Hello and WELCOME to the inaugural LE Studio LOOP, an insight into the inner workings and wins of the Luxury Escapes content engine, and how our beautiful assets, from copywriting to video and design, all come together.
So without further ado, we present the LE Studio LOOP: keep scrolling all the way to end for PUPPY CONTENT (yes, the things we’ll do to make content successful are SHAMELESS).
Europe by private charter flight
Siri Smith (Content Producer) worked closely with Finn Doyle (Editor) on the Ultimate Europe by Private Charter Flight – a mammoth project requiring over 10,000 words, that not only captivates, but also stays true to the facts and sets the right customer expectations. Shout out to Elise Ackland (Junior Designer) for her work on the deal page, Natalie Meneghetti (Design Manager) for her work on the brochure, Nathan Pascual (Junio Mid-Creative Designer) for starting early work on campaign assets and Audrey Campkin-Smith (Midweight-Senior Designer) for rolling out the campaign concept, plus to Ryan Murch (Video Producer & Editor) for making the Melbourne Airport shoot happen with barely any notice. After multiple content briefings and an extensive feedback process, the tour has officially launched – and it looks incredible. We’ve sold 35 seats and counting, with minimal customer questions around the itinerary due to the clarity and volume of information provided.
DREAM SEO news: we’re number one!
One of our evergreen DREAM articles, All-Inclusive Resorts in Thailand, has jumped from #11 in Google rankings to a coveted #1 FIRST SPOT. This is following an optimisation A/B experiment spearheaded by Nathaniel Robinson (Editor) and our SEO guru Michelle Tansey, which involved reworking the SEO descriptions, amid other tweaks, on a select group of articles, with the aim of working our way up the Google organic search rankings. After the experiment’s success, we’re looking to roll these learnings out more widely.
DREAM content on deal pages
Thanks to the hard work of Penny Cordner (Head of Content) before she went on mat leave, Stephanie Mikkelsen (Co-Head of Content), and the tech team, we have finally launched DREAM articles on Flash deal pages, so it’s amazing to see it finally come to life, and it’s another huge step in demonstrating the value of our beautiful DREAM content. We’re currently in an AB testing phase, rolling out across select Flash to monitor the impact upon engagement metrics. Don’t worry if you can’t see blocks on live Flash; you may be in the ‘off’ variant. Our ultimate goal is to eventually have a DREAM (or two) on EVERY Flash and we’ll keep you updated on results of this test and then steps for the next phase.
This graph shows the impact on the conversion rate to date (the pink line shows the variant group that includes DREAM content on the deal page, the grey line is the control group with no DREAM content):
DREAM print magazine in the wild
DREAM by Luxury Escapes started its short run in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets in early May (pictured with Managing Editor Paul Chai). This very small window to prove ourselves was the result of months of supermarket negotiations, lots of work from the marketing team on a seductive “value add” proposition, and the creation of a hopefully very consumer friendly Island Issue packed with sun, fun and celebrity. We need to outsell one of the current titles to win a coveted spot, so please keep all your fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, production on the July issue is now complete: we cruise Croatia, visit the resorts that make up the fictional The White Lotus, make track on The Ghan in NT and find out there is more to Anaheim than Disney.
Centralised tech support requests
Content Operations Manager, Chelsea Bell Whittle, teamed up with her former partner in crime, Nick Stevens (Operations Manager), and PMs Merlyn Romit and Kristina Hua, to trial a centralised Jira Service Desk for tech/ops requests (like how 007 works). Starting with LE Studio and Commercial, if it’s a success, we’ll roll it out more broadly. Right now, requests come from all angles, and it’s a bit chaotic – this should help tidy it all up and give everyone more transparency over what is in the works.
Strong results on video content for partners Polestar and Cygnett
We’ve had amazing Polestar YouTube feature results, shoutout to Ryan and Sam Linstrom (Video Editor) for their hard work on location in South Australia. 201,569 views and counting!
The Cygnett YouTube Series also performed strongly, and earned just under 400,000 views across three episodes released weekly.
Design by numbers
It was an epic month of 25 CRM emails, 104 press submissions, more than 130 Jira tickets actions, and 100s of concepts devised, not to mention multiple rounds of feedback: it’s all in a month’s work for Design.
