On-line journey agent Loveholidays has been on a journey to embed a “challenger-brand mentality” by stepping up funding in model advertising and marketing and transferring from product-focused to “emotional” advertising and marketing.
“Model and efficiency are companions relatively than opposites,” says CMO Alan Murray. “A key a part of the journey has been serving to the broader enterprise, together with finance, perceive that.”
Murray joined the corporate from Reserving.com in 2022 with a efficiency advertising and marketing background. At the moment, Loveholidays, which sells vacation packages, together with flights and accommodations and competes with the likes of Jet2holidays and TUI, had no model crew in any respect.
“After I arrived, we had been 100% efficiency advertising and marketing,” he says. “It was very clear to me, my boss, even the CFO, that we wanted to start out introducing some model and work out the proper strategy to do it.”
Since then, Loveholidays has been slowly testing the impression of extra model campaigns, whereas cautiously increasing the crew.
“There’s numerous temptation for us to have a giant model funds very early,” he explains. “However we wish to ensure we perceive the way it works for us, when it really works, which conditions it is smart for, and it’s important to play with it within the wild for some time earlier than you may actually develop it.”
Shifting past efficiency
Early 2023 marked the primary transfer past pure efficiency advertising and marketing, with a geo-test in Scotland adopted by the Northwest, measuring impression towards the remainder of the UK. The enterprise adopted that check with its first nationwide model marketing campaign in 2024, aimed toward boosting consciousness and buy intent throughout digital, radio, OOH, paid social and influencer exercise.
“The place we began out was very rational and product-centric. Final yr, we actually tried so as to add in some emotional reference to the buyer,” he provides.
Extra just lately, the model has taken this to the following degree with the objective of “grabbing consideration”.
It unveiled an interactive billboard exterior Shoreditch station. Superstar Traitors contestant and former England rugby participant Joe Marler opened the activation, showing on a solar lounger, studying and constructing sandcastles as commuters handed. Actors occupied the billboard all through the week.
The set up aimed to focus on how darkish winter months have an effect on Brits’ wellbeing and tapped into the function holidays play as a mood-booster.
“We’re simply attempting to indicate up with one thing a bit extra sudden, leverage a bit extra humour, and try to seize some consideration,” he explains. “Our budgets aren’t the most important in our business, so we’ve acquired to go a bit additional with the inventive.”
@shainagordon I used to be questioning if it was actual ……. It’s reallllll !! #fyp #loveholidays #shainagordon #marketingtiktok @loveholidays
♬ unique sound – Shaina Gordon
Created in partnership with impartial inventive company Ark, the stunt rapidly gained traction on social media, with customers debating whether or not Marler was a hologram, looping video or a dedicated actor.
“The billboard alone was by no means going to do this [gain traction], if the one individuals who ever noticed it had been the folks strolling previous it. So it actually needed to be one thing that we both stimulate ourselves or along with the influencers,” he explains.
The activation supported the model’s Black Friday marketing campaign, marking the primary time Loveholidays has layered model exercise over gross sales promotion. The goal is to shift extra customers right into a “vacation mindset”.
“We are able to join the dots via our efficiency advertising and marketing and fill that funnel from prime to backside,” he says, noting that it has taken a “mindset shift” within the enterprise to know that if cash will get put into model, it received’t essentially be seen the identical day.
“The truth that we began with geo-testing, we’re now constructing out our MMM, we will begin to have an knowledgeable dialog with the finance crew over time of ‘look, I do know you may’t see it on a Saturday, if I spend extra money that I get extra income on a Sunday, however right here’s properly grounded statistical proof that this factor is nice for you, it’s good for us, and by the best way, it’s enjoyable,’” he says.
Paid social may be very exhausting to know. For instance, if we’re dropping, we’re dropping out to Maybelline, how do I take care of that?
Alan Murray, Loveholidays
In addition to investing extra of its funds in model, Loveholidays can also be investing in folks. The model crew has grown to eight throughout PR, social and model, alongside new inventive, media and influencer businesses.
And though the crew has grown, Murray notes it doesn’t essentially have a objective to be as massive as it could actually as a result of “dimension comes with complexity and everybody has to align”.
In the meantime, Loveholidays has massive plans for 2026, in accordance with Murray. The primary is to proceed implementing a “challenger-brand mentality” by feeding the highest of funnel.
“Model and efficiency are enhances, not substitutes, so the extra that we will begin to justify reinvestment in model, the extra that helps our efficiency advertising and marketing,” he explains.
He claims the enterprise has already seen “phenomenal” positive factors, together with a 30% leap in consciousness over two years, with belief and consideration additionally rising. Scaling this can be a precedence for the yr forward. This aligns with figures from YouGov, which finds Loveholidays’ consciousness has grown from 20% in 2022 to over 32% this month.
The corporate additionally plans to shift elements of its efficiency technique from search to paid social.
“We all know we’re simply competing towards the identical folks from the identical business, attempting to do the identical factor with the client on search. Paid social may be very exhausting to know. For instance, if we’re dropping, we’re dropping out to Maybelline, how do I take care of that? It’s a totally totally different story,” he explains.
Murray provides that Loveholidays has additionally made robust progress on AI and automation, enabling the crew to ship “an amazing” quantity extra.
As an example, its bidding processes in media shopping for are actually automated. Beforehand, the crew manually downloaded and analysed bid information in Excel, which has been a “super saving,” Murray notes.
The model has additionally streamlined content material manufacturing, together with utilizing AI to put in writing resort description summaries.
“We used to have 52,000 accommodations on our website, so writing a extremely detailed temporary of the content material on every of these, for all of them, takes a military,” he explains.
“We used to should depend on provider content material so much, however now we’ve acquired a extra enhancing, supported by AI, which is improbable.”
