Finalist for Social Media Campaign in Travel, Leisure, or Tourism: Carousel & Buxton Crescent
Carousel’s ‘Reinvigorating spa stay bookings for Buxton Crescent’ campaign was a finalist in the Social Media Campaign of the Year in Travel, Leisure, or Tourism category at the Social Media Marketing Awards 2025.
What was the strategy behind the campaign, what channels were used, what did the team learn from the campaign? We caught up with Carousel to find out more:
Buxton Crescent’s spa facilities are unparalleled in the UK. It’s the only spa with a natural thermal spring water pool, boasting extensive facilities and treatments from saunas to salt caves, against the backdrop of the Peak District’s peaceful scenery.
When we began this campaign, our goal was to position Buxton Crescent as the destination for relaxation, wellness, and rejuvenation – and to do so through modern, visually captivating storytelling.
The Challenge
After a £70 million renovation project in 2020, Buxton Crescent Hotel & Spa faced a major challenge: relaunching during the pandemic meant the brand struggled to capitalise on its fresh start. With awareness lagging, Carousel was enlisted to revitalise the social media strategy, boost awareness, and drive bookings – giving Buxton Crescent the revitalising spa day it deserved.
Our Strategy
We targeted five distinct audiences within the North West and Midlands:
Spa seekers: 35+ women or family groups planning spa days for occasions such as Mother’s Day.
Romantic getaways: 25+ couples seeking relaxing weekend breaks.
Culture trippers: 35+ staycationers looking for nature, history, and culture.
Special occasions: wedding and private event bookings.
Corporates: venue hire for conferences and meetings.
As studies have found video ads deliver 20-30% conversion uplift compared to stills, our content strategy centred on capturing eye-catching video to showcase the hotel’s unique features. We needed compelling video content that would convince viewers to book a trip to Buxton over any of the North West’s other luxury spa hotels. We coordinated content shoots that encompassed dynamic edit and filming techniques, including dramatic drone flythroughs, indoor–outdoor pool transitions, pet’s-eye views, and POV edits that brought the spa experience to life.
Throughout the year, we supplemented this content with additional mobile-captured content to stay reactive to trends and seasonality – from bespoke Halloween-themed cocktails to our playful spin on the viral “Teatime Alarm” trend (which had gained such virality it was even mentioned by This Morning and Gov UK), with our interpretation showing a robe-wearing spa guest dashing to the afternoon tea dining area.
We also partnered with local lifestyle creators for monthly gifted stays, showcasing the hotel’s unique features in an authentic, personalised way. Our top-performing reel achieved 1.2 million organic views on Instagram.
In parallel, we ran collaborations with complementary brands such as Rydale Outdoor Clothing and Peak Candles, which had a similar audience size, geographic basis, and target audience demographics to Buxton Crescent. We coordinated monthly collab contests that drove spikes in reach, engagement, and follower growth – helping us grow the brand’s audience by 63% in nine months, adding over 16,000 new fans.
The Channels
Our channel approach spanned Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn – each selected for its audience fit.
Facebook allowed us to reach our 25+ demographic, representing 81% of users and thus presented the strongest opportunity to reach the older consumers in our target market.
Instagram inspired travellers and lifestyle seekers, with 67% using it for travel inspiration.
LinkedIn helped us reach the corporate market, tapping into the 80% of B2B decision-makers active there.
This was all underpinned by a Meta advertising strategy that combined top of funnel awareness ads with conversion-driven advertising, with narrative-driven video edits designed to speak to each key audience demographic and maximise conversion rates, delivering over £50k in conversion value with a ROAS of 5.74. This was supported by LinkedIn newsletter feature to drive email sign-ups and repurposing this audience data for retargeting, driving click-through rates up to 4.08%.
The Results
Over just nine months, our campaign significantly surpassed all KPIs and delivered:
16,639 new followers (+63% total audience growth).
1.8 million reach.
100,000 engagements.
1.9 million total influencer video views.
£50,000+ in conversion value and 5.74 ROAS.
What We’re Proud Of
Much like a good spa break, we’re proud to have breathed new life into Buxton Crescent’s social media presence – letting it emerge rejuvenated, revitalised, and reinvigorated.
Our approach demonstrated the true potential of social media when combining innovative content creation with clever advertising tactics, and matched timely trends with strategic brand and influencer partnerships. By massively exceeding our KPIs for both marketing aims (awareness, audience growth and engagement) and conversion targets, we have demonstrated a well-rounded strategy that is both eye-catching and effective.
What We Learned
This campaign challenged us to refine every element of our planning and production. We coordinated shoots in a working luxury hotel without disturbing paying guests, working around logistical challenges to ensure we used production time efficiently.
We arranged an overnight shoot to capture spa edits in the evening once guests had retired, arrived early to capture the breakfast buffet before guests descended, and coordinated with weather and sunset timings to capture stand-out drone footage timelapses.
We also enlisted dogs to film content to appeal to pet owners, sourced Christmas crackers in mid-August for pre-planned seasonal content, navigated the camera challenges of capturing a lens-misting thermal pool, and challenged our cameraman to don swim shorts to film a POV transition through the hotel’s indoor to outdoor pool. Every logistical challenge became a creative opportunity – and ultimately, it made the campaign stronger.
What’s Next
Building on the success of this campaign, we now plan to incorporate more bespoke campaign activations into our content strategy that tie into Buxton’s rich heritage – including celebrations around Jane Austen’s anniversary – to connect with audiences in fresh, meaningful ways.
With AI starting to play a more prominent role in social media, our social media team strives to strike a balance – between using tools that amplify our team’s work to support efficiencies, research and ad performance optimisation, without losing rigorous quality control, content production creativity, and the authentic human touch that is ultimately what sets social media apart from other marketing channels.
