Virgin Holidays is hoping the new airing of its ‘Rock Star service’ marketing campaign will boost sales by 10% on the previous year.
Andrew Shelton, the operator’s marketing director, said the TV advert continues to follow the trials and tribulations of fictional rock band Danke Schon.
The advert, which is running between September 1-14, will air during peak evening slots and will be supported by widespread advertising in trade and consumer media for four weeks as well as PR and online activity.
The operator has also hired James ‘Tappy’ Wright (pictured), a former rock roadie and Jimi Hendrix tour manager, as ‘Head of Rockstar Services’.
Having seen a 9% year-on-year increase in sales during the six weeks following the launch of the campaign in May, Shelton is hoping for an even better boost this month as consumers look to book winter breaks and summer 2011 holidays.
“At the moment the market is pretty flat; double digit growth is probably the expectation – we’re looking for growth of 10%,” he said.
“In May, the market was quite depressed as we’d just come out of the ash cloud, so a 9% bounce (with the campaign’s launch) was a significant success for us.”
Shelton also denied concerns that the television adverts, which mostly focused on service, had been out-of-kilter with rival campaigns which had focused heavily on price and value.
“We had price in our press, radio and online advertising,” said Shelton.
“We wanted to talk about the brand and the extras you get with the brand; Rock Star is predominantly about service.”
He added that research had proven the value of the campaign, with 60% of respondents claiming the campaign made the brand ‘more appealing’, and 49% saying it would make them ‘more likely to use the brand’.