South Lodge Hotel & Spa influencer campaign

Influencer Marketing

Hoopla Marketing hosted luxury lifestyle and travel creators at a Sussex country house spa hotel, then amplified their content with paid social to drive bookings.

9.1Xreturn on ad spend
9.4Mreach and impressions
66.5Kengagements
86pieces of content produced

Case in 60 seconds

South Lodge needed to reach new audiences beyond its existing guest base and turn that attention into online bookings for a high-value country house spa stay.

A spa hotel sells an experience, so a credible traveller documenting a real visit is more persuasive than any brand photography of the same rooms.

Invite luxury lifestyle and travel creators whose audiences match the target guest to visit, and brief them to capture the whole guest experience.

Hoopla researched and recruited creators, sent personalised invitations and detailed creative briefs, managed the rollout, then ran social advertising behind the resulting content.

Hoopla reports 86 pieces of content produced, 9.4M reach and impressions, 66.5K engagements and a 9.1X return on ad spend, all self-reported and published without a spend base or a campaign period.

Strategy Breakdown

Luxury and lifestyle travellers within reach of West Sussex, including spa and wellbeing break bookers, reached through creators whose followings already match the hotel's target guest.
Travel audiences discount hotel marketing they know is staged, and trust an account they already follow more than a brochure image of the same spa.
A country house spa stay is a considered, high-value purchase, so awareness alone rarely moves revenue without a clear route from content to the booking page.
South Lodge provided the property, the spa and the access; the creators provided the credibility and the audience.
Watching someone you follow actually use the spa and the grounds reduces the perceived risk of an expensive booking more than a list of facilities can.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram creator posts and reels, tagged with the south_lodge account
  • Paid social advertising behind the creator content
  • Content library collected and handed back to the hotel

Partners

  • Hoopla Marketing
  • ourwildplan, 56K followers
  • lotteboo, 161K followers
  • izkiz, verified, 3M followers

Participation mechanic

  • Personalised invitations to visit the hotel and spa
  • Detailed creative briefs issued before the visit
  • End of campaign metrics report and content collection

Creator role

  • Hosted guest documenting the stay and the spa
  • Content producer for paid social creative

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Pieces of Content Produced86
Reach and Impressions9.4M
Engagements66.5K
Return on Ad Spend9.1X
Creators Featured on the Case Study Page3
Likes, Lotteboo Instagram Post208
Likes, Ourwildplan Instagram Post199

Why Hoopla Marketing's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A spa hotel sells an experience, so a creator using the property is closer to a demonstration than any brand asset can be.

  2. 2

    Selecting for audience fit and authority in the niche matters more than follower count when the purchase is high value and regional.

  3. 3

    Briefing creators before the visit keeps the content on message while leaving it in their own voice.

  4. 4

    A recent, distinctive asset, in this case a purpose-built spa, gives creators something specific to point at rather than a generic country house stay.

  5. 5

    Collecting the full content library at the end turns a short activation into an asset the hotel can re-use in owned and paid media.