Member Article

The Bigger Boat win duo of contracts to bolster Calderdale tourism and feature on the big screen

Tourist information service Visit Calderdale has appointed integrated agency The Bigger Boat to manage two website projects – one of which is aimed at attracting film producers, as well as sightseers to the popular West Yorkshire borough.

Welcoming over eight million visitors – who generate more than £320 million in tourism per year – the area has been the selected location for several award-winning television shows including Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley, and Last Tango in Halifax.

To capitalise on this interest from ‘out-of-towners’, the team at Visit Calderdale tasked The Bigger Boat with making much-needed improvements to its existing website, and also launch the brand-new FilmCalderdale.com to highlight the area’s beauty and appeal to big screen producers.

For VisitCalderdale.com, the Yorkshire-based agency has enhanced the site design and layout with an emphasis on ‘mobile-first’ to cater for 60% of its online users. The Bigger Boat has also created interactive functionality – including an online ‘chat’ option and a shop – to help the team better engage with customers.

Meanwhile, as a completely new venture, Film Calderdale’s focus began at the very beginning, requiring the design and building of a website, logo, and colour palette to work across multiple platforms.

Speaking about the timing of the project, particularly following 18 months of challenges for tourism, Peter Vardy, events and licensing officer, at Visit Calderdale said: “There’s no question it’s been difficult for the industry recently, so we’ve had to be innovative in how we can provide a more engaging, digital experience for individuals – and each of our websites now do exactly that.

“The two creative briefs were handled so efficiently by The Bigger Boat, and we’re proud of the final outcomes that target two separate audiences beautifully. We truly hope visitors like them too and can’t wait to welcome both them and film crews to enjoy the beautiful borough of Calderdale.”

The Visit Calderdale website is anticipated to launch early August, with Film Calderdale the next project for the team to complete.

Joe Vickers, account manager at The Bigger Boat, added: “This was a really exciting project to design and manage from start to finish. By focusing on improving the user’s digital experience, we’ve been able to provide a greater level of accessibility and more functionality, to keep customers engaged for longer online.

“Visit Calderdale has always been a pleasure to work with – right from when we were brought in to design the organisation’s first ever website around seven years ago. It’s a strong Yorkshire partnership that is hopefully helping to put Calderdale firmly on the UK map and also welcome more international interest.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .