The White Lotus is returning this month—and brands want in on the vacation.
Ahead of the Season 3 premiere on February 16, nearly a dozen brands are promoting the HBO hit series. Brands like the luggage company Away, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Bloomingdale’s, and Coffee mate are creating licensed, White Lotus-themed products.
American Express, meanwhile, is offering its cardmembers access to White Lotus-themed events for the first time this year, including two wellness retreats at Four Seasons hotels in California as well as in Thailand at the primary location for the new season. Diageo, Google Pixel, Supergoop, Kiehl’s, and CB2 will feature their products as part of the retreats.
“The White Lotus is a marketer’s dream,” Andrew Meengern, VP of HBO and Max Originals marketing, told Marketing Brew. “It’s one of those very rare opportunities where [brand] interest has grown season over season dramatically.”
*Cue the theme song*
Brand interest in The White Lotus has, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot to do with viewer interest and conversation about the series, Meengern said. The Season 2 finale in December 2022 attracted 4.1 million viewers across all platforms, a series high, while its second season as a whole attracted an average of 10 million viewers per episode—50% more than its Season 1 viewership.
For brands looking to cut through the clutter, it presents a unique opportunity.
“Media consumption is more fragmented than ever, and so it creates this challenge of needing to continue to innovate in order to connect with our target audiences where they are most engaged and attentive,” Jill Hamilton, VP of global media at American Express, told us. “These types of programs enable us to do just that.”
Christine Gallagher, VP of integrated marketing at Away, agreed. “The White Lotus is more than a hit series—it’s a cultural phenomenon,” she told us via email.
Away was previously featured in Seasons 1 and 2 when the characters Belinda and Portia used the brand’s luggage. For Season 3, the company partnered with HBO in a more formal capacity to create an official White Lotus x Away luggage collection.
“We’ve noticed a growing trend of brands collaborating with iconic movies and TV shows to create exclusive products that deepen the emotional connection with their audiences,” Gallagher said. “These partnerships allow brands to tap into highly engaged fan bases while creating limited-edition products that feel special and culturally relevant.”
Season 3 also marks the first time Amex worked with the series, and the arrangement extends beyond its cardholder events into other areas, including travel guides for Hawaii, Italy, and Thailand. Hamilton said it’s all aimed at connecting specifically with millennials and Gen Z, for whom The White Lotus has “widespread cultural appeal.”
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For a luggage company and a company promoting a travel-centric credit card, it also doesn’t hurt that the show is centered on—and in many ways promotes—heading out of town.
“The idea of going on vacation is so relatable to everyone,” Meengern said. “It’s an easy behavior to tap into from a content and a creative marketing perspective.”
Checking in
Perhaps no brand knows that better than the Four Seasons. After its Maui hotel was featured in Season 1, the property’s website saw a 425% increase in visits, Ben Hallam, SVP of global marketing at the Four Seasons, told us. By Season 2, set at a Four Seasons hotel in Sicily, he said they really started seeing an impact on bookings.
“Shows like The White Lotus really are fueling the idea of ‘set-jetting,’” he said. “People are now getting inspiration of where to travel based on what they see on their screens.”
Ahead of Season 3, Hallam said the Four Seasons found in a monthly brand tracking study that not only did The White Lotus drive a positive brand association for those who had heard of the Four Seasons and watched the show, 71% of respondents said it drove their intent to want to visit a Four Seasons location. Ahead of the Season 3 premiere, he said it’s seeing an increase in visits to its Thailand hotels in Koh Samui and Bangkok.
“Both HBO and Four Seasons weren’t to know what a cultural juggernaut The White Lotus would become,” Hallam said.
Due to the interest in Four Seasons properties borne out of the last two seasons, Meengern said HBO sought to “better formalize [its] relationship” with the hotel chain to not only “grow the viewership season over season, but also drive interest to their properties.” In addition to hosting the wellness retreats with Amex, Hallam said Four Seasons properties around the world will host White Lotus screenings and curate wellness and cocktail menus inspired by the show.
By going all-in with experiential activations centered on the show, he said, the hope is to continue to engage Gen Z and millennial luxury travelers and build both brand awareness and brand preference.
“By far, this will be the largest entertainment and pop culture partnership we have ever done,” he said.
With The White Lotus now renewed for a fourth season, Hallam said the Four Seasons team is already thinking ahead.
“We have a few [locations] in our back pocket that we wouldn’t mind presenting to them,” he said. “But the ultimate decision is theirs.”