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Call it anti-TikTok. LVMH’s hotel group Belmond, where rooms regularly start north of $1,000 per night, has begun sharing hour-long videos of … nothing much happening. And it might be the year’s most notable marketing play by an ultra-luxury brand.
In a departure from the rapid-fire social media content that dominates travel marketing, Belmond has launched “Long Shots,” a series of hour-long “ambient” videos showcasing its properties from Portofino to Rio de Janeiro.
The videos are exactly what “Long Shots” sounds like: lingering, meditative views of gorgeous travel destinations with no plot, no narrative, and no influencer telling you to “smash that like button” — just pure, unadulterated vibes.
The footage lingers for minutes at a time over scenes from some of the world’s most coveted destinations, such as the rhythmic clatter of the Royal Scotsman threading through the Scottish Highlands and the Italian Riviera light dancing across the Ligurian sea.
“What we want,” said Arnaud Champenois, Belmond’s senior vice president of global brand and marketing, “is for guests to discover not just a new property but a new pace of travel.”
For Belmond, which operates iconic properties like the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train, the slower-paced content strategy aims to differentiate the brand in an increasingly crowded luxury travel market.
The series debuted last week with three movies featuring locations including Italy’s Portofino, Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, and the Scottish Highlands. Each video avoids narration in favor of high-fidelity ambient sounds and carefully composed shots.
Three more films will be released this year. Belmond plans to expand the series to showcase more of its 46 properties, with spots in the works that feature Iguazu Falls, Venice, and Peru’s Sacred Valley.
Slow TV Trend
Belmond’s campaign is an unconventional marketing strategy at a time when most hospitality brands compete for attention with ever-shorter social media clips. The hour-long videos are a wager that affluent travelers yearn for a calmer approach to destination discovery.
“People want to engage with local communities, to discover something off the beaten track,” Champenois said. “What the new generation of travelers wants is something more contemplative about the destination and also something more cinematographic.”
The format draws inspiration from “Slow TV,” a genre pioneered by Norwegian public television that gave viewers thrilling content like a seven-hour train journey. People ate it up. Netflix even got in on the action with its own extended videos of logs burning in fireplaces, which have become a holiday tradition for many subscribers.
Champenois suggests “Long Shots” has similar appeal.
“It’s a very theatrical experience,” Champenois said. “Our properties have this amazing backdrop of landscape and historical buildings. You have this great cast of staff and guests. It’s almost like, ‘What is the play going to be?’”
A Wager on YouTube
While the campaign’s unconventional format makes traditional metrics more difficult to apply, Belmond will track not just view counts but also how viewers engage with the content.
Belmond is also heeding the growing power of YouTube and streaming video. Belmond’s Instagram has close to 800,000 followers, making it one of the most popular luxury hotel brand accounts on the social media platform.
Many consumers are shifting their consumption away from linear broadcast TV and toward streaming or connected TV. Belmond hopes to build the popularity of its YouTube channel, which currently has only 11,000 followers.
Hotel Brand as Content Creator
The campaign extends Belmond’s broader push into editorial content. Since LVMH bought Belmond in 2018, the hotel brand has built an in-house creative studio and forged partnerships with indie publishers.
Belmond has teamed up with the hipster magazine Apartamento for a series of deeply researched regional cookbooks while collaborating with Parisian art book publisher RVB to produce a half-dozen photography volumes showcasing properties through the lens of contemporary artists.
Quiet Luxury
This pivot isn’t just aesthetic — it reflects evolving preferences as many travelers increasingly prioritize authentic experiences over blingy amenities, as highlighted in a Skift 2025 Megatrend: “The Soft Power of Quiet Luxury.”
Belmond’s strategy represents a significant production investment at a time when many hospitality brands are prioritizing quick-turn social content. But for the brand, it’s a calculated risk that aligns with its broader positioning around quiet luxury. Champenois said many customers increasingly seek authentic connections with staff and destinations rather than personal butlers or ornate fixtures.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “when you want to enjoy life and enjoy a destination, you need to take the time.”
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