Flow Communications has once again teamed up with Destinate to promote a tourism jewel. We recently developed and designed a site and wrote blogs for Franschhoek Wine Valley.
Destinate is a specialised international destination and tourism marketing agency. It partners with tourism organisations, destinations and private-sector brands to navigate the complex and competitive world of destination marketing and management.
Our previous projects with Destinate comprise blog sites developed for Reunion Island and the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
The brief was to develop, design and write blogs for Franschhoek Wine Valley’s blog site. The site was developed as part of Destinate’s plan to market the beautiful Franschhoek Valley. The end result is a gateway for all things Franschhoek, filled with information on the latest events, and giving insight into some of the local food, people and lifestyle.
The site shows off Franschhoek from different angles. The valley is elegant, harks back to its French roots and retains a strong sense of history, yet it is also home to cutting-edge chefs, artists and winemakers.
Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, Destinate's chief destineer, says they are excited to work with Franschhoek Tourism to increase the awareness of Franschhoek in both the South African and international markets as a welcoming lifestyle destination."Our aim is to increase the number of visitors to Franschhoek year round and to extend their stay [by] showcasing the valley’s multi-dimensional offering.
"The new interactive blog, developed in partnership with Flow, is a rich storyboard on Franschhoek, taking the online community along on a virtual journey of discovery and giving the community a platform to help tell the stories of Franschhoek in their local, authentic voices."
Destinate has done a number of successful digital campaigns, including small pop-up campaigns for regions and tourism businesses."This blog launch is part of a new digital marketing strategy for the Franschhoek Valley that will include a fun digital campaign, called the Double HH campaign, which highlights Franschhoek’s diverse offering and good value-for-money proposition. At the same time we are reminding people that Franschhoek is spelled with a double 'h',” Mariëtte says.
The Flow team assigned to the project displayed a variety of skills. The new site combines elements of modern design with quality images and solid content.
Roy Barford, who project-managed the design, says: “Franschhoek is a fantastic destination with a lot to offer, so it’s an honour to be involved in promoting it. A big thanks to everyone at Franschhoek Wine Valley for being so easy to work with, and to Mariëtte for facilitating the project. Flow and Destinate have done some great work together this year and I look forward to upcoming joint ventures.”
Flow Communications designer Ryan Levenson says working on the site had been a lot of fun and gave him an opportunity to experiment with a range of designs and colours.
“Two of my favourite things are white wine and red wine, so for me, personally, it was a lot of fun to work on the new Franschhoek (with two Hs) blog, which turned out well.
“The brief gave me an opportunity to experiment with clean, crisp designs, in line with Franschhoek Valley’s many elegant wine estates and restaurants.”
This is the third project new Flow programmer Jarred Caboz has worked on. He enjoyed developing the site as it gave him an opportunity to use JavaScript, and he also learned a great deal about Franschhoek as the content started coming in.