Sydney Ski Expo assets
Audrey’s beautiful design work for the Sydney Ski Expo resulted in 600+ competition entries (to win a $7,200 Luxury Escape to Breckenridge, Colorado), in just one day, with total entries now at 818.
Signature Series reimagined
Elise was inaugurated into the world of Signature Series, using her keen eye to devise a beautiful refreshed concept.
Best holidays, best prices… best design
The culmination of a lot of hard work since April, Veronica Sam (Midweight Designer) smashed the assets on her first major campaign, spanning paid social, press, store assets and more.
Cheers to 70 years: Disney DREAM editorial and marketing campaign
Jason Maisano (Junior-Mid Creative Designer) whistled while he worked on the marketing campaign and 70th birthday DREAM editorial for Disney, successfully designing around the brand’s stringent style guide and corporate identity guidelines.
New Bali shoot featured in Merusaka Nusa Dua deal
We currently have our freelancer video producers Ben and Di shooting five properties for us in Bali. The first assets are in for Merusaka Nusa Dua; the new photos on the deal page and hero video are stunning.
Jaguar Land Rover partner shoot in Victoria
Big shout out to Jalil James (Senior Video Editor) and Sam Linstrom for helping produce the Jaguar Land Rover shoot here in Victoria, capturing epic content while ensuring LE video brand guidelines were met. This three-part series was shot in the city and on the Mornington Peninsula and was designed to showcase the car’s capabilities and its dog-friendly design, and of course, our luxury properties. The highlight? PUPPY YOGA in Port Melbourne (pictured)!
Salesforce deal copy fields + briefing review
Chelsea Bell Whittle is working with the LE Studio and Commercial teams to tighten up the deal copy image notes and USP fields in SF. The aim is to make these inputs much clearer and more useful, so they actually help guide copy and headlines – and cut down the back and forth during the commercial review stage. We’re also looking at how we brief in general – from voice notes to face-to-face sessions – to make sure these touchpoints are genuinely helpful and not just another meeting in everyone’s calendar.
DREAM digital performance in May
We’re continuing to work hard to optimise and amplify our DREAM digital content to maximise the return from this revenue stream, increasing clicks on deal blocks embedded in the articles, growing margin and boosting our SEO rankings.
Budget-led content continues to perform well: Top Family Holidays Under $2,000 (which has a click-through rate on deal blocks of 37.6%) and Luxe for Less: Top Holidays Under $999 were among our most-read articles in May, in addition to the usual high-performing resort roundups like The Best Five-Star Hotels in Vietnam, Bali’s Best All-Inclusive Resorts and Thailand’s Top Family Resorts (with a deal block click-through of 40%).
Elevating our content with onsite famils
Jo Wickramaratne (Content Producer) went on her first famil trip to Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley this month. After recently passing probation and already making a strong impact on the team, she was selected to represent Content on this opportunity. Jo led the content for the Balgownie campaign, including writing the campaign copy and producing a feature article for DREAM by Luxury Escapes.
Editors Helena Melton and Cheyenne Bradley also embarked on their first famils, with Helena jetting off to Thailand and Chey venturing to VIC’s High Country. They’re putting together beautiful pieces about their experiences for DREAM and we can’t wait to read them.
Media partnerships process
Chelsea Bell Whittle is working with Matt Bailey (new GM of Media & Brand Partnerships) to define what the media partnerships workflow should look like from a production POV – who’s doing what, where, when. We’re in the discovery phase but wheels are in motion.
New challenges across the team
Content Producer Chloe Karis submitted her first Dream by Luxury Escapes article, ‘The Best Restaurants in Vietnam’; Editor Conor Walsh has taken on press ad assignments and edits; and Editor Madeleine Keck’s been doing a great job supporting with partner content and proofreading for the DREAM print magazine with Steph on leave.
Marketing + creative brief consolidation
Chelsea Bell Whittle created a combined brief template in Confluence that’s now being tested by Sally Rogers (Senior Marketing Manager) for the upcoming Société Triple Points campaign. The aim is to streamline how we kick off campaigns and make briefing smoother for everyone involved.
Get to know us!
Click here for the who’s who of the LE Studio team.