“Since we began our partnership with The Pudding,
I can say we are definitely on the
right track. We’ve seen the impact: from our
visitor numbers on our website to our social
media interactions, we know that this is
really working for us. We put a lot of that
down to our work with The Pudding.”

–  A conversation with Vanessa Langford, Marketing Manager, Midlands Park Hotel.

In this instalment of The Client Chronicles, we caught up with Vanessa Langford, the Marketing Manager of Midlands Park Hotel.

As a long-term client of ours, we’ve worked with Midlands Park Hotel across brand development, brand strategy, creative comms and campaigns. Here, we caught up on our latest commercial campaign for the four-star hotel, “Ireland at Your Fingertips”.

1. Can you tell me about your partnership

with The Pudding? 

When I first started with Midlands Park Hotel, Dara Cruise, our general manager introduced me to The Pudding as a brand consultancy and asked me to choose between them and two other agencies for a rebrand. Our logo, values, messaging and overall brand was very poor and we wanted to change it up. 

We chose The Pudding because they had a lot of experience in the hospitality industry, the case studies they showed us were very successful and they had really different, original and out-there ideas – and that’s what we wanted.

Since we began our partnership with The Pudding, I can say we are definitely on the right track. We’ve seen the impact: from our visitor numbers on our website to our social media interactions, we know that this is really working for us. We put a lot of that down to our work with The Pudding.

2. Can you tell us about your need

for this specific campaign?

“Ireland at Your Fingertips” came about because we needed to hone in on our leisure market for 2022 and design a campaign that would attract visitors to Midlands Park Hotel. 

With the lockdown, the outdoors became really important for hotels. People want to go out and explore their locality and experience new places. As Midlands Park Hotel is located in County Laois, in the centre of Ireland, we wanted to communicate that if you visit Midlands Park Hotel, you will be at the centre of it all; you can visit these beautiful attractions, base yourself in Midlands Park Hotel, and enjoy award-winning food and fantastic hospitality all at the same time. 

We shared this with The Pudding, and the outcome is completely unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in our sector in terms of advertising. The images, the way they merge with our brand’s visuals; the way they connect the inside and outside; it is so eye-catching, and that is what we love about this creative route.

3. How did you find the process of working with

The Pudding on this campaign?

When we first told The Pudding that we wanted to do a leisure campaign, they came back to us with three concepts. This gave us a lot to discuss and we were able to decide what was the best route as a team. 

It was a fantastic process, and after having such a successful “Meet in The Middle” corporate campaign with The Pudding, we knew that “Ireland at Your Fingertips” would be really effective within the leisure sector.  

Any time we had a question for The Pudding they would always be back to us within a working day and that flow of communication was absolutely fantastic. I love the creativity that they bring to the table, their style of communication and the way they work together as a team.

4. What was the outcome of this campaign

with The Pudding?

We believe the end result of this campaign will be brand awareness – that more people in Ireland and around the world will know Midlands Park Hotel as a destination to come, stay and explore Ireland.

Although our campaign is mostly targeted at those within Ireland, we also have the campaign running in the U.K. and the U.S. as well as Northern Ireland, and it is proving really successful so far. 

We have a radio advertisement on Classic Hits and Today FM, and we also have a social media campaign, hotel signage and outdoor advertising in cinemas, bus shelters and local shopping centres.

5. Would you recommend working with

The Pudding to others?

Yes, I would 100% recommend working with The Pudding – they listen to me, take on board my comments and feedback, and help us grow towards our business ambitions in advertising and marketing.