Avoid those Christmas blues…travel marketing that works

TravelMole guest comment by Ian Bates, creative director at direct marketing firm Entire

We are now in the traditional peak marketing season for many travel and destination brands.

Even though we know that consumer purchase habits have changed over recent years it is still a critical period to be seen touting your wares.

Curious then that with so many offers competing for the consumer’s attention, the brands and destinations themselves often fail to create a distinct proposition.

For a direct marketer like myself this is frankly unforgiveable. But where does the fault lie. With stressed-out agencies happy to trot out a tired old message? Or clients, falling victim to inertia and fear of failure?

My starting point would be: where is the consumer in all of this?

Let’s call her Sarah Jones, after all we should never lose sight of the fact that we are talking to REAL PEOPLE, not disembodied marketing stats.

At a time of year sadly synonymous with stress and hassle it’s vital to make it easy for Sarah to clearly identify what your brand and destination can offer. After all she has just spent weeks making complicated decisions about what present to buy countless friends and relatives and how to avoid her boozed-up boss at the office party.

Exhausted by advertising overload pre-festivities she will undoubtedly be sick to death of the sales onslaught that follows.

Advertising with some real personality; engaging and compelling, would come as a welcome distraction. Every country has something unique to shout about, it’s just a matter of delving deep and finding out what it actually is.

Get some real cut-through and the time should be right for Sarah to indulge in a bit of ‘me-time’. So lets make it a great experience; give her a sense of the experience that awaits her through the communication she receives now.

But where will you find the answer to this marketing conundrum? I bet it’ll be in your product or service.

The purpose of advertising – and direct marketing in particular – is to give consumers a shortcut. If targeted correctly it should inform or influence in your favour, not just meekly add to the noise.

Travel and tourism provides creatives with the greatest opportunities to develop wonderful communications but I’m sure that this year we will see most advertising merging into a swirl of words and pictures that do little to capture the brand essence. Ultimately this leaves Sarah with more work to do, trying to fathom the benefits that lie behind the differences.

There are some tremendous exceptions. Destinations like Norway (Powered by Nature) have focussed their offering. Ireland communicates with relaxed wit and charm and Wales has a clear focus on adventure, even turning mud into a benefit.

Another of course is Australia with the controversial ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’

So it can be done. It may appear more difficult for tour operators or carriers who feel that their offering is less distinct – but it is not impossible.

Find yourselves an agency willing to go the extra mile to define your proposition and find a way of communicating your brand essence and you too will find a distinct voice. This will lead to more focused and effective marketing and present Sarah with a far simpler choice.

You.