I remember moving to Victoria in 2007 and we bought a house a few blocks from Craigdarroch Castle, which we visited and thinking… This is a place that could use some creative help. I’d like to do some work branding and marketing this National Historic Site of Canada.
A year later, I walked up and knocked on the front door of the administrative offices and introduced myself to the Executive Director at the time. She gave me a small project to do. It was to re-design their current advertising.
Over the next eight years, we virtually transformed the identity, perception and digital presence of Craigdarroch Castle.
2008 – 2016
When we began work, their website, which was virtually a landing page, received fewer than 4,000 visits annually. Over the next seven years, we diligently conceptualized and fine-tuned the website and branding.
In 2014 visitation to the website exceeded 400,000 visitors annually!
We integrated a fully manageable Events Management System, which allowed staff to update Events as they were developed, add tickets to the system and manage all aspects of the ticketing system, including sending online tickets to the purchaser. I think it may have been the first business on Vancouver Island to be able to show e-tickets on a telephone for entry purposes. This resulted in significant online sales.
Our attention to detail also increased the overall conversion rate from visitors to 7.80%, which generated in excess of $624,000.00 in ticket sales annually.
Steve possesses a broad creative skill set focused on marketing and business development. His contribution to Craigdarroch Castle was incredible timely and rounded out with a sound financial understanding of non-profit sector challenges. Steve also recognizes that there is often resistance at the board level to new ideas and he is/was not reluctant to push for growth with reasonable budget requirements, backed by a belief in his abilities to deliver results.
Steve works within and around the limitations of our staff time and technical competency in the organization, teaching our staff members and providing us documentation to make our day-to-day work more efficient and he puts the effort into creating processes that can be maintained with relative ease.
We highly value(d) Steve’s contribution and dedication. He single-handedly created our digital presence, helped evolve our brand identity and perception, drastically increased website visitation and built several new revenue streams for Craigdarroch Castle over the past eight years and we are grateful for the efforts and dedication he showed during our working relationship.
We wish him success in Collingwood”.
-John Hughes. Executive Director. Craigdarroch Castle.
Over that period, we created a fully mobile responsive content management website, integrated online donations, a functional e-commerce store and an events management section, trained the staff, took their photography, created their advertising campaigns, created their direct mail, conceptualized and produced several books, which have sold tens of thousands of copies and developed their first DVD. The books we created for them are still on sale in their store.
Our services helped establish Craigdarroch Castle as a true Canadian National Site.
The Project
For an eight year period, we worked on creating virtually every aspect of the marketing for Craigdarroch Castle, with a focus on the website. During that time, their online visitation increased from less that 4,000 in 2007 to over 400,000 in 2014 through incremental steps to optimize the site, but the biggest contribution to increased visitation was the integration of Responsive Design, making the site globally accessible on mobile devices.
We are very proud of the work we did promoting this Canadian Historical National Site.
The Visitor Experience App
In 2015, I conceptualized and provided the initial storyboard for a Visitor Experience App for Craigdarroch Castle.
This App will be the starting point for the interactive displays within the new Visitors Centre being developed over the next three to five years. Using the artifacts photography and combining them with a rich history will provide an entertaining and educational Visitor Experience.
The Visitor Experience App
People will be able to walk through Craigdarroch Castle and connect to hotspots which will bring up stories relating to the artifact the visitor is viewing, providing each visitor with a unique visit and generating rental revenue for The Castle.
2014 – Events Management Integration
In 2014, we updated and integrated a fully manageable Events Management System which allowed staff to update Events as they were developed, add tickets to the system and manage all aspects of the ticketing system, including sending online tickets to the purchaser. This resulted in significant online sales.
2014 – Direct Mail
One of our specialities over the past 20 years has been creating beautiful and successful direct mail pieces. This one reflects the identity of The Castle beautifully and is one of a series of fundraising pieces we created, which are reflected within the website.
2014 – Bus Transit Posters
Over an eight year period, I took photographs of Craigdarroch Castle at all times of the day and then featured the photographs in the promotional transit signs which appeared through Victoria, as well as virtually every other piece of marketing materials created.
