Shaping Barracuda’s Story for the Barefoot Luxury Market

Set along the lush coastline of Bahia, Brazil, Barracuda Hotel & Villas is a boutique hospitality brand rooted in sustainability, slow living, and contemporary Afro-Brazilian culture. As a member of the Brazilian Luxury Travel Association, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and featured in the MICHELIN Guide, the brand has earned a place among the world’s most discerning travel experiences.

Rachel Rojo was engaged to lead a content-focused campaign that would elevate Barracuda’s visibility across global editorial travel platforms. Through The Real Bonne Vivante, she directed the creative strategy and oversaw production from concept development to asset delivery—crafting visuals and messaging that resonated with North American, South American, and European audiences, while honoring the spirit of the brand.

Campaign Strategy & Creative Development

This campaign was designed to elevate Barracuda’s visual storytelling while building a comprehensive content suite for marketing, press, and digital use. It spanned multiple media formats and phases, requiring both conceptual and executional leadership across the full creative lifecycle. The campaign development included:

• Creative Strategy: Defined positioning, tone, and messaging direction for the campaign through the lens of slow luxury, ecological stewardship, and immersive travel.

• Concept Development: Created visual moodboards, thematic content pillars, and editorial references to establish a cohesive creative direction pre-shoot.

• Storyboarding & Art Direction: Outlined visual storytelling arcs across photography and video to ensure a consistent, elevated feel aligned with the brand’s identity.

• Pre-Production Planning: Coordinated all aspects of location, timing, narrative flow, and talent with a small-footprint production approach suited to the natural environment.

Process & Execution

Rachel led the project from concept through production and post. In pre-production, she developed a creative strategy rooted in Barracuda’s values and visual identity. This included defining content pillars, curating style references, building moodboards, and outlining storyboards to ensure cohesion across photography and video.

During the multi-day shoot in Bahia, Rachel directed on set—shaping the art direction, visual tone, and narrative flow across the hotel, villas, and surrounding natural settings. The goal was to create immersive, editorial-style content that felt effortless yet intentional, capturing both the architecture and the emotional experience of being at Barracuda.

After returning from Brazil, she led a post-production team to bring the campaign to life. This phase included editing, color grading, and packaging the final content into a modular asset library for web, press, email, and social media. Each piece was reviewed for consistency across visual tone and adapted for diverse audiences across South America, Europe, and North America.

Impact & Lasting Impressions

The Barracuda campaign successfully elevated the brand’s digital presence while honoring its rooted, authentic spirit. Through thoughtful strategy, refined visual storytelling, and editorial depth, the final deliverables drove measurable results and long-term value across platforms and audiences:

• Generated 199K+ impressions, 6.1K likes, and a 6.29% engagement rate across social platforms

• Delivered a global-ready asset library (photo and video) curated for versatility and long-term use

• Produced hero and supporting social videos aligned with seasonal travel trends and audience behavior

• Developed editorial blog content to deepen storytelling and boost SEO reach

• Provided strategic rollout guidance tailored to the brand’s key markets and traveler segments

Together, these assets helped reinforce Barracuda’s position as a leading destination for discerning, conscious travelers—blending barefoot sophistication with editorial-quality content that resonates across cultures.