Insight
Hylands House is a stunning Grade II* listed mansion offering meticulously restored period rooms and a Grand Pavilion presenting timeless glamour. The house is set within acres of parkland and offers the ideal location for conferences, events and weddings. Hylands is owned by Chelmsford City Council and had historically been marketed via the council’s website.
The brief: “Chelmsford City Council has invested in our new Grand Pavilion, which can accommodate up to 300 guests. We need a full PR and marketing campaign to put the events venue firmly on the map.”
Implementation
A new luxury brand was created to position Hylands as a high-end venue ‘Hylands Estate’. The new brand was then rolled out with a fresh wedding, plus conferences and events brochure and website.
A full media relations campaign was launched to drive awareness with newly engaged couples about Hylands Estate. We set-up features on how to plan a wedding and gave expert opinion. Wedding case studies were created and published on blogs, in glossy mags, wedding titles and were timed to coincide with key dates, such as open days.
We also seized opportunities in the business press, added ‘brain food’ to the conferencing menu, as well as showcasing its meetings and events capabilities.
A launch event was set-up to showcase the new pavilion to all local businesses in a one hour radius. The event included an exhibition, key note speakers and gained over 300 people to the event.
To build a strong photo library, on a budget, we offered wedding titles free use of Hylands for photoshoots – in exchange for use of their images, plus editorial coverage and free advertising.
To showcase Hylands’ amazing venue and high levels of customer service, a series of awards were entered.
Impact
The stats speak for themselves:
- 1407 (27 per week) enquiries were generated over 12 months.
- Digital campaign reached over 13,500 potential customers/stakeholders. Clicks to website average 70 per week.
- Event bookings doubled with a further 69 booked in for the following year and a further 34 for the year after. Previously no events were booked a year in advance.
- Hylands won Best Wedding Venue (Heritage) in Essex and was shortlisted for three other wedding awards. Brides magazine placed Hylands in top 70 places to wed in the UK.
- Free photoshoots saved client over £10,000.
The campaign won best campaign at the CIPR PRide Awards.
“Thanks to the PR and marketing campaign, bookings have gone through the roof at Hylands: we’re delighted!”
If you need help marketing your venue, please contact us.
