Green Dragon Hotel

Breathing New Life Into An Historic Hotel

Dating back to the 12th century, the Green Dragon Hotel has long been a focal point of Hereford’s city centre, yet it was in a sorry state. Recognising its potential, a consortium of local businesses put significant investment into its refurbishment. We were tasked with developing a brand and website which would enable the hotel to become a tourism centrepiece for the county and realise the owners’ commercial ambitions. Our partnership has deepened, with eighteen73 now acting as the brand guardian and responsible for all of the hotel’s design and marketing.

The Brief

To reposition a tired city centre hotel, as part of a huge refurbishment, and to drive ongoing sales.

Our Services

Branding & Design
Ecommerce
Marketing

Rejuvenating A Heritage Brand

& Maintaining Marketing Momentum

Dating back to the 12th century, the Green Dragon Hotel has long been a focal point of Hereford’s city centre, yet it was in a sorry state. Recognising its potential, a consortium of local businesses put significant investment into its refurbishment. We were tasked with developing a brand and website which would enable the hotel to become a tourism centrepiece for the county and realise the owners’ commercial ambitions. Our partnership has deepened, with eighteen73 now acting as the brand guardian and responsible for all of the hotel’s design and marketing.

Creative Vision

We were involved from the get-go, contributing to the collective vision of how the ‘new’ Green Dragon Hotel should look. Pooling ideas with owners, stakeholders, and interior designers, our mission was to create an elegant yet accessible brand, exuding comfort and hospitality, heritage and modernity, in line with the overall marketing strategy.

Marrying Heritage With Modernity

We created a full brand identity including a logo, colour palette ways, and typography which maintain standards throughout. The distinctive ‘g’ hints at the ‘dragon’ and is an effective and flexible shorthand that has been widely used on collateral. We then created sub-brands for the restaurant, cocktail bar, and coffee lounge, with identities linked to the hotel’s heritage.

A Slick User Experience

With the branding in place we quickly turned around a small website to showcase the new brand during the hotel refurbishment. This was shortly followed by a fully-featured WordPress website, liberally scattered with beautiful, newly commissioned photography. The website performs equally on mobile as desktop and has digital marketing goals in place to allow ongoing assessment of KPIs.

Everyday Marketing & Design Support

eighteen73 has also acted as a natural extension of the in-house team. We look after all design needs, including the production of The Green Dragon Gazette a stylish newspaper which guests discover on arrival in their rooms through to menus. We’ve also looked provided interim marketing support, such as social media management, website and e-news updates, as well as leading on partnerships and promotions.

By working with eighteen73, we have successfully built the best possible website and their management of the process was highly professional. They understood our product and made the whole experience feel extremely simple. The website performs above expectation and eighteen73’s ongoing support is invaluable.
Julian Vaughan, Managing Director

Why We Love