Home / Selected Work / Brand Partnership Strategy
Reese’s Book ClubSheraton × Reese’s Book Club: Brand Partnership Strategy·Jun 2024–Jan 2025
- Brand Strategy
- Partnerships & Sponsorships
- Guest Experience
A renewal should buy more than another year.
Sheraton promises a lobby where people gather. Reese’s Book Club is a community that gathers around a book. I made the case to renew on that fit, drafted and negotiated year-two terms built to carry it into Sheraton hotels, and saw its first expression through: the Reese’s Book Club Bookshop, presented by Sheraton, at Hello Sunshine’s Shine Away.
See the 2024 Bookshop
The Reese’s Book Club Bookshop, presented by Sheraton, at Hello Sunshine’s Shine Away, Los Angeles, October 2024. Photography by Mirrored Media for Hello Sunshine, published at the source.
BizBash: Inside Shine Away ↗Hello Sunshine’s Shorty Awards entry ↗
The challenge
Sheraton and Reese’s Book Club signed a one-year collaboration in September 2023. It opened with a Lobby Library at the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles, then traveled to Toronto and London.
I joined Marriott’s global brand partnerships team in June 2024, managing a portfolio of sixteen-plus partnerships, with that agreement up for renewal. The case for a second year, or against it, was mine to make.
The insight
The club brought reach, about three million social followers. The stronger case was behavior: readers were coming to Sheraton lobbies to meet. That fit was the argument for year two, and the brief for it. The message, carried over from year one, was a pairing: a book matched to a Sheraton hotel. Everything in year two had to make that pairing feel like Sheraton’s idea of a good stay.
Sheraton’s promise is gathering. The club’s is gathering around a book.
What I did
Made the case
I evaluated year one against what Sheraton needed from it, and recommended renewing as a program rather than another collaboration: content Sheraton could keep, formats any hotel could run, and experiences for guests and Bonvoy members.
Drafted the terms
I drafted the year-two terms and statement of work and negotiated them with Hello Sunshine, alongside Marriott brand and legal. Year one gave Sheraton a limited license. The year-two terms I drafted held the annual partnership fee flat and proposed:
- use of the club’s name and likeness on co-branded work, and the right to keep organic content on Sheraton’s channels in perpetuity
- co-branded in-room entertainment at Sheraton properties
- quarterly author gatherings, a writers’ workshop and first right to host the club’s podcast
- PR amplification and paid support behind co-branded assets
Designed it to scale
The same terms set out formats designed for Sheraton’s 400+ hotels, with properties opting in: traveling book trunks and lobby vending pop-ups, a reading package for meetings and events, a writers’ amenity, limited-edition covers. That was the planned toolkit. The first piece to go live was the club’s own stage.
Brought it to life at Shine Away
I requested the agreement for Sheraton to present the Reese’s Book Club Bookshop at Hello Sunshine’s Shine Away, and carried it to signature in just over two weeks. On the weekly planning calls with the club, CAA Brand Consulting and our brand team, I held the work to the brand idea: final quiz copy pairing a book with a Sheraton hotel, four reader-personality signs and a bookshop sign, Sheraton pens on the tables, and a capture plan for Sheraton’s own film crew covering author signings for Reels and TikTok.
What readers and the press said
“Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club is coming to Toronto & it’s the only Canadian stop.”
“Reese’s Book Club’s only Canadian stop is at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.”
“Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel welcomes Hello Sunshine’s Reese’s Book Club.”
“Reese’s Book Club and Sheraton Hotels have a new partnership.”
Headlines quoted from public outlets; the pop-ups in Toronto (January 2024) and London (March–April 2024) were the year-one program I inherited.
In the end
Sheraton’s name on the club’s own stage.
The renewal’s first expression was live within weeks: the Reese’s Book Club Bookshop, presented by Sheraton, with all 100 book club selections on the shelves, under an agreement I carried to signature in just over two weeks.
More partnership for the same fee.
The year-two terms I drafted and negotiated held the annual partnership fee flat while adding name-and-likeness rights, content Sheraton could keep, author gatherings and in-room placement.
A format designed to travel.
Trunks, shelves and lobby vending, planned so any of Sheraton’s 400+ hotels could opt in, not just three flagships.
Shine Away 2024, event-wide
Event-wide figures reported by Hello Sunshine in its Shorty Awards entry; prior-year attendance and the shelf count per BizBash. They describe Shine Away as a whole, not Sheraton alone. Year-two terms are described as drafted and negotiated; final contract terms are not published here.
My role
Senior Manager, Global Brand Marketing Partnerships (Jun 2024–Jan 2025, contract): the renewal case, the year-two terms and statement of work, the negotiation, the Shine Away agreement and creative approvals for the Bookshop; managed a 16+ partnership portfolio with continent counterparts.
Built with
Sheraton brand marketing and PR, who shaped the program with me; Marriott legal and Marriott Bonvoy; CAA Brand Consulting, which ran weekly planning; Hello Sunshine and its studio partners, who produced Shine Away and the Bookshop experience.