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Bath Travel spends £500k on campaign to attract younger customers

Bath Travel is spending £500,000 on a multimedia marketing campaign to attract younger customers and has unveiled plans to start refitting its branches.

The company, acquired by Hays Travel nine months ago, has adapted and revived the famous “smile” jingle used by the northeast agency for its new radio advertising blitz, which started on local stations in the southwest last week.

As well as radio, Bath Travel is running print ads in local and regional newspapers and is planning TV advertisements for its turn-of-year sales campaign.

Shop windows are also being revamped with modern, brighter point-of-sale materials and plasma screens have been ordered for the company’s 62 shops.

Managing director John Hays said: “Bath Travel is trading really well and we are on budget for the future.

“But the age profile for clients is 60 years-plus and we need to attract a much younger client base while being very careful not to alienate the older market.”

Hays said Bath Travel’s managers had been overwhelmingly in favour of using Hays Travel’s popular jingle. The singer of the original jingle 20 years ago was tracked down to record a version for Bath Travel.

All branches will also be refitted over time, Hays said, to introduce a lighter, modern look-and-feel.

“We will refit as many as we can this winter, but it will be a rolling programme, not overnight.”

The company plans to introduce a dual-branded website for Bath Travel and Hays Travel in the next few months.

Hays is confident the group can add a new, younger breed of clients to Bath Travel’s existing database. “If we send out different messages we can move perceptions,” he said.

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