2018 Bronze Best B2C
14 Dec 2018
Agency: WDMP
Client: Neilson Active Holidays
Campaign name: Neilson Ski 2017/18
Campaign overview
Taking holidays direct
The brief
For winter 2017-18, Neilson decided to move away from travel agents to sell their flagship ski holidays exclusively direct.
The challenge was to build this direct business in amongst much bigger brands.
Strategy
To carve out direct sales, Neilson needed to get smarter, stand out and prove compelling value.
While seeking the most persuasive reasons to choose Neilson, the campaign recognised that not all skiers are the same.
Combining data mining, CSQs, social listening, search data, analysis and research, they uncovered the perfect “Neilson skier”.
Someone who was an ‘experienced intermediate’: they love the whole experience of being in the mountains, not just the skiing. And they love having stories to tell and squeezing the most out of every moment.
Through direct and digital their desire for experiences was meshed with Neilson’s flagship offering – “Mountain Experts” – a small army of fully-qualified instructors who know each resort like the back of their glove.
The strategy, then, was clear: experience Neilson, and get more out of mountain moments.
The campaign found the perfect metaphor. Derived from the classic piste map and original design style of skiing – the romantic side of skiing – the campaign spoke with a visual language of winter advertising of the 1930s.
Bespoke mountain illustrations tell multiple stories for a savvy audience to discover their own message – red runs for party groups, green runs for families.
Across Direct mail, email, display and social, the work challenged the viewer to find the story and stated the true Neilson advantage – “Experience More At Every Turn.”
Digitally the illustrations had even more flexibility as layers of animation were introduced and worked across CRM emails, banners and custom landing pages.
The concept’s flexibility even allowed for the creation of a reactive Winter Olympics execution showing there was no need to visit Pyeongchang to experience worldclass skiing.
Results
Neilson’s entire Mountain Collection inventory sold out for the first time ever as full season passenger and revenue targets were exceeded, with £262,000 incremental revenue.
The travel agent risk paid off with winter delivering 15% higher revenue than 2017.
Every channel delivered ahead of forecast, including nearly two million impressions from Telegraph digital activity, and display helping to drive over £5M web booking revenue for the first time since 2015.
Direct mail activity delivered booking uplifts in all targeted audiences, and drove £1.45M revenue at an ROI of 20:1.
Team
WDMP - Alex Addison, Senior Account Executive - Jon Parr, Senior Designer - Carlo Reale, Senior Art Director - Stewart Allen, Senior Copywriter - Ed Dalgleish, Senior Planner
Neilson Active Holidays - Holly Roberts, Head of CRM - Dean Robinson, Head of Brand