AccorHotels Launches New Economy Brand to Target Millennials - JO&JOE

AccorHotels has just announced a new brand - JO&JOE is a vibrant living space that is conceptualised around the needs and future expectations of the Millennials. It is built upon the values of sharing, experiencing and spontaneity. Positioned as one of the Group's economy-brand portfolio, AccorHotels aims to bring JO&JOE across the world rapidly with 50 planned venues to open by 2020. It has already been decided that the Paris and Bordeaux properties will open in 2018 with Warsaw, Budapest, Rio and São Paulo trailing behind. Could this be AccorHotels' answer to the growing Airbnb influence?

Photo Credit: JO&JOE

JO&JOE venues will take root in bustling city-center locations that are close to public transport and less than 15 minutes away from the major points of interest. The project is an example of “excubation” led by AccorHotels’ Marketing Innovation Lab, which identifies, tests and shares customer- centric and disruptive solutions that can generate additional revenue for the Group. The JO&JOE brand is the result of a co- construction process with future guests, external experts, students, the shadow executive committee and AccorHotels teams, with the overarching aim of challenging conventions and imagining the future of hospitality, catering and social interaction.

JO&JOE is a living space, an unexpected and innovative Open House welcoming both Townsters (people living nearby) and Tripsters (people in town to explore). The concept is designed to promote inter- action and foster positive community living thanks to common areas that are open to both the external and internal worlds. An integral part of neighborhood life, JO&JOE always has something going on, be it a concert, a yoga class or a DIY workshop. The JO&JOE team and the Townsters and Tripsters themselves help keep the venue active and buzzing, notably thanks to the brand’s geosocial application, which helps bring people together. Reflecting the Group’s overall strategy, JO&JOE’s catering is based on research and in-depth analysis into Millennials’ aspirations.

Happy House | Photo Credit: JO&JOE

The result is an unconventional offering starting at €10 for a menu, with a focus on interaction, sharing and simple, healthy flavors:

• The bar is central to the JO&JOE social experience. Its unique design and high visibility from the street encourage local residents to join guests to enjoy a wide range of drinks, focused on a flagship product (wine, beer or cocktails), with a unique selection promoting local and craft products.
• Local, affordable craft cuisine delivers quality without the frills. JO&JOE offers a range of simple and authentic restaurant concepts with a warm atmosphere: grill, open flame barbecue, wok or wood fire pizzas.
• The collaborative kitchen offers guests a showcase for their culinary talents and a stage for sharing their best recipes. Guests wanting to keep their budget under control can use the space to cook meals, just for themselves or for a whole tribe.
• Disruption at JO&JOE also takes the form of innovative accommodation solutions for people traveling alone, in pairs, in groups or as a family, with rates starting from €25 a night:
• The Happy House is a private area where Tripsters can relax, work, cook or wash their clothes, just like at home.
• Together, which embodies the essence of the brand, is an ingenious modular sleeping area that guests share without sacrificing privacy. In addition to spacious beds, private lockers, reading lights and USB ports, guests have access to shared recreation areas and bathrooms.
• Yours consists of rooms and apartments for two to five people with a private bathroom and, depending on the format, a kitchen space offers a completely different look from a conventional hotel room thanks to originally shaped and extremely comfortable beds.
• OOO! (Out Of the Ordinary) offers unexpected accommodation for people traveling alone or in groups of up to six people. Different at each JO&JOE venue, these original formats include yurts, hammock and caravans and ensure guests have unforgettable experience.

Photo Credit: JO&JOE

To understand the expectations of future guests, enhance the user experience (UX) and lay the foundations of the JO&JOE community, the Marketing Innovation Lab worked with teachers and students from the Webschool Factory, a Paris-based management school specializing in design, marketing and digital technology. A unique and experiential community application was designed by a network of internal and external experts to help forge links between Townsters, Tripsters and the JO&JOE team. A veritable digital experience enhancer, it enables Townsters and Tripsters to connect, meet, initiate events, share tips, or arrange to get together for a meal or a walk. All these features are “social accelerators” that will become references in this area.

Photo Credit: JO&JOE

At JO&JOE, the only boundaries are those of the imagination. The brand wanted to break with the conventional vertical distribution of spaces and functions and instead takes a liberated, flexible and rebellious approach to meet the expectations of its guests.
JO&JOE’s disruptive design was co- constructed with UK design company Penson, known for creating intelligent and aesthetic spaces for the world’s most visionary brands. Flagship designs include campuses for Google, YouTube, Jaguar Land Rover, Playstation, Jay Z’s ROCnation and interiors of the world’s 5th tallest building, Lotte World Tower. Having never worked on a hotel before, Penson delivered a decisively innovative and singular response that breaks away from industry norms. Beyond its design reality, JO&JOE is also a strong and distinctive brand identity fashioned by W, a territory designing agency. It doesn’t matter whether Jo is a girl and Joe is a guy – or the other way around. The name can be read any way because JO&JOE is an open house that blends genres. There is no right or wrong way to read the logo either: a dot as yellow as the sun – alive, radiant, variable shapes, multiple styles – the brand regenerates and nourishes itself with local culture and vibes. The hearts of cities around the world – places made for moving, chilling and exploring – are ideal settings for JO&JOE to deploy its resolute character and offbeat atmosphere.