How to Turn Holiday Nostalgia Into National Headlines

Client: Travel+Leisure Co
Initiative: Elf Suite
Services: Interviews; Video production; Time-lapse, VR, and still photography; Virtual flythrough

The Situation: The Wyndham Destinations PR team secured the license for the movie Elf and hired an interior design team to completely overhaul a suite at their Manhattan vacation ownership property, themed floor to ceiling around the film. But it was a single suite, bookable for only about 30 days. The whole investment in licensing and design rested on a story almost nobody would ever experience in person, so the content had to carry weight the room itself couldn’t.

The Work: Nomad Flamingo spent two days documenting the suite from build to finish: time-lapse footage of the transformation, interviews with the interior designers and the team who made it happen, and full photography. The standout piece was full 3D VR photography of the entire suite, letting anyone walk through Buddy the Elf’s world themselves online, plus a companion video built to fly through the same space. Most agencies would have delivered nice photos of a hotel room. We built a version of the room almost anyone could actually visit.

The Shift: The one-of-a-kind suite sold out within a day of going on sale. It became one of Wyndam’s most widely picked-up PR stories ever, running across social and national outlets. The idea worked well enough that Wyndam brought Nomad Flamingo back the next year to do it again, this time with Hallmark movies across three locations.