On The Beach harnesses power of TV and mobile

Online travel agent invests in both TV and mobile marketing communications.

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On The Beach receives boost from TV ads

Chief marketing officer Alistair Daly says that the company is rolling out its TV campaign to two new regions after strong results in the Midlands.

At the same time, On The Beach is building up a mobile team that will sit with customer experience within the marketing department.

On The Beach launched a humorous television campaign with the strapline “Totally Beachin Holidays” at Christmas. Daly said TV was the best tool to build up brand awareness and create emotional engagement.

He says: “We are doing it to build an emotional connection with our customers and create a personality for the brand – you can’t do that with Google AdWords. TV will be an important part of our marketing mix for many years to come.”

Daly says that when TV ads run the company can see a direct lift in real time brand searches on tablets and smartphones and the trend for TV viewers to dual-screen must now be taken into account in strategy.

There has been an increase in traffic and bookings attributed to the TV ads and the Midlands has risen to the top region for On The Beach revenue from seventh since the start of the campaign.

The role of mobile devices for research in the customer journey is also driving On The Beach’s investment. Daly says up to 9 per cent of transactions are via mobile but because holidays are a big ticket item it is more usual that such devices are used in research before a booking is made via desktop.

However, to keep the customer on a seamless journey On The Beach has launched multi-device log in so users don’t lose their research and so that the company “can connect the dots” in customer data collection.

It is also preparing an app to debut ahead of the summer season.

On The Beach, based in Manchester, is set to launch fully into the Scandinavian territories. It is already live in Sweden but will launch in Norway and Denmark, albeit with a centrally-based UK team.

Daly says the markets are a good fit because Scandinavians like similar holiday destinations to UK holidaymakers and the established tour operators in the region do not provide the “dynamic packaging” element offered by On The Beach.

The company was bought by Inflexion Private Equity from SIS Equity Partners last year.

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