At RIMU Marketing, we enjoy working with a broad range of inspirational small businesses to help them establish a solid marketing platform from which to grow. We work across various sectors, including charities, sports, coaches, hospitality, leisure and wellbeing specialists.
With this in mind, we wanted to share a recent client case study with an amazing local attraction, Bekonscot, based in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. This was a particlarly brilliant project as it takes me back to my travel and tourism days.
About Bekonscot
Bekonscot was established in 1929 by Roland Callingham and is the oldest, original model village in the world. The village is set in 1.5 acres of immaculate gardens with finely detailed model buildings and an extensive outdoor railway, it perfectly captures rural English life in the 1930s.
Owned and managed by the Roland Callingham Foundation, Bekonscot also supports local charities and good causes, to date donating over £21 million. Click HERE to learn more about this quintessentially English village nestled in the heart of the Chilterns.
We started to work with Bekonscot in October 2024 on some really exciting projects, we share some of the details below:
The Project Brief and Challenge
The brief from the team was to help support a 20% increase in visitor number for the 2025 season and drive greater awareness of the village in Beaconsfield and across the surrounding areas.
The Campaign
We have worked collaboratively as a team, on a range of brilliant projects in preparation of the start of the 2025 season, from creating a new brand through to upgrading all of the Bekonscot uniform and marketing collateral. As with all of our client projects, we started with a marketing strategy session to identify what the leadership team at Bekonscot wanted to change and define the ambitions they had for growth. Once we had clear visibility and a plan for a way forward for the new season, our first project was to review the brand visual identity.
A NEW Brand:
We started working on the new brand project in November 24 and brought on board one of the RIMU Marketing team associates, Alison Joshi from JWJ Design to help. We have worked with Alison on many projects over the years and she is brilliant at what she does. A specialist in the tourism attraction space, Alison was a perfect fit to help us with this project.
We wanted the brand to build on the existing visual identity in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the village in a few years’ time. It was important for the brand to maintain a sense of family, heritage, nostalgia, curiosity and discovery, which I am sure you will agree the new brand identity does brilliantly.
You will see in the new branding that green features prominently, reflecting the sense of calm, reassurance and relaxation you experience when you visit the village. You will also see that the accent splash of orange adds a touch of vibrancy and lifts the design across all of the collateral.
A NEW Website:
Once we had completed the re-brand project, we then moved onto build the website in early 2025.
We worked with the existing website designer Jo Craig to help us do this and I am sure you will agree the site really helps to bring the brand to life.
It was important that the website was in place for a key trade event with Tourism Southeast on Saturday 01 February. We have not only updated the visual look of the website, but we have also reviewed the navigation to ensure the customer journey is as smooth as possible.
Tourism Southeast Event – 01 February
The trade event on 01 February was a real milestone for the rebrand and next step in the Bekonscot journey, because this was the first time that the brand was introduced to the wider audience.
It was very well received by delegates and our partners at the event. We had some great comments and feedback.
“I didn’t know an attraction I’ve known so long could surprise me with a leaflet that looks so fresh and enticing. I must visit again.”
Marketing Collateral and Signage
Once the rebrand had been completed the new visual identity needed to be rolled out across the village signage, staff uniforms and marketing collateral. We worked with another of the RIMU Marketing Associates, printer specialist, Raina Joyce from Q Print.
Here are just a small selection showing how the brand has been carried across.
The Results
The village opened for the 2025 season on Saturday 15 February. It is early days to quantify the impact this work has had but the anecdotal feedback from staff, visitors and partners has been incredibly positive, with the fresh new look being well received. What we can see is that our newly established email marketing channel, building on the branding and messaging work so far, is already exceeding peer performances and engagement growing across our social media channels. There are definitely lots of positive signs for the season ahead.
What happens next?
The re-brand has been really successful with lots of positive feedback not only from visitors to the village but also our partners. The team are only just getting started in setting up the marketing campaigns across the year with lots more exciting plans ahead. Watch this space!
If you are local to Bekonscot and keen to discover more about this hidden gem, please visit their website HERE to discover more.
Client Testimonial:
“We knew that we needed to do more in marketing to reach our many potential visitors and to show them what a cheerful, relaxing time they’ll have at Bekonscot. Sophie showed us how to attain this in a planned and consistent way, enthusiastically conveying the essence of what we offer. While it’s been a busy six months, it’s exhilarating to see how all the strands of a successful marketing strategy weave together to help us delight our visitors, new and long-standing.”
Bob Mason – Finance Manager, Bekonscot
If you are a visitor attraction or boutique hotel, looking for growth this year, please get in touch to see how we can help.
