A multi-channel advertising campaign around Abta’s new consumer strapline ‘Travel with confidence’ has been hailed as a success by the association, despite a “relatively modest” spend.
The turn of year promotional activity aimed to highlight the benefits of booking with an Abta member and explaining the association’s offer of support, protection and expertise.
Nine out of ten (90%) of people who saw the advertising in the Mail on Sunday stated that they intended to take action as a result.
Web traffic to abta.com increased with the ‘Find a Member’ page seeing an increase in traffic of 56% compared to the same period last year.
Adverts featuring new creative appeared during the January and early February peak holiday booking period in The Sun, The Sun on Sunday, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Mail and all regional Metro editions as well as The Belfast Telegraph. They reached a total of 3.2 million readers.
Radio adverts using the new strapline also ran for four days on Heart FM at the end of January and were heard 5.4 million times.
The association’s book early campaign was supported by pay per click adverts on Twitter, Facebook and Google which were seen by hundreds of thousands of consumers. Abta also reached 10,000 followers on its Twitter account @ABTAtravel.
SEO projects to boost traffic to ABTA.com were introduced together with a responsive homepage, supporting consumers who seek to verify Abta membership or find out more about Abta from mobile devices. Feedback from members shows that mobile functionality is key.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “We are delighted with the success of the campaign and will continue to promote the ‘Travel with confidence’ messaging throughout the year, to add value to the ABTA brand.
“It is very encouraging that many people say they will take action after seeing the advertisements and this highlights the value to members of displaying the Abta logo.
“We are also pleased to see that Abta members have really adopted the new strapline and are displaying it in store, on websites and in advertising campaigns; this is a very exciting time for the Abta brand.”