Property | Copywriting

With nearly 300 offices operating in over 80 countries, JLL (formerly Jones Lang LaSalle) is one of the biggest global players in real estate, investment management, and professional services.

JLL’s Hotels and Hospitality group lead the way in securing high-profile deals totalling over $77.5 billion in the past five years alone. When they’re not brokering such extraordinary transactions themselves, they offer world-class consultancy and advice to investors, putting their powerful research capabilities in the hands of global property moguls.

The challenge

JLL Hotels and Hospitality’s lead annual report, Hotel Investment Outlook (HIO), collates stats, insight, and opinion from experts in more than 20 countries to provide a detailed snapshot of the industry.

Sookio were brought on board in 2017, 2018, and 2019 to take the raw data prepared by the JLL team and spin it into an engaging, informative read which commanded attention without sacrificing accuracy. Oh, and it all had to be done in three days!

What we did

Each report needed a different creative direction, while still feeling like a cohesive part of the same series, with a focus on storytelling.

• HIO 2017: Endurance against all odds

• HIO 2018: Pushing forward

• HIO 2019: Firm foundations

HIO 2017: Endurance against all odds

2017’s report was a mammoth undertaking, with so much source material presented to us that it became logical to break everything down by region. In effect, creating eight mini-reports in one.

Industrial resilience in Europe, the rise of domestic investment in the US, and the unstoppable ascendance of Chinese capital were just some of the big themes addressed.

To categorise this information, we used storytelling software Turtl to create a digital pop-up book. Each segment got its own page, lovingly set against some striking artwork, chosen by JLL’s in-house designer to reinforce the theme of tenacity in the face of incredible pressure.

Constant dialogue between ourselves and the client allowed us to whittle drafts down into tight, digestible chunks of relevant information, with room for some predictions for the next 12 months.

HIO 2018: Pushing forward

2018’s report was more streamlined. JLL honed in on the most valuable information, providing a report roughly half the size of 2017’s, but still loaded with industry facts and stats.

The decision was made to format the report more traditionally, with a design-led approach and an art style that brought the data to life at a glance. The insight from last year’s success let us iterate drafts much faster. Instead, this year’s focus was on working with the designer to make sure the copy looked right in situ.

Getting this highly technical copy signed off and set into the design as soon as possible let us give everything a good polish. Tiny tweaks to layout, headings, and structure of the text resulted in an incredible looking final product.

HIO 2019: Firm foundations

Amid mounting economic uncertainty and increasingly volatile global politics, 2019's investment report sought to reassure nervous investors that the industry still stood on solid ground.

This year was an exercise in tone, walking the line between presenting the facts and painting an encouraging picture of a sector approaching its zenith.

We were lucky enough to once again work with JLL’s awesome design team. Weaving their magic throughout the pages, we got a warm, friendly look reflecting a report that touched on trends like co-working and the luxury experience economy.

The outcome

Three very different reports with different creative approaches allowed us to stay flexible, while still making the most of the knowledge we’d picked up the first time around.

Each year, we produced a report that was jam-packed with what investors wanted to see, in plain and accessible English, and they both looked great to boot! In particular, the 2018 edition received JLL’s highest ever core client engagement.