TUI-owned Thomson and First Choice will this month start major brand campaigns in the run-up to the busy holiday-booking season. However, this is more significant than a 'business as usual' ramp-up in activity, as the business hopes the campaigns will make the two brands more distinct from each other.
The biggest change is to the First Choice brand, which has received a total overhaul, including a new logo. The brand altered its business model in 2012 to offer only all-inclusive holidays, but didn’t refresh the brand at that time.
According to TUI, the pink that has always been present in First Choice branding has been selected as the master colour in its new look, allowing greater difference from the predominantly blue colour scheme of Thomson.
The old First Choice branding
The new First Choice branding
The campaign for First Choice is based on the insight that opting for all-inclusive holidays allows people the freedom to say ‘Yes’ to what they want. in fact, the the tagline for the campaign – the first by its new agency, RKCR/Y&R – is: ‘Life’s too short to say no.'
Speaking to Marketing, Jeremy Ellis, marketing director of TUI, said: "I’ve sat in many research groups, and the first thing people say they like about all-inclusive is that they don’t have to worry about money. Holidays are a big investment for people. The all-inclusive value then translates – once I know I have paid for my holiday, I can have whatever I want and not pay for the extras. More than half the holidays we sell [across all TUI brands] are all-inclusive. With First Choice aimed at that market, it is clearly a highly targeted brand, but there is huge scale and it gives us a strong tool to target a large proportion of the market."
The Thomson brand is not taking such a drastic route and is instead sticking to its highly successful campaign using the Miles the Bear character. The TV creative will see him journey to new destinations such as Mauritius, aimed at showing off the new range of long-haul destinations in Thomson’s offering.
Both TV ads break around 20 December, as part of a multichannel campaign.
