Gently nudging users towards the holiday of a lifetime (as if they needed any help)
Hamilton Island’s outdated digital platforms were costing them direct sales.
The site, which staff found cumbersome to maintain, was even more difficult for customers to use and resulted in low conversion and hence reduced revenue. We were engaged to develop a more robust solution that could be centrally managed and include a range of new features, including a vastly improved booking process in order to maximise conversions and revenue opportunities.
Our solution was focused on a responsive content publishing platform that pushed real-time content updates to a range of devices and on-site facilities. Content is personalised dependent on which stage customers are at on their path to purchase. For example, users who are deemed to be close to conversion are presented with far more pricing and offer related cues. Great efficiencies were also achieved in terms of content management, via the creation of a centralised content inventory, allowing content producers to re-use objects across a variety of channels.
The redesign has positioned Hamilton Island as the world class destination we know it to be. We’ve already seen improvements across the board, particularly a shift towards increased direct bookings as a result.
Aida Merdovic - Head of Online, Hamilton Island
We conducted extensive research of category leading travel sites and eCommerce platforms and identified different user needs and behaviours at different stages of the purchasing cycle. To better engage with users, we then developed content and interactivity in line with these behaviours.
Via behavioural tracking and content filtering, users are presented with an increasingly tailored site experience, encouraging them to transition from exploration to planning and ultimately booking.
Housing core content objects in a centralised repository allows Hamilton Island to create elements once, and then publish them to a range of devices and channels, from the core website itself to on-site facilities such as the restaurant, activity booking touch screens and the mobile application.
Large format imagery and social integration allowing the natural beauty of Hamilton Island to sell itself
Mobile responsiveness
The site is fully mobile responsive, including the booking engine, allowing users to finalise their booking at any time, from any device
Large format, professional photography
We looked to draw from the huge libraries of professionally shot photography to showcase large format shots, showcasing the resort in all its glory.
Seamless Social integration
We used Stackla to seamlessly aggregate and display user generated content from various social channels. This capitalised on the constant stream of social posts about the island, particularly around major events, such as Race Week.
Multi-tenant content hub, publishing to a range of devices.
Leveraging Kentico
Using Kentico CMS platform we published content to multiple instances of the site.
Central content repository
The centralised database was used to push content to a range of devices and outputs, including on-island tour operators, restaurant menu’s, in-room TV displays (for elements like tour bookings) and the website itself
Content adaption for language
When a new page / section is published in the predominant language (English), alerts are automatically issued to Content Editors responsible for other languages, encouraging them to adapt and use the content objects.
Informing core site personas
We used both quantitative and qualitative research to compile key site personas, indicative of each users progression through their path to purchase.
Refactoring content based on need state
Content was refactored based on need state, and emphasis and positioning affected by where the users were deemed to be in their journey
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