The Brief
Travelbag is one of the UK’s leading tailor-made tour operators, specialising in the mid to long haul. They have expertise right across the globe. In addition they run Worldwide Experiences and the Little Gems range of niche boutique properties across the planet.
Travelbag also offers holidaymakers escorted tours, safaris, round-the-world travel, car hire and insurance. They have eight retail outlets throughout the UK.
Travelbag’s retail outlets rely on driving local footfall into their shops. With the changing nature of consumer purchase and with the increasing reliance on the internet it takes a certain sort of person to want a traditional one-on-one personal travel consultation of the sort that Travelbag offers.
With this mind, Hotcow was tasked with increasing footfall by creating a contact programme with key groups (45 – 65 yrs old) in the local community. This group of travellers value experience and advice and will plan a trip many months in advance. They want the expert knowledge that Travelbag offers and they want the comfort and security of knowing that everything is in place and safely handled with a minimum of effort.
The Activity
Hotcow devised a Travel Quiz Night experience that would encourage locals within the 45+ age group to attend. To ensure we attracted the right audience we choose venues that appealed and were regularly visited by this demographic. We also sought local advice and feedback.
The Quiz night encouraged social interaction with 8 different rounds consisting of general knowledge, music, food, charades, languages and writing, to ensure a fun filled travel experience.
The winning team all won flights to Dubai and received the Travelbag Quiz Master Cup. Other participants won travel books supplied to us by Frommers.
Small local communities are more accepting of a brand when it offers something to them; word of mouth will then provide exceptional promotion. Hotcow tapped into this to create an experience that the locals felt contributed to the community.
This activity was varied from location to location.
The Results
Each local community outreach was different. To create awareness of the activity we approached local clubs (Golf, Tennis and Social Clubs), highlighted the event on event listings sites, ran newspaper and radio advertising campaigns (where appropriate) and spoke with local businesses. We also called upon local trusted community leaders to help raise awareness. The result was a well attended and memorable event that created community wide word of mouth.
The client saw a noticeable increase in brand awareness and a spike in sales.
Quote
Flexible, creative, on-budget, hardworking, results-oreintated, everything I was looking for in an agency. It has been a pleasure working with Hotcow and I would highly recommend them to people who value a straight talking no-nonsense approach to getting things done.
Marketing Manager, Travelbag