CASE STUDY 2: MAINS OF TAYMOUTH 5 STAR COUNTRY ESTATE, KENMORE, HIGHLAND
PERTHSHIRE

Former Scotland Rugby Captain Rob Wainwright helps out at the official launch of Mains of Taymouth's superb holiday ownership properties.

Brief: To gain as much quality exposure for this upmarket 5 star self catering estate in the UK wide travel publication market as possible as well as look at the estate from a lifestyle point of view; bring out the human interest element behind the family who own and operate it and look at its diversification into holiday ownership and timeshare from a business and consumer perspective.

Target Publications: UK wide travel pages in quality newspapers; travel articles in glossy lifestyle, property and travel magazines; business sections; investment publications; family and holiday publications; publications aimed at dog lovers; golfers; horse lovers; wedding media. Also restaurant trade magazines and food sections as the estate has its own restaurant, The Courtyard, and shopping sections as it has its own deli and gift shop.

Danni Menzies and her horse beat Rob Wainwright to the conversion during the official launch of Mains of Taymouth's holiday ownership scheme.

Mains of Taymouth had provided press trips for travel journalists to gain editorial coverage before but with the Advantage PR campaign this was taken to a much wider level and covered publications from London such as Easy Living magazine to Scottish qualities such as the Scotsman, Herald and Scottish Daily Mail. Interiors magazines such as 25 Beautiful Homes featured the luxury holiday cottages and the human interest element of the Menzies family and how they came to develop the land into the country estate it is today was explored in magazines like NO1 and the Scotsman weekend magazine.

In association with Bright Light Marketing target customer groups were identified which had not been fully exploited before such as the fact that Mains of Taymouth is dog friendly, that it is suitable for boutique weddings, that it is an investment opportunity in a fabulous part of Scotland through its buy to let and holiday ownership apartments. This included targeting golfing and dog and horse lover magazines. The PR approach was that the estate overall was a destination with so much to do for the holidaymaker all in the one location and that development of the estate had been carried out in a high quality way so that it offered real luxury and exclusivity.

The Gallops is a range of high quality buy to let apartments at Mains of Taymouth.

An official launch of the holiday ownership and timeshare apartments was held and was an opportunity to invite media from all these sectors to come along and see the estate and stay for press trips. Former Scottish rugby captain Rob Wainwright, a family friend of the Menzies and a local to the area, was available for launch day photography with pictures of him "kicking off" the ownership scheme by kicking a rugby ball over the posts at the estate as Danni Menzies also jumped over with her horse from the estate stables - a very eyecatching shot which was well covered locally. Subsequent coverage on the ownership properties - named The Gallops - has included a front page in the Scotsman property section and a full page in the Herald property - with two sales being secured through this coverage!

Mains of Taymouth has run with several competitions in wedding and lifestyle publications to further promote its luxurious product and these have been very successful. It recently hosted an extensive fashion shoot for the Sunday Herald magazine which will be followed up by a travel review by the same team!

Using PR has gained the estate editorial coverage worth many thousands of pounds.