Building the world's best Safari Destinations
Bushtops is a collection of tented camps in Kenya and Tanzania. It was founded by the Cotter family in 1977, and today is stewarded by the vision of descendants Andy and Claudia Stuart. Their dream for Bushtops was simple: to create the world’s best safari destinations. This has meant an uncompromising focus on quality, innovation and care.
The Wallop team has been working with Bushtops Camps for more than 6 years and has worked methodically to improve the organization’s digital maturity.
The Challenge
When we were approached by Bushtops Camps, they were in a similar place as many of the experiential travel organizations that we work with. They have gotten by for years with traditional marketing tactics and relied heavily on word of mouth. But this approach made the company vulnerable to its competitors, inefficient, and missed out on opportunities on the web.
The existing website was struggling on many levels. From a communication standpoint it was a sprawling mass of content in desperate need of organization.
Neither photography nor video were being properly employed to convey or sell the experience. This was especially damaging to guest perception as more and more competitors utilized imagery to tell their stories.
On the technical side, a convoluted URL structure was limiting opportunities with organic search. Performance on mobile devices was predictably poor given the age of the site. Its performance was critically poor, and doing very little to support the business on the ground.
The Results
With Yellow Fever certificates in hand, we began with a robust information gathering, photography, and filming mission in Kenya and Tanzania. This was our third – but most holistic – engagement in Africa, including photography, a responsive website, search marketing, and film production.
We started with a top-to-bottom content audit, mercilessly cutting and consolidating. Our sister company Wallop Film produced three videos that showcased the natural and designed beauty of Bushtops Camps.
Additionally, we invested heavily in image selection and arrangement to ensure the spirit of Bushtops was immediately apparent to website visitors before they even read a line of copy. We developed a highly modular template system that would afford great layout flexibility when creating new pages.
Since the launch in July of 2014, the site has seen traffic and visitor engagement improve dramatically while video consumption remains very strong. Post launch efforts include SEO, paid media, and optimization of conversion goals.
Eight years ago, we were in the market for a new website. Luxury safari trips in the Serengeti and Masai Mara are unique, so we required a bespoke solution. Wallop ticked all the right boxes, but what stood out the most was their creativity, professionalism, and expertise in the luxury travel segment. We were pleased with the increased website traffic and the many compliments we received from guests of our website and films. We also had an increase in direct bookings. We always felt we were in good hands and impressed with the quality of their work. For all the website and film projects, we found them to be professional, passionate, and a pleasure to work with. We're excited to launch our second website with Wallop in the next few months.
Wallop Film spent two weeks on safari between the Serengeti and Maasai Mara, capturing a tasteful blend of raw wilderness and stunning lifestyle shots that cinematically portray a day on safari with Bushtops. Imagine the Lion King with private infinity pools and fine dining, and you’re there.