Ribby Hall Village

In 100 acres of lush Lancashire countryside lies Ribby Hall Village. And truly a village it is. Spanning spacious letting cottages, privately-owned holiday homes, an award-winning Spa Hotel, 9-hole golf course, members’ gym, several restaurants, adventure waterpark, and working farmyard – Ribby Hall is a metropolis of activity.  

Having been around for more than 25 years, the in-house marketing team there is well-versed in seasonal advertising campaigns that launch like clockwork throughout the year. Anchored on everything from school holidays and wedding seasons to Halloween and Christmas, the yearly calendar gives an annual structure to the holiday village marketing campaigns.

The campaign-led content had always been successful, but it relied on having a fresh aesthetic with each itineration. This way of working clearly was resource heavy, with time, money and energy invested in inventing a new idea with the turn of every seasonal event. So, after a couple of years of Covid-related closures, Ribby Hall Village wanted to create a more cohesive campaign, a creative idea with longevity and adaptability. One that could be used both as a top-of-the-funnel awareness-raising campaign and deployed to drive bookings during peak seasons.

So, the brief to Glorious was exactly that. To create a campaign concept that could capture all the facets of Ribby Hall Village and apply them to a variety of seasonal highlights when bookings spike. To make, for example, the Spa Hotel as relevant to wedding guests as it is to half-term holidays, or to ignite the summer trip excitement in children as much as in the overworked parents. Each element, every target audience, and all the peak seasons, distilled into a visual campaign that is consistent, captivating and ultimately, downright convincing.

To begin with, our priority was understanding the Ribby Hall Village proposition and its position in the market. As far as USPs, we identified its proximity to Blackpool meant we could stretch the campaign to cover the attractions in the surrounding area as well as in the holiday village itself. By highlighting the nearby coastal town, along with the natural beauty of the countryside, the messaging could lean into a ‘best of both worlds’ approach. Unlike some of the more remote competitors.

Ribby Hall Village also holds the title of the only 5* holiday village in the Northwest of England thanks to its Spa Hotel, luxury amenities and accommodation options. This highlight draws in an audience that’s wider than families with children, and the team made it clear that whatever concept put forward needed to reflect both a luxury stay and a family-led adventure. Likewise, with accommodation spanning from lakeside lodges, a farmhouse and various sizes of holiday cottages, the diversity of the target audience and the different selling points was becoming evermore apparent.

Next, we compared those USPs along with the very many other aspects and activities available at Ribby Hall Village with the competition. We looked at the brand identities and the product proposition of multiple similar holiday villages. Whilst one key competitor clearly occupied the higher end of the market, the other two were more entertainment-focused and lacked some of the luxury elements that Ribby Hall has ample of. And it was this insight that illuminated the Ribby Hall Village niche, an appealing blend of recreation and restoration.

With so much to distil into one cohesive campaign, it was evident that strong story-telling through the identity and tone of voice, would be essential, conveying the uniqueness of a stay here, whether you’re a child memorised by waterslides and woodland adventures, a couple seeking zen, or a group of girlfriends heading for a weekend in the country. 

So armed with a wealth of insight and information from the brand immersion session and research, we got to work on four distinctive creative ideas and brought them to life for the client.

Creative concept 1: & the fun never ends

Using a language convention to communicate Ribby Hall’s myriad of activities and accommodations, by repeating ‘& & &’ we felt we would be able to inject plenty of personality and charm.

Creative concept 2: The R Factor, at Ribby Hall Village

Stemming from the well-known noun; the X Factor, meaning to be of noteworthy special quality – used alongside a payoff line ‘Reconnect with their world, and yours’.

Creative concept 3: It’s closer than you think…

Encapsulating a sense of anticipation, that something exciting is just around the corner. And at the same time, suggesting the handy proximity of Ribby Hall Village too.

Creative concept 4: Picture Perfect Moments  

Concentrating on the moments that relate to aspects such as ‘family, friends, love, laughter, escapism, enjoyment’ to name just a few – the theme lends itself to capturing a highly emotive campaign, punctuated by seasonal events.

For the client, it was the ‘& & &’ concept that fulfilled the brief most effectively. It had endless possibilities to craft creative copy around seasonal peaks and be suited to the more omnipresent brand awareness campaigns too.

Setting the messaging against captivating photography, we were able to distil the magic of a stay at Ribby Hall Village into a campaign with year-long longevity – just as the client had asked. By using a language convention to communicate Ribby Hall’s myriad of activities and accommodations. And with the repetition ‘& & &’ we felt we could reflect bubbling excitement and tell a story too.

The word plays would be able to be toned up and down depending on the target audience and the context of the ad. For example, when creating a seasonal campaign for the summer holidays, we could list activities and emotions reflecting how a child might hurriedly list them off amidst holiday excitement. Whilst if we were instead focused on promoting a spa weekend, the ‘& & &’ might conclude with an ‘& relaaaax’ – demonstrating how the concept could be shaped and shifted to fit a multitude of audiences, seasons and scenarios. And at the same time, be fitted to more general awareness-raising campaigns that could be live all year round, telling the bigger, more holistic story of Ribby Hall Village; ‘Dancing & Pizza & Boats & Treehouses & Mini Golf & Peacocks & Shows & Soft play’.