The Shape of Modern Holiday Park Marketing
Why the parks willing to evolve are the ones moving forwards
This month, JEM Marketing turns one.
In many ways, it feels strange writing that. The past year has flown by in a blur of strategy sessions, ad accounts, audits, coffee fuelled planning days, late-night ideas and conversations with holiday park owners and marketing teams across the UK.
Leaving employment to build a consultancy from scratch was one of the bravest things I’ve ever done professionally. There were moments of excitement, moments of uncertainty and more than a few moments of wondering whether I’d completely lost the plot.
But one thing I’ve noticed over the last year is the holiday parks currently moving forwards are usually the brave ones too.
Or, as the Latin phrase goes:
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Fortune favours the brave.
And honestly, I think that phrase perfectly sums up the current shape of modern holiday park marketing.
Bravery Doesn’t Always Look Like Big Budgets
One of the most interesting things about working with parks of all shapes and sizes is seeing how differently businesses define “risk”. For some parks, bravery means investing heavily into growth, redevelopment or new technology. For others, bravery is spending £300 on paid advertising for the first time.
I’ve worked with a smaller independent park this year who were incredibly nervous about venturing into paid advertising. Even what most marketers would consider a relatively modest budget felt like a huge leap for the business, but they took the leap. Now the campaigns are now generating around a 5x return on ad spend, while the internal team continues developing the skills in-house without large agency retainers eating into profitability.
Another park made the decision to stop focusing purely on lead volume from Facebook campaigns and instead improve lead quality. That meant changing processes, tightening qualification and accepting that vanity metrics often tell the wrong story. Initially, lead numbers became less exciting on paper. Now, appointments are increasing. Conversations are improving. Sales are starting to follow. Again, bravery.
And perhaps one of the most commercially aware decisions I’ve seen this year came from a park that decided not to replace a traditional marketing admin role.
Not because marketing was becoming less important, quite the opposite. The leadership team recognised that the market has changed. The business no longer simply needed someone to schedule posts, update leaflets and upload website content. It needed strategic capability, commercial thinking and modern marketing expertise.
So instead of replacing like-for-like, they chose to restructure the role entirely, outsource specialist support where needed and invest in mentoring and development internally. That takes confidence.
So when I talk about bravery in marketing, I don’t always mean spending more money, sometimes it’s about accepting the business itself needs to evolve.
Looking Ahead
The next few years are going to reshape holiday park marketing significantly.
AI, automation, rising acquisition costs, changing buyer behaviour and increasing competition will continue forcing businesses to adapt faster than ever before.
But honestly, after the last year, I don’t think the parks that succeed will necessarily be the biggest operators or the businesses with the largest budgets.
I think the businesses that move forwards will be the ones willing to show commercial courage.
The ones prepared to challenge outdated structures.
The ones willing to rethink how marketing fits into the wider business.
And the ones brave enough to evolve before they’re forced to.
In many ways, that’s exactly where JEM was born from too.
Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside some brilliant parks, teams and operators across the sector. And one thing has become increasingly obvious:
The industry is changing quickly, but there’s also a huge amount of ambition, innovation and forward-thinking happening behind the scenes.
That’s a big part of why the Holiday Park Awards are the next major step for us.
Not simply to hand out trophies, but to celebrate the businesses, people and ideas genuinely pushing the sector forwards.
The parks willing to innovate.
The teams embracing change.
The operators making commercially brave decisions.
And the people helping modernise what this industry can look like over the next decade.
There’s a lot more to come over the next few months.
For now, keep your eyes peeled, keep an eye on your inboxes and if you’d like to stay updated as things develop, you can sign up here:
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Fortune favours the bold.
