Our story
Storybox Marketing was born out of a passion for the smaller, independent hospitality business and the sheer love of using data to drive the best commercial results.
Storybox was set up to provide professional, strategic and hands-on marketing services to a small collection of high-end hotel experiences, including; private villas, safari lodges, boutique hotels & residences.
“We understand the high-end guest. We understand it’s about a personal touch at each point along their journey with you, it’s not simply about automated communication driven by annual dates or action. It’s so much more than that. It’s about building a relationship”.
At Storybox, we’re about marketing effectiveness and seeing small businesses thrive in a competitive marketplace.
We believe in collaboration; in partnerships striving for mutual benefit. Together, with our clients and our close network of industry specialists, we aim to support, guide and help you to invest in the right tools that will give you the best return on your marketing spend.
Our foundation is built on principles of honesty, trust and kindness. Ingredients essential in any good relationship. We are luxury hospitality marketing specialists, but work closely with lifestyle businesses too. We don’t work as an outsourced consultancy but rather as part of your marketing team, directing your complete strategy or simply managing and implementing parts of it. Flexibility is key in our approach.
The storytellers
Carla
Lover of fine wine, fabulous interiors and white cotton sheets!
Carla’s passion for hospitality began over 20 years ago after studying Tourism, and getting an insiders glance into the industry during her internship. It was a quick step from tourism to luxury hotels, as The Cape Grace was the next stop on her agenda. Afterwards she worked at some of the world’s most fabulous institutions – The Orient-Express (rebranded to Belmond), Accor Hotels UK, Classic Portfolio and Small Luxury Hotels of the World, across South Africa and the UK. She’s nothing short of a superstar, who for many years has been at the helm of a global marketing team responsible for brand strategy, global partnerships, guest loyalty and tactical campaign management.
Carla is a keen ‘jogger’ and also fancies herself as an aspiring salsa dancer. Her biggest enjoyment in life is a good Excel spreadsheet of campaign data, closely followed by a large glass of Arendsig Chardonnay.
Alex
A travel and design enthusiast.
After an unenjoyable stab at becoming a Molecular Scientist, Alex packed it in for a life of travel and marketing. From the fabulous to the ordinary, she has worked in hospitality across the world. From the Scottish Highlands (which has now become an obsession of hers) and the UK, to the far reaches of rural Chile, Peru and Argentina.
With her Post-Grad in Business and Marketing, and some time not wasted in an advertising agency, she tackles Storybox’s campaigns, social media, design, and her favourite – copy. It upsets her that people don’t grasp the importance of well-written English! She’s a design nut and workaholic, and there’s no hobby too big or obscure that she has not brought into the house – much to her husband’s dismay.
What we do
Everything we do is curated with you in mind. Our basic packages serve as a guide, but the mix of services and the content is tailor-made with an understanding of your requirements and your guest’s experience.
Strategy Creation
It’s not as daunting as it may sound, we promise! We gain a thorough understanding of your business and its marketing activities in order to create the foundation upon which your short, medium and long-term strategy can stand, and from where the sales and marketing plans can grow and your stories can be told. We know from previous experience that this is a crucial phase and requires careful planning and creative thinking.
Reporting and Analysis
We start with your business goals. We review reservations reports and build KPI models to help you analyse your booking channels and business mix effectively and ultimately ensure that your marketing efforts are making a positive impact on your bottom line.
Partnership Marketing
Partnering with like-minded brands can be an incredibly effective way of reaching your target audiences in their different environments, thus driving mutually beneficial agreements.
Campaign Management
We design, develop and execute integrated marketing campaigns that are completely results driven. Using on-and offline media, each campaign is tailored to your budget, campaign objective and target audience.
CRM Marketing
Understanding your guests, knowing how to talk to them, encouraging them to book with you again, and finding other guests just like them, are all at the heart of customer relationship management (CRM).
We work closely with our clients to plan and navigate their trade and /or guest database set up, allowing them to gain access to their data in a 360degree view, giving them insight into their best guests, trade partners and prospects, understanding the dynamics of their bookings and what their spending habits and interests are, all in order to deliver highly targeted campaigns; either storytelling (awareness) ones or tactical (results driven) ones.
We Also Offer
Of course we can also offer, either ourselves or through our partners, the following:
• Branding & Design
• Social Media Management
• Content Generation / Copywriting / Blogging
• Email Marketing
• OTA & Revenue Management
• E-commerce Tracking & Management
• Sales Representation
• PR
• Web Development
Where we have gained our experience
Testimonials