Aseel Resort

Reviving Saudi Heritage with a Twist in the heart of Ad-Dirriyah

Project Type
Digital Marketing

Location
Saudi Arabia

Industry
Hospitality

Project Link

Achievements
Silver Muse Creative Award for “Social Media: Travel & Tourism” Category

Challenge

Aseel Resort, located in a prestigious area around 30 min away from Riyadh, is a spacious resort that hosts private events, business meetings and staycations. One of its unique selling points is its peculiar architecture that boasts of a mark of luxury.

Aseel Resort commissioned Blue Hat in 2019 in order to create a communication design strategy and then later towards the end of 2020 for an uplift. What prompted the uplift are the updates taking over Instagram, thus changing the digital consumer journey and behavior.

One of the issues Aseel Resort was facing was their digital communication. Their Instagram was not portraying the true experience of Aseel Resort, some posts were becoming redundant, photography was not up to standards, and overall the content did not appeal to identified target audience.

Intervention

At Blue Hat we focused on building brand awareness to Aseel Resort’s prestigious farms through meaningful captions and appealing photos / videos that highlight the resort’s unique selling points. We also wanted the band to appeal to potential customers by constantly keeping them updated on the resort’s latest collaborations, events, services, and so on to trigger curiosity and ultimately increase booking leads. Moreover, we aimed to establish a two-way conversation to engage and build brand loyalty - especially during weekdays through stories, polls and questions that can help provide feedback and keep Aseel as a getaway destination in their minds.

Initially, we had conducted an internal reflection with the client through a series of workshops in order to grasp their vision of Aseel Resort to the dot. Following that, we started with the research where we analyzed case studies and international best practices, including trend spotting specifically for social media in 2019. Along with the team, we conducted an introspection in order to analyse the brand through the 6 Thinking Hats framework.

Results

After auditing the customer journey, we focused on the digital presence and how it should be transformed. The first thing to be addressed was the visual appeal, we tackled that point from a seasonal point of view. For summer, cool tones that scream “summer vibes” by the pool were used, while in winter, warm tones dominated to portray a cozy and luxurious “staycation” vibe by the fire. We also proceeded to rethink the photography style, such as integrating drone photography, timelapse videos, including more human elements, and more. We also recommended multiple talented Saudi photographers for content creation, in addition to considering different variations for the visual treatments.

For the content strategy, we defined themes as following: typography posts, UGC and engaging content, history and art, and collaborations. We addressed the website content by recommending virtual experiences, in that way Aseel Resort can extend the physical space into a virtual one, gain greater exposure, and offer easy accessible viewing options to their target audiences. We also designed customized stickers, GIFs, and filters for Aseel Resort to encourage guests to post and engage with the brand online. For the media plan, we created the digital channels map that designates Aseel Resort’s presence online, we also set out a strategy for the ads and budget.

As a result, Aseel Resort is often fully booked and reservations must be made well in advance.