Project

‘Wild Seasons Festivals’; Re-brand and re-position one of the UK’s largest and longest running Wildlife Festivals

Challenge

Entice UK families to vacation in an often-overlooked but naturally beautiful part of Scotland and demonstrate incremental economic impact to the region. Plan and execute this ambitious project within a very modest budget and coordinate multiple public and private sector stakeholders

Delivery

• Led a brand development project, coordinating multiple stakeholders, to develop a highly adaptable new brand identity that reflected not only the range of ‘Wild’ festivals across the four seasons, but also the diversity of wild nature experiences on offer.
• We developed and executed a tightly integrated content, SEO and digital campaign strategy that successfully acquired and recycled User Generated Content and social proof at scale and secured valuable organic search ranking for the festival website domain
• Long range and short-lead PR pitches for the ‘Wild’ Festivals that secured broadcast stories on BBC, features in the Sunday Times and Guardian Travel sections and which reached online audiences in the millions
• An influencer program that persuaded wildlife celebrities such as Chris Packham and Gordon Buchanan to endorse the ‘Wild’ festivals
• We led an industry-facing program to secure the participation of local tourism sector businesses from BnB’s to attractions to transport and activity providers and guide associations; this initiative further propelled the festivals’ appeal with special offers and harnessed the collective national and international marketing firepower of the destinations’ many tourism businesses.

Outcomes

The ‘Wild’ Seasons festivals go from strength to strength and have, the past 5 years, sustained a year-round program of events for families and wildlife-lovers that attract new and repeat visitors to Dumfries & Galloway during the shoulder and low months thus generating a significant boost to the region’s tourism economy. The ‘Wild’ Seasons brand, developed on a peppercorn budget, is omnipresent throughout the region and is an established kitemark for the exceptional wildlife experiences promised by the festivals.