THE PENINSULA
HOTEL TOKYO
The Lobby Afternoon Tea Challenge
2026
Winning proposal, selected by The Peninsula Tokyo's brand and F&B leadership from 10 competing teams in a live business challenge.
Who is the Peninsula Tokyo?
The Peninsula Tokyo is the Japanese flagship of The Peninsula Hotels, a heritage luxury hotel group founded in Hong Kong in 1928. The Lobby, its ground-floor tea room, has served Afternoon Tea for nearly two decades and is one of the hotel's most iconic rituals.
The brief? Reposition the Tea Room experience to cater to the new generation, while preserving the ritual's heritage and loyal following.
ROLE
Creative Research & Art Direction
RESPONSIBILITIES
Led cultural and historical research into Japanese seasonal traditions (shiki), folklore, and artistic references that shaped the campaign's concept
Developed the moodboards for each season, translating research into a visual direction the team built the campaign identity around
Shiki
This challenge made my team and me ask: how can an iconic brand continue evolving for contemporary luxury consumers while protecting the codes, standards, and emotional experience that define it?
Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula is a ritual, but ritual asks to be renewed. We anchored our concept in Shiki (四季) — the Japanese practice of marking time through the seasons — and used it as a research lens rather than a decorative theme.
The Seasons
For each season, we paired a classical Japanese folktale with its visual and material world: Momotarō for the arrival of peach season, and Saru Kani Gassen (The Monkey and the Crab) for persimmon season in autumn. We found that many Japanese folk stories center on seasonal fruit — a natural thread to build a year-round narrative around. The artwork and designs we selected stayed consistent with The Peninsula's collection of 1,000+ custom artworks across its properties.
We focused on two client segments: local Japanese women who already frequent the hotel, and international tourists. 45% of Gen Z travellers now say they seek out cultural experiences when they travel — and this theme speaks to both audiences, for different reasons. Japanese locals feel a sense of nostalgia revisiting childhood stories, while international tourists get an authentic, culturally rooted experience they can't find elsewhere.
Our goal: make The Peninsula's tea room a must-visit experience in Tokyo.
