Following a year that has been far from normal, The Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest travel agent consortium, has adapted its regular turn of year marketing campaign and has created four mini-campaigns, to offer its members the flexibility and freedom to promote offers and themed content that will work for their individual businesses. The campaign is underpinned by the need for members to think more commercially than ever before. Earning potential and suppliers that have been supportive to the trade over the last nine months have been key factors in building the campaign.
Travel agents up and down the country are still dealing with limited resource as many staff remain furloughed and with the government travel advice often switching at any given moment, travel agents will be reluctant to invest money on expensive marketing tactics if restrictions change and prevent clients from travelling. Therefore, Advantage has designed each of the four campaigns to have a digital focus, as this is not only cost effective for its members, but it enables speed to market, the content is easily adaptable in a fast-changing travel environment and it is highly shareable in order to reach and acquire even more new customers. Advantage has also worked to significantly uplift their B2B comms to help train and educate agents on partner products and services, plus Covid protocols in some of the key travel destinations for the UK market.
The mini-campaigns will include a range of assets that members can use to drive engagement and enquiries, and the offer-led option will include a new range of assets for agents to utilise for their customer base.
On the new concept, David Forder, head of marketing at Advantage Travel Partnership commented: “The customer research we carried out this year indicated that there was a renewed appetite from consumers to book with a travel agent, and the results demonstrated that this is due to the trust, expertise and personal service.
“During times of continued uncertainty, the ‘Rise of the Travel Agent’ campaign will offer our members a wide range of content that will help them inspire, inform and reassure their customers, and demonstrate why there is no-one better to book a holiday with than an local independent travel agent. We are also really pleased with the support that has been shown from our tour operator and tourist board partners who are involved in the campaign.”
