Luxury Escapes Adds Print to Content Marketing Strategy

Online travel business Luxury Escapes has expanded its content marketing strategy, launching a quarterly print publication called Travel Post.

The publication is a 16-page tabloid format publication containing travel-based content. Content for the print publication has been selected based on what content has tracked well across the company’s online magazine.

The publication will be distributed through cafes and restaurants across Australia with a first print run of 30,000 copies.

Blake Hutchison, general manager, Luxury Escapes.

“When it comes to sell-through in the travel space, content is king. We’ve seen it work for our hotel packages. Now we’re applying the approach to brand activation. Our goal is pretty simple. We want to inspire more travel. Luxury is now more affordable than ever so our content will certainly focus on higher end experiences,” said Blake Hutchison, general manager of Luxury Escapes.

“We wanted Travel Post to be a celebration of life’s most sought-after travel experiences. Luxury means different things to different people and in each issue there’s something for all those who appreciate quality. This is at the heart of what Luxury Escapes does — we offer incredibly high-quality experiences at an affordable price,” he said.

Since its launch in 2013, content has been a strong component of Luxury Escapes’ overall business strategy. The site only works with a selected number of properties at any given time, and during the limited campaign period, Luxury Escapes’ in-house team of journalists, editors, photographers and videographers create content to promote the destination and partner property.

“As with any business, one of the biggest challenges is to capture the essence of the product or experience you’re selling,” said Hutchison. “I believe at Luxury Escapes we have managed to do this exceptionally well. By adding this print component, Luxury Escapes will be seen in more places, mean more to more customers and ultimately, this with our growing marketing mix will ensure more Australians benefit from experiencing luxury travel experiences.”

Launching a print publication will provide the added benefit of brand exposure for Luxury Escapes, helping to drive traffic to the site and driving brand awareness in the offline space, which for a pureplay is invaluable. However, tracking the ROI from a print publication will likely be difficult for the obvious reason that determining the extent to which the publication drives traffic to the site will be difficult to measure.