With snow imminent and an otherworldly fog resting atop the 700-acre estate, my arrival at Whittlebury Park on a bitter winter’s day is anything but ordinary. The sheer size is unexpected, bringing a sense of grandeur, and the cosiness of the hotel draws me in.
The gigantic lobby is a haven, with large swags and tails on statement windows, and an array of inviting seating. I’ll later learn the lobby is a changing landscape: a place that moves seamlessly from a winter wonderland with towering Christmas trees, to a site of swish product launches. Oh, and I’m told a Formula One car is casually parked amid the leather couches during Grand Prix Week. No big deal.
I’m here to meet Bradley Spielman, the Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Whittlebury Park. We first met at an Independent Hotel Show panel discussion, and he’s just hosted one of my series of UK Hospitality Roundtable Roadshow events here at Whittlebury Park. As a hotel with multiple big ticket business strands: golf, spa, events, conferencing, fine dining, and the Silverstone crowd I’m really keen to find out more how the team manages to cater to so many different guest needs. Listen to the full podcast on Spotify
Drawing out a hotel’s individual assets
Famed for its championship golf courses, the renowned Whittlebury Park golf course merged with the neighbouring hotel and spa in 2016. This created an expansive space and diverse offering which could also be a double-edged sword, with multiple yet distinctive sets of audiences to appeal to.
So how do you unify amenities under one umbrella brand, while using high precision targeting? For Whittlebury Park, it’s all about honing in on each business strand in turn.
“Every guest is different, especially the audiences for different sections of the business,” Bradley explains. “The way we approach the spa is very different to the way we approach golf, especially when it comes to marketing channels. A golf enthusiast uses different channels to a spa enthusiast. So we really have to dive into those personas of who uses what facilities, get an understanding of their buyer behaviour, and their psychology.”
And there are a lot of plates for Bradley and the wider team to spin.
The prestige of nearby Silverstone is a key marketing asset, and the hotel’s Silverstone Bar with conversation-sparking memorabilia make the most of that. “We get a lot of motorsport fans come through, especially during Grand Prix week,” Bradley says. “The whole estate turns into a different type of beast. Motorsport fans who don’t want to miss a thing will stay at the hotel the whole week.”
The spa has a totally different vibe, drawing on a luxurious ancient Roman theme with extensive facilities, and unique treatments: Whittlebury’s spa is also the exclusive home of ‘The Light Salon’ LED Facial Bar outside of London. The target audiences here are individuals and couples who come for an overnight or day package.
The polar opposite to this is the 36-hole championship golf course, along with an award-winning clubhouse and interactive driving range. The marketing goal here is to maintain its strong reputation and appeal, plus build golf into enticing packages, including corporate stays and ‘his and hers’ breaks.
Fine dining is another distinctive area, with multiple food and drink options, and a 3 AA Rosette restaurant, no less.
And then there are the extensive conferencing and events facilities, with potential to host up to 500 delegates, 30 versatile rooms that can be tailored to client needs, and a fun breakout station with coffee, pastries and PlayStations. Pretty much anything can happen here, from product launches and business meetings, to private dinners, and immersive events – murder mystery, tribute bands…there was even an experiential Back to the Future event.
Events don’t have to be confined to the indoors either. “We actually have hovercrafting down the end of the field,” Bradley says. “We have a 700-acre estate where you can hold a festival if you really want to!”
Feeding knowledge into channels and systems
The offering at Whittlebury Park is almost as wide as it can get for a hotel. So how on earth does the team keep on top of it all, and make every guest for each business area feel seen and special?
Bradley says it all comes down to data and personas. “We can create a CRM profile for every guest, and every guest tells us a different story,” Bradley says. “We create fake personalities based on these personas. It could be ‘Bradley’ who is booking the spa. Why is he booking a spa? It’s for his girlfriend’s birthday. It tells us a story, and it also gives us a bit of psychology of why Bradley makes those decisions, why he booked that certain package. It gives us a good idea of who we should be aiming for and what we should be targeting them with.”
Creating believable personas based on real information enables the team to craft content and messaging designed for different channels, each of which has a purpose. “If we look at social media, I look at it as an educational piece,” Bradley explains. “While there will be content for spa and golf, and it’s not relevant to everyone, it’s actually telling them: we do have a golf course, we do have a spa. Then they can recommend it to their partner.”
Where social media helps with the cross-fertilisation of information, email marketing can be more targeted, because preferences have been selected or captured. The team uses Mailchimp, which works hand-in-hand with the internally built CRM, and this means personalisation and targeted messaging aligned with personas is a tightly-run operation.
Being at the forefront of emerging technology is important for Bradley and the team too. Even before AI became mainstream, they were ahead of the curve and future-proofed the website for AI’s arrival to ensure ongoing visibility. “We found that while SEO is good for keywords, the thing we should actually be looking for is phrases, long tail keywords, and conversation pieces. Because that’s what you have with AI, it’s all conversation led.”
Learning as a cohesive hotel team
Aside from having the right technology in place, Bradley believes that human interaction is what helps Whittlebury Park stay competitive and attuned to guests. “We work closely with heads of departments,” Bradley says. “They know their guests; they speak to them on a daily basis. They probably spend more time with guests than they do with their own families.”
Making colleagues across the hotel stakeholders in digital marketing can be a powerful part of the process. As well as interrogating feedback and really understanding the “vision” guests have for their stay, Bradley and the team can harness this information to drive engagement and results. He says: “It’s learning from our guests, it’s learning from our teams, and it’s learning for ourselves.”
So how else does Bradley learn? “Digital is a changing landscape; it’s hard to stay on top of things,” he shares. “When you go to roundtable events like this, you learn from your peers: what they’re doing, how they’re operating, where their struggles are, how they’re finding opportunities. And it’s nice to learn from them.”
Bradley himself is a boomerang employee of Whittlebury Park. He left to work for a digital marketing agency in 2019, and re-joined with a range of new knowledge. “It’s what they refer to as me going to college!” Bradley laughs. “I came back as a Digital Marketing Manager, and I’ve really been focusing on how we create that digital presence, and how we make Whittlebury Park a recognised brand online.”
Personalising, profiling and targeting
According to Bradley, the future “is all personalisation and how we can improve the guest journey.” Personalisation for all hotels is about pinpointing the unique selling points and the associated audiences. And most hotels should be targeting more than one persona.
There’s no doubt it’s tough. Whittlebury Park needs to constantly stay on top of trends and guest feedback for each business area. The brand is even expanding into new markets, making the most of its enormous estate to cater to families too.
Here’s the upshot: personalisation must be backed by real knowledge, data and systems to make sense of it all, and target accordingly. It’s the only way to effectively target an array of ‘right’ audiences, get repeat business, and appeal to guest needs.
Whittlebury Park is getting it right. The expansive spaces are homely, as if you’re visiting someone’s stately home. There’s a lot for the senses, whether it’s incredible food or immaculate fairways. And it’s a place where petrolheads and dressing-gowned spa-goers feel equally at home. In the world of hospitality today, that’s no mean feat.
The full interview is available on Spotify or Apple podcasts.