THE RUB: After new ownership took over this 79-room Colorado hot springs resort in 2018, their goal was to infuse wellness into the guest experience and to gain recognition for the property, which is off the beaten path and had never enjoyed national and expanded and in depth regional exposure.

THE WORK: The PR campaign was launched with S’Well’s signature day-long LaunchPad Strategic Vision Session and covered the political, technological, cultural and economic factors as well as its history and travel and wellness trends. After carefully defining their key travel markets, we helped craft clear messaging for the property and worked with the client to set specific KPI’s for each year. We lobbied for prestigious travel awards and arranged for individual media visits as well as yearly organized Press Trips to the resort. We helped create messaging for the COVID shutdown; created a local outreach campaign called Soak Like a Local; introduced ownership to the Global Wellness Institute’s Hot Springs Initiative; helped vet a well-known Wellness Director for the resort, and also promoted unique complimentary wellness offerings including Aqua Yoga, Forest Bathing, Mud Beach, Wild Yoga, the Warrior Plunge and more.

RESULTS: For the first time ever, the resort won coveted travel awards and gained national recognition from Organic Spa, Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler magazines. S’Well’s results accelerate each year that we represent the resort, with a 67% growth in media coverage from 2021 to 2022 and publicity values of over $500,000 in 2022 alone. The resort’s participation in the Global Wellness community resulted in their creation of an annual “Soakember” celebration including the resort spearheading a Global Live Soak with 20 different hot springs around the world. Regional exposure skyrocketed after a feature story ran in Texas Monthly Magazine on November 11, 2022, trending as a top five story on their website for two weeks.

As a result of that coverage, the client received:

• 65% increase in web traffic from that channel
• 45% increase in transactions from that channel
• 6,000 new Instagram followers
• Two weeks later, the magazine reposted the article on their IG account and The Springs received 5x’s the growth they’ve ever seen in followers in a single day