Banyan Tree breaks female staff stereotypes, including marketers Rosalynn Tay and Ho Renyung

In line with this year’s International Women’s Day’s theme #EachforEqual, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has launched a photo-series to celebrate women’s achievements. Titled “Female Clichés”, Banyan Tree puts a positive spin on traditionally negative stereotypes and aims to encourage women to forge their own paths.

The photo series features newly appointed SVP, head of growth and demand Rosalynn Tay, alongside several other leading women leaders within the hospitality group. The campaign aims to shine the spotlight on women across the group who are “unafraid” to pursue their passions. These images will be featured on Banyan Tree’s social channels.

The campaign was conceptualised by Goodstuph who was brought on board on a project basis, and will run in the month of March. The agency was tasked to propose a concept celebrating the truth of Banyan Tree since its existence 26 years ago. The campaign was shot in both Singapore as well as Bangkok. 

According to Pat Law, CEO of Goodstuph, "the brand has never needed a reminder for gender equality". “In our research, we discovered that female Banyan Tree employees, from founders to on the ground associates, are debunking female clichés in their daily roles. We drew our inspiration from the brand’s co-founder, Claire Chiang, when she said we should not blink in the dark or fear being criticised. Be bold, take arrows from detractors by fortifying ourselves with convictions based on clear reasoning and personal judgement,” explained Law.

“Her words resonated deeply with us – be so good they can’t ignore you. With that, it felt like the natural thing to do to have real influencers, the women of Banyan Tree, to front the campaign,” she added.

Law explained that initially, the campaign started off by featuring the more familiar guest-facing roles such as the GM and service staff, but evolved to include those who are also behind the scenes as “regardless of their roles, they all embrace the notion of female empowerment and gender equality".

“We feel that stereotypes are imposed on women a lot more than we realise. But often, it’s not addressed head-on. And because it’s not singled out, we just let it happen as a ‘passing comment’ and downplay its actual negative impact,” she added. 

Pat Law will be speaking at Marketing's inaugural MADex 2020 conference in 21 May 2020 about her journey of running her own agency and the importance of mental health. 

Meanwhile, Ho Renyung, vice president, Brand HQ, Banyan Tree Holdings said the diversity of experiences and ideas is core to what makes Banyan Tree thrive, and the company recognises that this is an ongoing effort and is committed to continually taking conscious steps to ensure all women are treated equally and empowered to pursue their passions.

“This is part of our broader commitment to inclusion across our organisation to embrace the diversity of our employees, partners and customers. We hope to continue supporting everyone within the Banyan Tree ecosystem through their journey of growth, give them platforms through which they can flourish as individuals, and provide a true sense of place, wherever they are,” she added.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of challenging stereotypes and celebrating women’s achievements, Banyan Tree will be holding a social media contest on 8 March. Through this, the hospitality group aims to offer the public an opportunity to celebrate the empowering women in their lives and win a hotel stay at the same time.

Recently, Tay shared with Marketing for January-February 2020's print issue that the industry with the magic of travel has been rudely disrupted by Airbnb. Here are more of her views:
Banyan Tree: Bringing back magic to the 'rudely interrupted' hospitality industry