Maryculter House
A digital first approach for one of Aberdeenshire's historic hidden gems
The Challenge
Acclaimed purveyors of Scottish hospitality since 1225, Maryculter House is an institution rich in history with a commitment to tradition. It was a modern digital presence though, that was needed to see them through 2020, an exceptionally turbulent year for the hospitality industry. It was our job to create a virtual space that would communicate the heritage and history at the centre of their identity.
Approach
We built a website that would let the beauty of the building and its surroundings do the talking, and that meant that every detail needed to be considered, from the typography to how the site itself flowed with high quality photography and videography taking centre stage.
In order to digitally translate the unique feeling of exploring the hotel, the site features virtual tours from Maryculter staff, demonstrating the venue’s offerings for weddings and corporate entertainment, as well as exhibiting the variety of neighbouring attractions such as golf and fishing beats.
While Maryculter’s premium standard of hospitality is central to their positive reputation, the inimitable Scottish landscape in which the hotel sits is arguably the key to its allure.
To help portray this on the site, we incorporated drone footage that captures the surrounding countryside and nearby River Dee. We saw this as an opportunity to showcase Aberdeenshire as the desirable destination within Scottish tourism that it is, acknowledging that it’s important now more than ever to take on projects that endorse and support the local economy.
We designed the site to function as a shop window for the business, but with capacity to act as a platform for the new experiences they were promoting – developing a functionality to host a virtual cocktail masterclass for example, with ingredients being delivered to guests in their rooms, was a great way to digitally engage patrons, whilst reacting with agility to the unique circumstances.
The hotel has a lot to offer, and that meant there was a lot for us to include. From their restaurant, to their function suites and wedding facilities, we needed to coalesce the information and visuals in a way that meant the site could still be navigated with ease. We streamlined bodies of text to ensure concise messaging, and reflected this clean minimalism in our design in order to elegantly frame the visuals.
Videography
Working once again with Flux Video, we created a series of short videos for use on the site as well as social media to help promote key areas of Maryculter House, including their exclusive fishing bothies, weddings and local experiences.