Building a scalable photography system aligned to brand repositioning and commercial growth.

Issue
Following the launch of the ‘Rest Easy’ platform, Premier Inn’s existing imagery no longer reflected the updated tone, inclusivity standards or evolving customer journey. Business travellers accounted for around 50% of revenue, yet the asset library lacked dedicated imagery to support this core segment.

A structured, multi-channel photography framework was required to serve both lifestyle and business audiences while maintaining brand consistency and commercial relevance.

Insight
Photography at scale must balance emotional storytelling with operational utility. Assets needed to drive website conversion while functioning across CRM, PR, social, partner platforms and in-hotel communications.

Without structured asset planning, shoots risk producing visually strong but commercially limited content. Clear narrative alignment, defined outputs and inclusive casting were essential from the outset.

Idea
Working collaboratively with studio, Leo Burnett, LAW Creative and photographer Kerry Harrison, I led the structured planning and delivery of a refreshed, scalable photography suite.

We defined narrative frameworks for both leisure and business journeys, mapping asset requirements to channel usage to ensure versatility and longevity. Pre-production included detailed shot lists, usage mapping and alignment with ‘Rest Easy’ messaging. Inclusivity was embedded through structured casting across age, ethnicity, ability and same-sex couples.

On set, asset governance was embedded through live tethered review, enabling real-time narrative alignment, technical validation and channel optimisation. This ensured that every frame captured served a defined commercial and brand purpose before leaving production.

Post-shoot, structured asset selection and library management processes were implemented. Imagery was categorised, tagged and aligned to channel requirements to form a governed, scalable asset framework rather than a static photo archive.

Impact
The refreshed asset suite strengthened brand coherence and commercial storytelling across priority audiences. Teams gained a governed, future-ready image library built for sustained brand performance rather than short-term campaign use.