With the announcement of the inaugural Trinity Awards, we highlight outstanding examples of creative and positive thinking, investment and action that aided sector recovery and advanced its prospects in 2022. The awards programme revealed here will be extended in 2023 and become a core platform within The Moodie Davitt Report portfolio – as we seek to champion innovation and leadership across the channel. Read on for this year’s selection, which is based on our extensive market coverage and industry insight and feedback.
The Trinity Award for Airport Commercial and Consumer Offer of the Year: Hamad International Airport and Qatar Duty Free
The Moodie Davitt Report has been providing coverage – much of it exclusive and world first – of the transformation of the consumer and commercial offer at Hamad International Airport over the past two years. This period was particularly significant in that it coincided with the the run up to the completion of the Terminal Expansion and to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which attracted the eyes of the world to Qatar over the past month.
In singling out the airport company, we speak from first-hand experience. The Moodie Davitt Report was the sole travel retail media on location on 10 November for the unveiling of the expansion project and delivery of the magnificent Central Concourse at HIA.
Given this invaluable time spent on the ground and the many conversations we have had with senior Qatar Airways Group executives and their partners, we feel confident in saying that the new development at HIA represents a new benchmark for airport design, development and experience.
The memorable focal point of the new concourse is The Orchard, a mesmerising blend of retail, food & beverage, digital brilliance and a vast indoor tropical garden. The Orchard benefits from copious natural light, an approach designed to create a calming ambiance and promote a sense of wellbeing.
The in-house commercial offer driven by Qatar Duty Free boasts 65 stores and 35 food & beverage outlets, with some operations featuring world-first mixes of both.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker hailed the Expansion as “the ultimate example of a successful, sustainable global facility”.
It is that and more. Much more. It is a tribute to innovative planning, execution and investment – hallmarks of the Qatar Airways Group approach to building consumer-led and high-potential commercial zones. It combines natural wonder and beauty with luxury, personalisation with digitalisation and scale with a human touch. And it takes the experience at one of the great airports of the world – named the World’s Best by Skytrax travellers last year – to an entirely new level.
The airport leadership team led by Al Baker and Hamad International Airport Chief Operating Officer Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer and well-complemented on the commercial side by Qatar Duty Free Vice President Thabet Musleh has shown a rare blend of courage and conviction, vision and verse in creating this modern-day wonder of the airport world.
For that mindset of investment, the bold approach to innovation and the creation of such an extraordinary consumer experience, we are pleased to bestow Hamad International and Qatar Duty Free with a Trinity Award for Airport Commercial and Consumer Offer.
The Trinity Award for Non-Airport Retailer of the Year: cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex (China Duty Free Group)
A world-class retail arena. A magnificent multi-storey amphitheatre. A tourist destination in its own right. These are just a handful of descriptions that rightfully apply to the cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex in Hainan, which was revealed to the world by China Duty Free Group (CDFG) on 28 October.
It is a landmark opening for the global travel retail sector too. The development features the world’s biggest duty free shopping complex, across 280,000sq m, with more than 800 renowned international and local brands, many opening their debut stores in China.
Alongside brand partners, CDFG (a subsidiary of China Tourism Group) poured in heavy investment and resources to create this hugely ambitious travel retail complex based on a fusion of ‘duty free shopping + culture and tourism’.
That blend is an important one. The cdf International Duty Free Shopping Complex is designed to wow visitors through its multi-faceted range of experiences. The complex integrates retail and catering and offers a seamless combination of online and offline services. Among the many highlights is AURA, a unique customised atrium designed by Wētā Workshop. This attraction brings imaginary worlds to life by delivering concept design, visual effects, collectables, immersive visitor experiences and games.
As a project, cdf Haikou cements – and is likely to extend – CDFG’s global leadership in the travel retail sector. It has created what the retailer neatly refers to as a “duty free shopping heaven”, which already looks destined to become a must-visit attraction in the tourist hotspot of Hainan. For its sheer majesty, groundbreaking design, profoundly ambitious vision, and luxury and craftsmanship, cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping is an irresistible choice for this Trinity Award.
The Trinity Award for Visual Design: cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex
The cdf Haikou complex is also our Trinity Award choice for Visual Design in 2022. The creative vision, design and fit-out, with its culturally rich and respectful narrative, carries a notably grand ambition: to treat the customer both as participant and audience member. That can be seen in the wonderfully executed mall design and the branded store concepts within.
