ARTOTEL Group is a renowned hotel chain in Southeast Asia with +156 hotels. The hotel vouches for freedom of expression, collaborating with thousands of local artists to embrace that value.

The hotel chain struggles to keep its door open when the pandemic hits. Realizing that the pandemic might continue longer than expected, ARTOTEL Group knew it had to find a provocative and creative way to reopen. Upon hearing the viral gaming ban news in China, ARTOTEL created a campaign to help Chinese gamers to express themselves. They launched Gamer Asylum, a new experience where gamers can play without limitations. However, the campaign faced a challenge in how to market the new offer, especially in China with its strict censorship laws. Since we couldn’t use traditional advertising buys, we needed an idea that was so provocative in nature, it could capture the organic attention of gamers, influencers, politicians, and journalists.

In 2021, China imposed a gaming ban that saw 532 million Chinese gamers lose their right to play for more than 3 hours a week. What was bad news for another country became the best news for our struggling hotel business. From a trending problem, we created an entirely new travel experience. For the first time ever, we created the Gamer Asylum – where we equipped every room across all 156 of our hotels with state-of-the-art gaming equipment, from computers and headsets to the latest trending games, along with high-speed internet for gamers to play with no restrictions. A bold idea from a hotel chain that capitalised on an opportunity to expand our target audience from our usual base of travelers to the 532 million gamers in China.

When the pandemic hit, the tourism sector was hit harder than anyone else. With no one traveling, we needed to look beyond our traditional base of customers to acquire new ones. And we found them in the unlikeliest of places. In lieu of the recent gaming ban in China that saw gamers lose their right to play for more than 3 hours a week, we saw an opportunity to turn a trending problem into a travel trend by transforming 532 million gamers into our potential new customers. So, we created the Gamer Asylum – where we equipped every room across all 156 of our hotels with the latest gaming equipment, and games along with high-speed internet for gamers to play with no restrictions. By going against the Chinese government’s ban, our provocative idea gave us organic coverage from the trendiest media outlets, politicians, and influencers.

We built an entire campaign, targeted directly at gamers in China. But since China’s censorship is incredibly tough to beat, we had to overcome all of the social media restrictions through non-traditional advertising channels. We blasted our film inviting Chinese gamers across hundreds of platforms from Chinese gaming forums to Reddit and gaming streaming platforms like Douyu, Huya, Zhanqi, Huomao to Longzhu. Wherever gaming exists in China, we were there. Even though our film was taken down by some platforms after 24 hours, it was too late as news caught on like wildfire. On ground, we put up Gamer Asylum posters in gaming cafes across China. Every poster became an invitation for them to stop playing restrictively and start playing freely in any one of our 156 hotels in Southeast Asia. By simply scanning our poster, they were entitled to a promotion for Gamer Asylum across any of our hotels.

The graphic and provocative poster series caught the attention of the gamers to visit and learn more about the campaign. From one of the biggest hotel chains in Southeast Asia, ARTOTEL Group became one of the most talked-about hotels globally, garnering organic coverage from the world’s trendiest media outlets: Hypebeast, Fortune, and Mashable. Through this campaign, we saw a 535% increase in Chinese visitors and a 59.7% increase in bookings – all in the middle of a tourism crisis. Though our short-term results were incredible, ARTOTEL Group saw a long-term change in our brand image, transforming ARTOTEL into one of the most innovative, creative, and expressive hotels in the world.