We are delighted to share that the Visit Cheltenham Christmas campaign was a great success. The Christmas in Cheltenham campaign landing page went live in August, just as the Cheltenham Ice Rink 2024 tickets went on sale. The website attracted over 1.12M page views during the duration of the campaign, many to the helpful festive guides below.
The objective of the search engine optimised content was to benefit all sectors of the visitor economy from hotels, to retailers, hospitality and attractions.
PR campaign
We worked with local PR company, Encore PR, on our festive campaign. Examples of published articles in the national, regional and local media can be viewed here – Print and online coverage in The Times 25 of the UK’s best winter breaks worth sticking around for, OX Magazine following a media trip to Cheltenham, Birmingham Live, Parent News, Worcester News, Explore the Cotswolds and syndicated piece across Rugby Today, Banbury Guardian, Birmingham World, Bristol World and Warwickshire World.
This regional news story, originally in Bristol Live, was picked up by Yahoo with an estimated reach of 210K.
Examples of sponsored content, commissioned to amplify the free coverage, can be viewed here – SoGlos, Muddy Stilettos, Cheltenham Rocks.
Daily interviews, with event organisers hosting Christmas events in Cheltenham, were broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire Monday – Friday during the Newsclash feature w/c 11th November.
Digital marketing & influencer campaign
In addition to a social media campaign on all of the Visit Cheltenham social media channels, including the Ice Rink Instagram and Facebook accounts, a digital marketing campaign further raised awareness, to a regional and local audience, of Cheltenham’s festive offering.
The combined social reach of this activity was 1.61M.
We collaborated with 20+ influencers, including ambassadors from the University of Gloucestershire, to promote the ice rink and Cheltenham’s Christmas offer with their engaged audiences. The target audience for this activity was predominately local students and local / regional parents.
Photo shoot took place the opening weekend of the Ice Rink.
Images by Mikal Ludlow, commissioned by Visit Cheltenham.
We also worked with a few influencers to promote the Cheltenham Gift Card for our partners, Cheltenham BID.
We ran many successful giveaways over the Christmas period to encourage engagement on social media and build our subscriber list. The most popular giveaways were two weekend breaks, each attracting 1.6K entries.
Printed materials
33K leaflets were printed, promoting main member / partner Christmas events – Christmas events leaflet 2024/2025. 18.5K of these were delivered to residential local houses, the remaining were distributed via our members and partners, including in 5.5K goody bags for families riding on the GWSR Santa Express, and to local businesses, via the BID ambassadors & Visit Cheltenham team.
Out of home advertising
Lamp post banners promoting the ice rink were up around the town and on major roads into the town centre from October. The festive attraction was also advertised to 132,000 listeners on Heart Gloucestershire radio over a five week period from mid November via 208 commercials, on three large billboards seen by over 270K drivers, with a 1.12M impact in Cheltenham and Gloucester, and via posters in train stations and in tourist information points around town.
Christmas officially launched in Cheltenham on Saturday 23 November with the town centre Christmas Countdown by BID, The Brewery Quarter Christmas Party and the Christmas Lights Switch On at Pittville Pump Room, all featuring free live festive performances to the background of thousands of beautiful, twinkly lights.
Unfortunately due to heavy rain and winds the entertainment had to move indoors (under a marquee in The Brewery Quarter) however, the party still went on and we were lucky to avoid having to cancel any plans, unlike some neighbouring towns who were not able to be as flexible.
For six weeks, the Visit Cheltenham (normally fortnightly) newsletter went out weekly to 31K+ consumer subscribers and 500 Marketing Cheltenham B2B members, promoting Christmas events, dining and shopping guides. The average open click through rate was 40%, which is significantly above industry average.
Digital assets for member use
Members and partners were encouraged to use our assets to help promote Cheltenham as a festive destination via their social media followers & newsletter subscribers:
Facebook graphic – Christmas market & ice rink
Facebook asset – Christmas market
Instagram graphic – Christmas market
How can members get involved in future Christmas campaigns?
- Review the Christmas page to ensure your business is featured. Ensure all of your Christmas, Twixmas and New Year events are uploaded to the Visit Cheltenham website here.
- Send your Christmas, Twixmas and New Year special offers via email to [email protected]
- Take advantage of our Black Friday promotion and Ice Rink promotion by emailing your offers to [email protected]
- Tag Visit Cheltenham on social media so we can share your news. Use hashtag – #VisitCheltenham
- Engage with the Visit Cheltenham social media campaign to help spread the word and encourage your followers to visit our Regency town this festive season
- Check your member benefits. This is the ideal time to use your benefits, i.e. digital banners, blog & newsletter features.
- Join us at quarterly Marketing Cheltenham members meetings to be kept up to date. Contact Tara Sanchez for details – membership@marketingcheltenham
Any questions? Please contact our team – marketing@marketingcheltenham
Marketing Cheltenham 
