TUI launches second phase of rebranding campaign
TUI UK and Ireland will launch the second stage of its rebranding marketing campaign this weekend.
The campaign will kick off with a new TV advert due to be aired during ITV’s X-Factor this Saturday.
Chief marketing officer Katie McAlister, who took on the role in June, said it would continue the success of last year’s rebranding efforts.
She said last year’s campaign, which featured a woman on the ‘perfect’ holiday singing Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody Loves You Better, had achieved TUI’s targets.
"We measure brand awareness by surveying customers and seeing if they spontaneously respond to brands," she explained.
"When we first launched TUI in the UK it achieved 4% spontaneous brand response and our goal was to get this up to 40%. We achieved that goal."
McAlister said the mass media campaign, which represented the biggest ever marketing spend for the group, had helped the TUI brand achieve the same level of spontaneous brand response as Thomson.
This year’s spend is less than 2017, but still higher than the previous year, she added.
The campaign has been designed to focus firmly on the ‘big feelings’ that are unleashed on holiday.
"As we move into year two as TUI UK, we now want to build emotional connections and bring to life the big feelings we create for our guests," said McAlister.
The TV advert, filmed at TUI SENSATORI Fethiye in Dalman, Turkey over four days in July, follows a mother and moody teenage daughter as they unwind, spend time together, and re-unite.
"We chose the mother and daughter storyline because it’s a pure story of a connection between two people. It’s highly relevant in terms of the new family structure and is part of it being memorable," she said.
Running into the peak booking season, the campaign will develop to feature other scenarios.
Last year’s advert was criticised by marketing experts for being cheesy, with poor singing and dancing.
This year’s ad continues the singing and dancing theme but the soundtrack, Someday by the Strokes, is original.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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