Hoseasons and Awaze launched Best of Britain by the Sea in 2022, a five-part More4 series blending coastal travel, food, and self-catering accommodation into
ARCHIVEHoseasons Takes Branded Entertainment to the British Coast
Best of Britain by the Sea is a five-part branded-entertainment television series, part-funded by Hoseasons and produced by Blink Films, that premiered on More4 on 16 May 2022 at 9 p.m., celebrating the finest coastal destinations, dishes, and delicacies across the British Isles through hour-long episodes fronted by Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent.
The series marks a significant strategic milestone for Hoseasons, part of the Awaze Group. As noted by Awaze in a March 2022 announcement, this was Hoseasons' first branded-entertainment campaign — a deliberate move away from conventional display and performance advertising toward a content-led model designed to embed the brand inside a genuinely watchable primetime format. The partnership between Hoseasons, Blink Films, and media agency the7stars was brokered specifically to reach leisure audiences in the United Kingdom at a moment when domestic holiday demand was rebounding strongly after two disrupted travel years.
Each of the five episodes follows Harriott and Dent as they travel a distinct stretch of the British coastline, staying in a different Hoseasons holiday property — from cottages and houseboats to lodges and caravans. Filmed across locations including South Devon, the Isle of Wight, Carmarthenshire, Aberdeenshire, and the Norfolk coast around Norwich and Great Yarmouth, the series interweaves coastal tourism, local food culture, and accommodation discovery into a single editorial narrative. The format is built around the two presenters cooking for one another using locally sourced produce, with each episode functioning simultaneously as a travel programme and an extended, organic showcase of the Hoseasons portfolio across the United Kingdom.
ARCHIVEHoseasons operates as the United Kingdom's leading self-catering accommodation specialist within the Awaze Group. The decision to invest in a five-part primetime television series reflects a clear-eyed reading of the post-pandemic domestic travel landscape, in which staycation demand across the UK was running dramatically ahead of pre-pandemic levels. According to Sykes Holiday Cottages, average annual UK holiday-let turnover reached £24,000 in 2022, up 59 percent versus 2019, while UK holiday-let bookings rose 48 percent over the same comparison period, according to Sykes. Awaze itself reported that its summer 2022 bookings were 82 percent above pre-pandemic baselines, according to Awaze.
Against that backdrop of surging domestic demand, competition in the UK self-catering and holiday-let sector intensified sharply. Sykes Holiday Cottages and Cottages.com — both well-established challengers in the United Kingdom — were competing aggressively for the same leisure traveller. Pure-play digital platforms such as Airbnb were also expanding their presence across UK coastal and rural markets, commanding significant brand awareness among younger holiday bookers. Hoseasons and the7stars identified branded entertainment as the mechanism to achieve something performance marketing cannot: sustained emotional association between the Hoseasons name and the pleasure of a British coastal holiday.
The partnership with Channel 4 and More4 was announced on 7 March 2022, according to channel4.com, positioning the series squarely in primetime and within a broadcaster whose audience skews toward culturally curious, food-literate, travel-minded adults in the United Kingdom. The choice of Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent as presenters amplified this alignment, pairing a warmly familiar television personality with one of the UK's most respected food critics to deliver credibility alongside popular appeal.
Blink Films produced Best of Britain by the Sea as a five-part, hour-long factual entertainment series for More4. The production approach is rooted in the conventions of the British coastal travel-and-food genre — warm-toned cinematography, unhurried pacing, and an emphasis on regional specificity — but shaped deliberately to carry Hoseasons' brand proposition without tipping into advertorial discomfort. Each episode's integration is structural rather than interruptive: the Hoseasons accommodation is the literal base of operations for Harriott and Dent, making the holiday-letting context inseparable from the editorial journey itself.
Production credits for Best of Britain by the Sea are partially documented in the public record. Blink Films is credited as creator and producer of the series, with the7stars acting as the negotiating media agency that structured both the broadcaster deal and the wider multimedia activation package, as confirmed by Awaze. The series was filmed across six distinct coastal and near-coastal locations in the United Kingdom — South Devon, the Isle of Wight, Carmarthenshire, Aberdeenshire, Norwich, and Great Yarmouth — giving each episode a genuinely differentiated regional identity rather than a generic British seaside aesthetic.
The media execution extended well beyond the linear broadcast. According to Awaze, the7stars planned a multimedia activation package that included Channel 4 homepage takeovers, a branded series area on All 4, and bespoke 30-second competition spots placed contextually in the advertising breaks closest to in-show integration moments. A paid social strategy used clips from the programme to amplify Hoseasons' strapline — Relive the Good Times — across social platforms, creating a content loop that extended audience reach beyond the More4 linear audience in the United Kingdom and reinforced brand messaging at multiple points of potential holiday consideration.
No independently verified audience or commercial performance data for Best of Britain by the Sea is publicly available in named third-party sources at the time of writing. The campaign's structural effectiveness, however, is legible from its architecture. Premiering on More4 on 16 May 2022 — within a primetime 9 p.m. slot, as confirmed by channel4.com — the series secured a broadcast platform with a documented track record of reaching food, travel, and lifestyle audiences across the United Kingdom. The All 4 branded hub and homepage takeovers extended dwell time and discoverability for viewers who encountered the series outside the linear schedule, according to Awaze.
The decision to position bespoke 30-second competition spots in contextual proximity to in-show integration moments reflects a sophisticated understanding of advertising recall: brand messages land harder when editorial context has already primed the viewer emotionally. This approach aligns with established principles of branded-entertainment effectiveness documented by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers and others working in the UK media space.
For Hoseasons, the campaign's primary value was reputational and attitudinal. As Awaze confirmed, this was the brand's first foray into branded entertainment — a category that, by definition, measures success over longer time horizons than a direct-response campaign. The Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100 reflects a campaign that executes its content integration competently and deploys a credible talent pairing, while leaving room for stronger differentiation in creative distinctiveness and measurable audience engagement documentation.
Best of Britain by the Sea is a five-part television series partly funded by Hoseasons, part of the Awaze Group. Produced by Blink Films and negotiated by the7stars, it premiered on More4 on 16 May 2022 at 9 p.m., celebrating British coastal destinations and food through hour-long episodes fronted by Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent.
Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent present Best of Britain by the Sea. The two travel the British coastline together, staying in Hoseasons holiday homes and cooking for one another using locally sourced coastal produce, making the presenters central to both the editorial and the brand integration throughout the series.
Best of Britain by the Sea was filmed across six locations in the United Kingdom. According to Awaze, the locations include South Devon, the Isle of Wight, Carmarthenshire, Aberdeenshire, Norwich, and Great Yarmouth, each providing a distinct regional identity and a different Hoseasons holiday property as the episode's base.
Hoseasons chose branded entertainment because it was the brand's first campaign of this type, according to Awaze. With UK staycation demand surging — Sykes reported holiday-let bookings up 48 percent versus 2019 — embedding the brand inside primetime factual television offered emotional resonance that performance advertising alone could not deliver in the competitive United Kingdom self-catering market.
The campaign extended beyond linear television across multiple platforms. According to Awaze, the7stars arranged Channel 4 homepage takeovers, a branded series area on All 4, contextually placed 30-second competition spots in ad breaks closest to integration moments, and a paid social strategy using programme clips to amplify Hoseasons' strapline Relive the Good Times across the United Kingdom.
Best of Britain by the Sea holds a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects competent branded-content integration and a credible presenter pairing in Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent, while identifying opportunity for stronger creative differentiation and more formally documented audience engagement outcomes for this 2022 Hoseasons campaign.
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