Guided walking specialist - Large Outdoors
Appearing in the likes of The Guardian and The Daily Express coupled with generating lively blog content for the website created a higher profile for guided walking specialist Large Outdoors.
Brief
To raise awareness of the operator’s UK short breaks and week-long activity holidays, highlighting their suitability for solo travellers and those keen to explore Britain’s fantastic countryside in the company of a sociable group of people.
Activity
1. Media relations
Instead of issuing an endless series of press releases, we targeted specific media outlets with information that would support Large Outdoors while also helping meet journalists’ requirements.
For instance, in November we knew the travel sections of the national newspapers would be looking ahead to New Year and were likely to run a round-up of ideas on where to celebrate. We sent relevant information on Large Outdoors short breaks.
We looked at potential opportunities such as the regular round-up of holiday ideas that ran online and approached the relevant journalists.
We knew that solo holidays would be covered by several media and homed in on the relevant titles with information that included key messages, particularly the effort that Large Outdoors puts into making sure solo travellers feel at ease.
We also identified those bloggers whose audience would be suited to the Large Outdoors experience and who used social media extensively to support their blogs.
2. Copywriting
We helped Large Outdoors adopt a writing style for their website and email newsletters that was more in keeping with their friendly, chatty approach and provided content that would help instil trust.
3. Social media
We supported Large Outdoors with their social media content, providing tweets, blog content and facebook posts with the aim of driving traffic to the website.
Results
Press coverage included pieces in The Guardian, Daily Express online, Woman’s Own, Yours magazine, Woman’s Weekly, Prima, Landlove and Group Leisure, with a combined reach of more than one million readers.
Bloggers such as Campingwithstyle experienced a Large Outdoors weekend.
Providing specific content for third-party blogs on Ecotripper, North York Moors National Park Authority and Independent Hostels not only helped reach new audiences but also provided useful links back to Large Outdoors website.
Large Outdoors saw a 28% rise in the number of people visiting the website over a 12-month period and people spent longer on the site.
Bookings increased including a spectacular sell-out on the New Year break.
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/nov/29/alternative-new-year-wellbeing-retreats
http://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/675970/Single-holiday-solo-Clubsolos
http://www.campingwithstyle.co.uk/large-outdoors-lake-district-walking-weekend-review/