As we note above, Wētā Workshop played a key role in delivering this new retail stage. Sir Richard Taylor, the New Zealander who co-founded Wētā Workshop and serves as its CEO and Creative Director, summed up the thinking as the store was preparing to open in late October (see also video below).
“We are taking our audience on a journey to somewhere unique and by enhancing the emotive experience of a shopping complex, we take people beyond the expected and into the entirely unexpected.
“So I feel entirely confident that CDF have created one of the great architecture and retail experiences on the planet.”
The wider design strategy devised by CDFG builds on this story of vision and ambition.
The company says that the “uniqueness” of cdf Haikou lies in creating “a storytelling, stickiness, content-driven retail business experience”, where different formats, IP, brand, spatial forms and art are mixed and blended.
The company notes: “For consumers, is cdf Haikou just another ultra-luxury shopping mall? Through in-depth insight into consumer behaviour and the emotional driving force behind it, we found that only a retail business experience with its own creativity and continuous output of content can truly capture the current and future consumers”.
What an outstanding statement of creativity and imagination captured (and executed) in one stunning location.
The Trinity Award for Collaboration of the Year: Bacardi Global Travel Retail, Heathrow Airport, Dufry and JCDecaux
Like our other Trinity Award choices, we didn’t rely on third party accounts or press releases when deciding on our Partnership accolade – we paid a visit ourselves.
In September, Bacardi Global Travel Retail partnered with Dufry, Heathrow Airport and ooh media specialist JCDecaux – a four-way ’quaternity’ – to unveil the ambitious Experiencia Patrón activation at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5.
Like the best travel retail campaigns – and there were many in 2022 – this was interactive, immersive and engaging, offering games and surprises for travelling consumers alongside premium and personalisation elements. It neatly reflected the spirit of the brand too: fun, lively and colourful
This was complemented by the pan-airport digital experience. The animation was supported by eye-catching displays in the terminal, with further engagement fuelled by pre-trip engagement, programmatic advertising and geo-targeted ads.
Above all, this proved a wonderful way to advertise travel retail’s excellence both as a sales platform and a showcase to the world. After the toughest two years ever for the industry, this campaign came as a strong vote of confidence from Bacardi and its partners in the future of our channel.
The Trinity Award for Breaking Boundaries in 2022: DFS Group
This award reflects our view that to reward innovation in the travel retail sector, it has to go beyond the norm, be meaningful in business terms and boldly explore the boundaries of how the industry can engage, excite and entertain.
In this sense, DFS Group’s entry into the Metaverse – and importantly its application within the company’s Annual Beauty Campaign – had irresistible credentials as our choice within this category.
The campaign, titled ‘Open Up Your Horizons’, ran through August and September, and combined in-store activations as well as a fully interactive, shoppable digital luxury playground with DFS’ first virtual universe, DFS World.
We also like the modern campaign language, catering to “today’s confident, daring and imaginative beauty connoisseur in real life as well as in the boundless and magical Metaverse”.
The themes blended the premium with the everyday: ‘Effortless, Not Lazy’, dedicated to luxury makeup; ‘Stay Up, Glow Up’ built around skincare recovery and ‘Future You’ featuring luminous, fluid cosmetics and scents inspired by digital filters and virtual worlds.
It is a story of experiential multi-brand and premium zones, featuring fun, interactive games and experiences. It reflects just how today’s inventive campaigns will become core elements of tomorrow’s world, blending the physical and the virtual – and this is just the beginning.
The Trinity Award for Outstanding Industry Contribution: Charles Chen
In an emotional culmination to The Trinity Forum 2022 in Singapore, China Duty Free Group President Charles Chen was presented with the inaugural Trinity Award for his outstanding contribution to the travel retail industry over a remarkable 35-year career.
Mr Chen, who had delivered a keynote address on day one of The Trinity Forum, was presented with the award by The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie during the Gala Dinner at Jewel Changi Airport hosted by Changi Airport Group.
Moodie told guests of Charles Chen’s immense contribution to China’s travel retail industry during a career that has spanned three and a half decades. He described China Duty Free Group as “a beacon of light” to the travel retail community through the pandemic when the rest of the industry globally had been plunged into darkness.
China Duty Free Group had risen from number 19 in the global travel retail rankings in 2010 to number one a decade later, Moodie said, a leadership position it has subsequently strengthened. Since assuming his leadership role in 2016, Charles Chen had driven China Duty Free Group to extraordinary new heights, Moodie added.
“Charles Chen has led China Duty Free Group with vision, determination, charisma, warmth and humanity. He is an outstanding individual,” Moodie said.
