W Amsterdam approached Icon International to create a fresh promotional film showcasing the hotel, its rooms and the wider guest experience in the heart of Amsterdam.
Working directly with the hotel’s marketing team, we developed the initial brief into a character-led concept built around different guests experiencing the W in their own way. Rather than simply filming a sequence of rooms and facilities, the idea was to connect the spaces through people: a business traveller, a couple on a city break and friends arriving in Amsterdam for a weekend away.
Icon worked with the client to determine the key areas and experiences to feature, selected the cast and developed a detailed shooting plan connecting the hotel’s rooms and suites with the AWAY Spa, restaurants, bars, gym, retail spaces and public areas.
Nick Bolger directed the film, travelling to Amsterdam with a Director of Photography for the winter shoot. The visual approach used movement, objects and match transitions to connect different characters and areas of the hotel, creating a continuous journey through the W experience rather than a conventional hotel walkthrough.
Working with a deliberately compact crew allowed us to move quickly through a busy working hotel while maintaining a polished cinematic approach and capturing natural performances from the cast.
Icon subsequently edited the material into the finished 90-second brand film, presenting W Amsterdam not simply as a collection of rooms, but as a destination and an experience within the city.