Project Background & Challenges

Reflections Holiday Parks is part of NSW Crown Holiday Parks Trust which is of course a Government owned entity, which brings challenges to the decision-making process from the get go. I was asked to join the team (as their outsourced Chief Marketing Officer) at the beginning of a rebranding/ business transformation process to relaunch the brand in Australia (and internationally) targeting travellers, ‘Grey Nomads’ (elderly caravan travellers) and families, that are looking for the next holiday break or experience.
They had five marketing people in the team when I arrived and they needed someone to come in and manage the strategic marketing review, strategy and process to help transform three different brand names into one master brand & powerful entity, and then re-launch it successfully to the world, with all the bells and whistles.

Business & Marketing Strategy

The strategy was very clear for me from the outset, in that we needed to go on a strategic marketing workshop journey which allowed us to get under the hood of the sector of the travel industry. This process always includes a deep dive on the data and then we go out and diligently compare and contrast all competitors to find the insights or rather what I call the ‘Gold Nuggets’ that can help shape our strategic marketing direction. This core work ultimately helps to inform where we think there is an industry or category white space that we can own either emotionally or physically (or preferably both 😊). Then this strategic thinking then helps us position the brand correctly in the hearts and minds of our customers to give us the best chance to succeed.
They had the new name “Reflections” by the time I came on board, but they needed everything underneath that to go to market – including a tagline which I came up with myself “Nature Never Felt So Good,” which still stands strong today, and then a new website template that needed to be rolled out to 37 different parks i.e. 37 websites. A new logo, branding, brand guidelines, to help tell wonderful and magical stories and then all the digital marketing and activation that goes along with the launch including advertising, SEO, SEM, paid performance marketing, social media, email marketing, over 25 videos, brochures, collaterals and the whole shebang.

Results & ROI

The results after working with the business for 12 months were simply incredible.
Their online bookings grew a whopping 55 per cent, making them 59.4 per cent of total bookings. The conversion rate saw a staggering 57 per cent growth, in turn increasing online revenue 68.1 per cent.

Separate to the increase in sales…the brand is now more holistic with more of an emotional connection…and the feedback has been incredible on what a fabulous job we did and what a powerful and authentic Australian brand we have created.