Club Med and BETC Launch a Global 'The Art of Free Time' Platform
Updated: 3 days ago
French resort group Club Med has unveiled a global brand platform, 'The Art of Free Time', created by BETC, arguing that genuinely free time has become the real modern luxury.
What Club Med launched
French resort group Club Med has unveiled a new worldwide brand platform, 'The Art of Free Time' ('L'art du temps libre'), created by French agency BETC, arguing that genuinely free time is the real modern luxury. The campaign centres on a 63-second cinema film directed by Fleur Fortuné plus ten print, digital and outdoor executions, rolling out across Europe, the US, Latin America and Asia. Club Med operates 68 resorts in 40 countries.
It is a notable shift in how the group talks about itself on the world stage.
Why it matters
Luxury travel has spent years selling ever-more-extravagant experiences. Club Med is reframing the category around a quieter, more contemporary insight: that in an always-on, over-optimised world, unstructured free time is the scarcest luxury of all. It is a positioning that suits a brand built on all-inclusive simplicity.
Our read: the strength is in redefining what "luxury" means to Club Med's advantage. Rather than competing on opulence — where it is not the most premium player — it changes the terms of the debate to time and ease, where its all-inclusive model naturally wins. Reframing the category around your strength is classic challenger strategy.
What businesses should do
When you cannot win the category on its established terms, redefine the terms. Club Med is not the most lavish resort brand, so it is competing on "free time" instead of "opulence" — a value it can genuinely own. Find the dimension of your category where you are the natural leader.
And root the platform in a real cultural tension. "Free time as luxury" works because it names something people actually feel. A brand platform anchored to a genuine tension in customers' lives lasts far longer than one built on a passing style.
Quick FAQ
What is Club Med's 'The Art of Free Time'?
A global brand platform by BETC positioning genuinely free time as the real modern luxury, centred on a 63-second cinema film and ten further executions.
Where is it running?
Across Europe, the US, Latin America and Asia; Club Med operates 68 resorts in 40 countries.
Why frame free time as luxury?
It reframes the category around ease and time — where Club Med's all-inclusive model wins — rather than opulence, where it is not the most premium player.
Club Med isn't the most lavish resort brand, so it wisely changes the subject — competing on 'free time' instead of 'opulence', a value it can actually own. Reframing the category around your strength, and rooting it in a real tension people feel, is textbook challenger strategy. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
When you can't win a category on its established terms, redefine them around the dimension you genuinely own — and anchor it to a real tension in customers' lives.
Is there a dimension of your category where you're the natural leader — and are you competing there?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: CB News, Club Med.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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