“‘The Joy Of’ has been a wonderful piece of work, and we’ve seen excellent results from it. Our July revenues were fantastic, and all of the milestones we wanted to hit, we hit them beyond our expectations”.

Today we sat down with Dara Cruise, General Manager of Midlands Park Hotel and client of The Pudding, to learn more about his experience working with us, his most valuable learnings from the process, and the results of our ‘The Joy Of’ campaign. 

Midlands Park Hotel is a four-star hotel in County Laois that prides itself on first-class service, Irish hospitality and the promise of joyful moments with your loved ones, friends and family. Following the pandemic, we worked with Midlands Park Hotel to help them communicate the wealth of experiences on offer at the luxury hotel in the heart of the Midlands. Here, we catch up with Dara to learn about his experience working with us. 

1. Can you tell me about your partnership with

The Pudding and how you came to seek our services? 

We, at Midlands Park Hotel, felt we weren’t communicating a coherent message. So, in 2019, we wanted to speak to someone who could help us understand our needs. We met with three different organisations, and we chose to partner with The Pudding as we got a great sense of what it would be like to work alongside them through their presentation. A huge amount of passion was coming through, and we had that bit of added chemistry. 

We commenced the project of rebranding the hotel in 2019 and completed it in 2020. A huge amount of work and energy went into it. The work helped us reshape our business communications and added a professional layer to our business. During this work with The Pudding, the communication was excellent. We always felt that they understood exactly what we needed, and we were very happy with the process.

2. Can you tell me more

about this project with The Pudding? 

We felt we needed a strong message coming out of the latest lockdown. We understood that there was a lot of business to be had in the Irish domestic market with holidaymakers. Still, we needed a very coherent communications piece to target them. 

Gillian and the team at The Pudding helped us work through that. They came back with some suggestions, and we completely fell in love with one of their ideas, the campaign ‘The Joy Of’. It has been a wonderful piece of work, and we’ve seen excellent results from it. Our July 2021 revenues were fantastic, and all of the milestones we wanted to hit, we hit them beyond our expectations. 

3. What has been your key learnings

from working with The Pudding? 

The key learning that we have found from working with The Pudding is the importance of communication. You need to give creative time and resources. It is a particular skill, and you can’t expect your internal team to develop these messages. 

If you look at where we were before we started with The Pudding, opposed to where we are now, we are a much slicker business from a communications perspective, and we have great guidelines to help drive us forward. 

4. Would you recommend

working with The Pudding?

It was a challenging experience as you have to invest your mind into the process. You’re investing in your business, and you have to make sure you’re giving it 100% of your attention. But, most importantly, the results do pay off. 

My experience working with The Pudding has been very positive. I am delighted we partnered with them, and I believe it will be something we continue into the future. Working with The Pudding was an education for me as a business leader also. The experience helped me learn, grow and have different tools and skillsets that I can now pass on to my team.