2014 – E-Ticketing
In 2014, we completed the online E-Ticketing System within the website, which was branded and sent to anyone purchasing a ticket for any of the events at The Castle. This allowed visitors to simply show up at the door and swipe their phone for access. It also was part of my idea to ween The Castle away from printing since virtually everyone had an iPhone at this point. The system also sent a downloadable PDF to the purchaser in case they did not have a smart phone, allowing them to ‘print’ one copy rather than have The Castle pay for the printing.
Over the years, our initiatives saved Craigdarroch Castle tens of thousands of dollars.
2014 Advertising Campaign
In 2014, we conceptualized a beautiful advertising campaign for Craigdarroch Castle by featuring a few of the many stories from the long and fascinating history while showcasing the exquisite interior craftsmanship with beautiful photography to create a sense of place reflecting the grace of an era when The Castle was truly one-of-a kind in Canada. This campaign and it’s exceptional copywriting was created with my friend Matt Daley.
To see the entire campaign, click here >
The 2013 Responsive Website
The development of The Castle website has been evolutionary for me as I have developed it out over a period of eight years now. This features the 2013 Responsive Website prior to the re-branding effort. When this responsive design of the website launched, visitation shot up from 125,000 visitors annually to over 400,00 visitors annually and increased the conversion rate of online ticket purchases to over 7%… an incredible jump and a huge success story.
2012 – The Artifact Manual
In 2012, we conceptualized a beautiful brochure for The Castle featuring every artifact found within the mansion with historical reviews. It is available in their Gift Shop and was the foundation of the new Interactive App we developed.
“The Castle Society was founded more than 50 years ago by the late President James K. Nesbitt. Early members included other prominent British Columbians sharing his passion for the Castle. Their vision was that one day Craigdarroch’s preservation would be assured and that the house would be a public museum.
The Society’s 1959 Constitution contained a couple of clauses describing the collection policy “The gathering of furniture and bric-a-brac, and other historic objects for the Castle rooms, so that they may appear as much as possible as they were from 1890 to 1908 when Mrs. Robert Dunsmuir occupied the Castle”, and “The gathering of photographs and paintings, for the Castle rooms, of the Dunsmuir family, and of Victoria during that era.”
The 2012 QR Code
We’ve touched on every aspect of marketing The Castle right down to creating a custom QR Code with the logo of The Castle embedded in the code itself. While this was fun, the QR Code phase quickly fell out of favour but that’s the deal with marketing… you try a lot of everything. Some stick, some don’t. This version shown here features the updated branding created in 2014.
The 2012 Ad Campaign
Over the years, the ad campaign for Craigdarroch Castle has also changed every few years. This series above featured my own photography.
The 2011 Newsletter Designs
We designed templates for the staff at Craigdarroch Castle to update and trained them. Each link provided opportunities to donate to different projects being undertaken at The Castle.
2010 Colouring Book
In 2012 we created this best selling colouring book for Craigdarroch Castle which tells the story of the Dunsmuirs from their immigration from Scotland to the construction of The Castle to the family history. A childrens favorite.
2008 – 2016
Between the years 2008 and 2015, we created a series of booklets for Craigdarroch which have sold between 4,000 and 10,000 copies annually. The interiors have changed through the years as the photography we developed for The Castle improved. You can click through one of the booklets here >
Craigdarroch Castle – 2007
This is what we began working with in 2007. The advertising looked like the example at left and the HTML website looked like the example at right. The photography was amateurish, out of focus and there was no consistency.
Over a period of eight years, I personally photographed The Castle to illustrate the ads we wanted to create and re-built virtually every element of The Castle’s branding, advertising, website and literature. Many of the photographs still being used to promote Craigdarroch Castle are mine.
This was a project that I completely enjoyed being the Creative Director for. I watched as my concepts were gradually accepted and implemented and I enjoyed evolving each new initiative.
It was a little sad when we relocated to Collingwood in 2013 as I knew deep down, it was only a matter of time that my not being five minutes away from ‘The Castle’ would gradually force the Board of Directors to seek out island talent.
Still, this was a proud and enjoyable 8 years.
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