THE Brief

The Ambassador Hotel, Inverness

Launching a boutique hotel and destination restaurant.

Following a £6 million refurbishment of the former Strathness House Hotel, Black Sheep Hotels transformed the landmark building into The Ambassador Hotel—a boutique hotel blending historic character with contemporary hospitality.

The redevelopment also introduced Talk of the Town, a new restaurant designed to attract both visitors and local diners.

Orbit Communications was appointed to launch the hotel and restaurant, building awareness and positioning them as must-visit destinations in Inverness.

Approach

  • Developed the launch strategy, campaign messaging and press materials.
  • Delivered a targeted media relations campaign across local, Scottish, UK, hospitality and tourism media.
  • Hosted journalist familiarisation visits, secured hotel and restaurant reviews, and ran competitions to generate interest and footfall.
  • Promoted the restaurant to the local business community through targeted editorial and membership publications.

Outputs and outcomes

  • The campaign generated more than 50 pieces of media coverage across local, national, hospitality, tourism, lifestyle and business titles. Coverage included The Herald, Dine Out Magazine,The Scotsman, Press & Journal, Inverness Courier, Scottish Field and the Western Daily News, helping establish The Ambassador Hotel and Talk of the Town as a leading new hospitality destination in Scotland.
  • A competition was rolled out across all 117 digital editions of Newsquest’s newspaper titles, spanning both local and national media. The campaign reached 768.2k newsletter recipients, generating 90k competition page views and 25.5k page visits.

“Launching the Ambassador Hotel and Talk of the Town was a significant moment for Black Sheep Hotels, and we wanted to make sure it received the attention it deserved. Orbit Communications understood what made the development special and created a PR campaign that generated real momentum around the opening.

“The strength and breadth of the media coverage helped us reach both local and national audiences, build awareness of the hotel and restaurant, and establish them as exciting new additions to the Highland hospitality scene from day one.”

Black Sheep Hotels Group