Longleat

Background

Longleat is one of the UK’s most iconic visitor attractions, offering safari drives, animal encounters, historic tours, and immersive family experiences since 1966. While the physical experience is rich, memorable, and loved by many across the UK, the digital journey failed to reflect the scale of adventure or the value of a day out at the park. Great State was tasked with building a digital experience as unforgettable as a day out at Longleat, kick-starting the adventure long before visitors pass through the gates.

The previous website undersold the experience. Complex ticketing options, usability issues, and a flat presentation left families uncertain about what was included, creating hesitation at the point of booking. For cost-conscious, digital-first parents, the gap between ticket price and perceived online value was a critical barrier to conversion.

Longleat needed a platform that could simplify a complex offer without stripping away richness, bring the brand’s personality to life online, and support evolving content, events, and campaigns — all while reducing reliance on developers for day-to-day updates.

Solution

Great State rebuilt Longleat’s digital experience using Umbraco Heartcore, Umbraco’s headless CMS, chosen for the flexibility, scalability, and editorial control it offers. Heartcore’s decoupled architecture allowed content management to be separated from presentation, giving full freedom to design and build a highly interactive, design-led frontend using modern technologies.

This approach enabled richer storytelling, immersive visuals, and subtle motion throughout the site — all without the constraints of server-rendered templates. Umbraco Heartcore acts purely as a structured content engine, delivering data via APIs while the frontend brings it to life with complete creative control.

Heartcore also supported integrations with third-party platforms, including ticketing and data capture tools, enabling Longleat to enhance the purchase journey and collect information through Umbraco Forms — all managed centrally within the CMS.

Impact

The new website has transformed Longleat’s digital presence into an experience that reflects the quality and scale of the day out itself. Families can now clearly understand what’s included, plan a full visit with confidence, and move through smoother, more intuitive journeys towards booking.

The improvements delivered measurable commercial and brand impact. Ticket purchases completed on site increased by 39%. User research also showed a 45% increase in visitors who say they would choose to spend a full day out at Longleat, demonstrating stronger confidence in the value of the experience before arrival.

Beyond conversion, the new experience strengthened Longleat’s brand presence online. User research revealed that overall visual performance and brand personality increased by 38%, reflecting clearer storytelling and a more emotionally engaging digital experience.

Performance improvements were equally significant. Through enhanced asset optimisation and a streamlined headless front-end architecture, desktop performance improved by 423%, while mobile performance increased by 4400%. These gains were accompanied by substantial reductions in data usage and energy demand, helping deliver a faster, more efficient, and more sustainable experience across devices.

Umbraco Heartcore provides Longleat with a future-ready foundation that supports ongoing experimentation, seasonal change, and commercial growth without adding complexity. Editors are empowered, content is faster to publish, and the experience feels consistent from first interaction to checkout.