Work will start on the rebrand of Thomson’s 600-plus shop network to Tui will this week.
The company has also begun a consumer advertising campaign to spread the word about the imminent rebrand of its 50-year-old Thomson name.
Tui announced in 2015 that the Thomson name would be dropped across the UK from its agencies, website and aircraft and switched to Tui in line with the move across the group’s other markets.
The campaign started with a TV advertisement during ITV’s X Factor on Saturday night, showing a man diving into water with the message: “Thomson is changing to TUI’. Other variations of this ad will be shown on long-haul flights, national TV, the sides of buses and online, in the run-up to the changover from Thomson “in the coming weeks”.
Its advertisements on YouTube, which went live on Monday, say the operator will continue to offer the “same great holidays plus so much more” and “we cross the T’s, dot the i’s, and put U in the middle.”
Tens of millions of pounds are being invested in the rebrand, which was originally announced by the German-based group in 2015. The UK, Tui’s second-largest source market, is the last market to make the change.
In May the company began a customer relationship management campaign with loyal clients while the Tui brand has been visible in overseas resorts for three years and on aircraft since this summer.
Marketing director Jeremy Ellis said: “The foundations of our rebrand are firmly in place and we are primed to become Tui.
“People will now notice changes on the high street from this week as our 600 plus stores shift from Thomson to Tui.”
In 2004, Tui announced it was changing the name of the company’s UK agencies from Lunn Poly to Thomson, which at the time was the name of its tour operation. The move was made because the company wanted to maximise the power of the Thomson name. In 2007, it merged with First Choice.
Thomson was founded in 1965 by Roy Thomson, a Canadian newspaper baron.