, we generated over 286 million impressions across a variety of outlets including: Town & Country, Forbes, The New York Times, Departures, VOGUE Mexico, The Chicago Tribune, Travel Weekly, Luxury Travel Advisor, and many others. Following COVID-19, we have continued to provide strategic counsel and produce significant coverage, earning more than 3.3 billion impressions in 2021 alone in publications such as Barron’s PENTA, Bloomberg Pursuits, InStyle, Condė Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure’s Check In column, The Washington Post, The Points Guy, ESSENCE, Travel Weekly, and Travel + Leisure’s 2021 It List. We also secured coverage in client wish list plant-based outlets such as The Beet, VegNews, Yoga Journal, and Vegan Life Magazine.