Nearly Twenty Years of Building the UK's Model for Attraction Consortiums

Hampshire’s Top Attractions

THE CHALLENGE

In 2007, ten leading Hampshire attractions faced the same problem from different directions: growing visitor numbers on limited individual marketing budgets, with regional tourism boards focused elsewhere and one-person marketing teams stretched thin across every channel at once. Reach, insight and a sense of not being alone in it were all in short supply.

WHAT WE DO

Jo Cooper, Founder of The Marketing Collective, launched Hampshire's Top Attractions in 2007 as a proactive marketing consortium, pooling budgets, sharing strategy, and giving members collective reach no single attraction could buy alone.
The Marketing Collective has run it ever since: three membership tiers to keep it open to everyone from small family-run sites to major destinations, a shared annual marketing budget of over £80,000, a website with individual attraction pages and SEO built in, 200,000+ leaflets distributed and 200,000+ monthly social reach on the group's behalf, plus the regular meetings, benchmarking and mastermind sessions that turn a membership list into an actual community.

The Marketing Collective holds the registered trademark for Hampshire’s Top Attractions and expertly manages the entire marketing ecosystem for the consortium, from high-level strategy and administration to multi-channel campaign delivery.

This frees members to focus on their venues, knowing their collective marketing is in expert hands.

THE RESULTS

  • 650,000 website sessions and 1.4 million impressions a year for the group

  • 41,000 social media followers, with 2.8 million tracked engagement events and 742,000 views across digital platforms

  • 300% increase in social traffic through smart content and campaigns

  • 25,000 email subscribers with a 42% open rate - well above the sector average

  • Grown from 5 to 70+ member attractions over the life of the consortium

We foster a supportive, collaborative community through regular meetings, benchmarking sessions, and mastermind groups. This environment helps marketing managers learn, adapt, and feel connected, combating feelings of isolation.

Ongoing Collaborative Innovation means that we continuously introduce new initiatives, such as seasonal video content and a dedicated YouTube channel for the consortium, keeping the collective brand fresh and engaging and providing new avenues for member promotion.

  • "We have been working alongside The Marketing Collective for many years as part of our work with Hampshire's Top Attractions and have always found them to be a friendly, highly organised company with a can-do attitude. The designed assets produced for Hampshire Top Attractions are always of high quality, contemporary and, perhaps most impressively, extremely accurate, which is no mean feat considering the volume of information that has to be collated and proofed in a relatively short window."

    - Rob Griffiths, Head of Marketing & Communications, Paultons Park

  • “The Hawk Conservancy Trust has been a member of Hampshire's Top Attractions since 2010. We feature the Hampshire Top Attractions logo on our website as it demonstrates that we are aligned with a significant group of other tourist attractions in Hampshire, sitting under a recognised umbrella brand.”

    - Louise Cox, Head of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising, Hawk Conservancy Trust

  • “Riverside Activity Zone has proudly been a member of Hampshire's Top Attractions since 2017. This partnership has been instrumental in increasing brand awareness, making it our most impactful collaboration with the highest return on investment. We've upgraded our membership this year from web-only to web and leaflet.”

    - Chelsea Alexander, Marketing Manager, Riverside Activity Zone

  • "Being members of Hampshire’s Top Attractions has been highly beneficial to New Forest Activities. They are one of our top referring websites and the regular interaction between members means we are always up to date with what’s going on at other venues. It feels like a community and we are all there to help and support each other. The team are always on top of things and make sure we get the most out of our membership. Would highly recommend it!"

    Sam Sutton, Director, New Forest Activities

Book a Discovery Call to find out more about Attraction Consortium Groups

The easiest way to find out more is to book in a call with one of the team who can guide you.

Book In A Call With Our Team