Marketing + creative for travel, hospitality and attractions
The Guest Journey is a senior-led marketing and creative agency for hotels, destinations, attractions, and other places people choose to spend their time. We help give them a reason to go, a reason to stay, and a reason to come back.
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The full picture
A guest’s experience begins long before they arrive.
They see a post. Search for a place to stay. Click an ad. Open an email. Ask someone for a recommendation. Make a reservation. Walk through the door.
01 — Discovery
02 — Consideration
03 — Experience
04 — Return
Selected work
A few examples of what that can look like in practice, from destination strategy and media planning to social, digital, partnerships and the work that brings it all together.
California destination
Destination Strategy + Marketing
The opportunity was to introduce a California destination to new national and international audiences while giving travel partners more reasons to recommend it. We built marketing programs around strategic partnerships, industry outreach and first-hand destination experiences, bringing more than 300 travel advisors to the destination each year.
The result
Wine country tourism
Destination Marketing + Digital + Partnerships
When the usual ways of connecting with travel partners needed a rethink, we helped take the wine country experience online. A new digital trade show became part of a broader strategy spanning partnerships, content, social, digital and experiential marketing, all designed to keep the destination visible and drive bookings.
The result
An oyster farm in Maine
Social + Content
This oyster farm already had the ingredients for great social content: a working farm, a Maine river, a Farm Store and plenty happening behind the scenes. We built a more consistent social strategy around the real place and the people, oysters and everyday work that make it worth following.
The result
Downtown district organization
Media Strategy + Planning + Buying
Reaching both local residents and potential visitors means being thoughtful about where, when and how an annual advertising budget is spent. We develop and manage the district’s yearly media buy across digital, social, print and out-of-home, evaluating the mix each year rather than simply repeating what was done before.
The result
What I do
The work is rarely just one thing.
Sometimes it starts with a website that isn't telling the right story. Sometimes it's a slow period that needs a reason to book, a social presence that needs direction, an event that needs an audience, or a marketing budget that could be working harder.
The Guest Journey can step in for the bigger strategy, the project that needs to get done, or both.
Strategy + positioning
Brand positioning, audience strategy, demand generation, commercial strategy, offers and campaign planning
Campaigns + creative
Seasonal campaigns, promotions, advertising, collateral, menus, signage and guest-facing creative
Social + content
Social strategy, content planning, copywriting, creative direction and ongoing channel management
Web + digital
Website strategy, messaging, copy, email marketing and digital campaigns
Media + partnerships
Media planning and buying, partnerships, travel trade, PR support and audience development
Guest experience
Pre-arrival, on-property and post-stay communications, programming, events and the details that bring the experience together
Senior-led, by design
Big-picture thinking without losing sight of the actual work.
The Guest Journey brings more than 18 years of experience across hospitality, tourism, destinations and experience-driven businesses.
We can talk about positioning, revenue and where the business needs to go, then turn around and work through the campaign, website, social plan, guest communication or creative that helps get it there.
No layers of account teams. No strategy handed off to someone else to figure out.
Let’s talk
If you have a place people should know about, let’s talk about what might make them choose it.
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