“What a story it has been. And China Duty Free Group enjoyed a fantastic new high last Friday [28 October] with the opening of the cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping complex, which includes the world’s biggest duty free duty free retail operation – not just big but also beautiful.”
Chen was greeted with a standing ovation as he came to the stage to accept the award. In a heartfelt speech, he thanked his business partners for all their support during his career and especially during recent years in helping to propel China Duty Free Group into the number one ranking industry player.
He vowed that China Duty Free Group would continue to grow and to collaborate closely with its business partners. He invited members of the audience to visit China and to discover for themselves the new store in Haikou and other aspects of the China Duty Free Group business.
“Thank you very much for this award,” he said. “It really means a lot to me and to China Duty Free Group.”
*For more images and further coverage of the inaugural Trinity Award, click here.
The Trinity Award for Sustainability In Action – L’Oréal Travel Retail in partnership with China Duty Free Group at cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex
In the impressive and groundbreaking beauty complex at cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex, opened in Hainan in October, L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific’s 19 boutiques – yes that’s right, 19 – stand out not just for their luxury design and world-class retail expressions, but for the protecting-the-planet principles that underpin their development.
The beauty group partnered with China Duty Free Group (CDFG) to open a store network that embraces L’Oréal’s full portfolio of brands, with sustainability right at the centre of the planning and execution.
All stores were constructed using eco-certified and recyclable materials – with the cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex becoming the first mall in China to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification.
All L’Oréal boutiques at the complex follow the company’s L’Oréal for the Future sustainability roadmap. Six L’Oréal Groupe brands in the complex have also applied for LEED Certification, with Gold Label Certification expected for Lancôme, Kiehl’s, Helena Rubinstein, YSL Beauté, Armani Beauty and Shu Uemura.
All pop-ups and future animations will be built to adhere to L’Oréal Groupe’s eco-design principles which specify the use of certified recycled FSC, PESC materials that are lightweight and easily disassembled for reuse.
L’Oréal Travel Retail President Vincent Boinay neatly summed up the thinking behind the project, and the crucial role of ESG in a new world of travel retail.
“The cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex is a symbol of our 20 years of great collaboration [with CDFG]. We are proud to showcase the best of beauty with our 19 brand flagship boutiques welcoming Chinese travellers to live the exclusive L’Oréal experience, best-in-class retail expressions, best-in-beauty tech innovation, excellent service and engagement, with sustainability at its heart.”
Collectively this represents a powerful statement of channel-specific commitment to sustainability on one of the grandest possible stages travel retail has to offer. The fact that such principles are mirrored so powerfully by CDFG as retail partner adds extra lustre to this demonstration of our industry at its most progressive best.
The Trinity Award for Diversity & Inclusion: Aer Rianta International
Aer Rianta International (ARI), a pioneering force in the global travel retail industry, is also a leader in the field of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG).
The company is on a journey to match its ambitions with action and results in areas such as gender balance, inclusivity and creating a more diverse talent pipeline – and has taken many big strides forward in each area. Its International Women’s Day celebration of the diverse and inspiring women working at the travel retail company represents a powerful underlining of its many success stories, and an assurance that all women’s ambitions are recognised by the company.
From senior management to the shop floor, the stated aim and mission of the company is to ensure that “every voice is heard, every opinion is considered”. That in turn means empowering colleagues to be interested in, and to understand, the importance of the values of diversity & inclusion on moving the company forward, and allowing everyone the opportunity to make a positive impact.
The ethos of the Irish state-owned multinational was neatly expressed by ARI General Counsel Gareth Byrne, who is also Executive Sponsor for Diversity & Inclusion, in an interview earlier this year.
He told us: “We believe that a focus on diversity and inclusion – let’s call it D&I – never ends. There is always scope to improve. ARI has made great strides in D&I right across its global estate and our D&I strategy is now under one big umbrella so we can share ideas across our global network.
“We want everyone, every employee, to feel welcome and part of the ARI team, at the same time comfortable to be themselves. Our D&I strategy goes further too; it includes our customers.
“Our overall vision for D&I at ARI is to ‘be yourself, whoever you are, wherever you are from. At ARI, you are welcome’”.
Crucially, and as management in other companies will recognise, the D&I drive is a journey rather than a destination. ARI created a global framework to guide its diversity activities in 2021, but that is just the start.
As Byrne says: “ARI is in a great space, but we are still in our infancy; we’ve achieved a lot last year, but we have a lot more to do.” ✈
