Thomsonfly – Promoting a National

Airline Via Local Media

Entry to the JICREG Awards 2006

making media make a difference

The background

Thomsonfly launched in 2004 out of Thomson Holiday’s charter service Britannia Airlines

It runs a mixed model business policy selling seats directly to the public on charter flights and scheduling city to city direct flights

The key hubs for Thomsonfly are Coventry, Bournemouth and Doncaster where it has the majority of flights from these airports.

However it also flys from 24 UK airports to over 80 Worldwide destinations from Cancun, to Barcelona, Marakesh and Paris

The 24 UK airports with Thomsonfly flights include Gatwick, Luton, Cardiff, Newcastle and Hull

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Our Challenge

We needed to build a national airline for Thomsonfly and balance this with supporting the dominant hubs of Coventry, Bournemouth and Doncaster.

We started adopting a national strategy at the start of 2006 when Thomsonfly had good flight coverage in the 24 airports to support communication

We commenced in January 2006 with a TV campaign supported by national press with local media top-ups in the key hubs.

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We knew that our competitors were investing heavily in national press vs. regional press

61% 39%

69% 31%

71% 29%

74% 26%

92% 8%

76% 24%

73% 27%

NMR: Jan/Nov05

National Press Regional Press

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However, through industry and bespoke consumer insight we discovered that Thomsonfly should not have a one size fits all strategy

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Using a combination of Amra’s BEAMER, The Newspaper Society’s Life is Local research and insight gained from our own bespoke Word of Mouth Marketing project we were able to understand the different stages the brand was at in each region and address them accordingly

Exploring consumer insight …

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Knowledge about the Thomsonfly offering increases the further North you go

Increasing

Knowledge

People in Doncaster practically knew the entire Thomsonfly schedule. In the South they only just knew to visit the website

Source: MPG Advocacy

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And the Life is Local study highlighted the relevance of locality

Source: Newspaper Society Research Consumers Choice V

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We therefore needed to treat each hub as a unique entity within media – a campaign within its own right

What is motivating in Doncaster will be different than London etc…

Community Strategy

‘’Conurbation’Strategy

Established Neighbourhood Big City

Coventry, Doncaster,

Bournemouth

Newcastle, Cardiff

London Manchester

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Having understood this, using client booking data we were able to identify our core local catchment areas by hub and map these

M4

A489

M25

Bedford

Birmingham

Bristol

Cambridge

Chesterfield

Colchester

Coventry

Derby

Ipswich

Leicester

Lincoln

Liverpool

Luton

Manchester

Milton Keynes

Newport

Northampton

Norwich

Nottingham

Peterborough

Reading

RotherhamSheffield

Stockport

Stoke On Trent

Swansea

Swindon

Walsall

WarringtonWirral

Wolverhampton

CardiffLondon

Example. Coventry Airport Mapping based on 90 minute drive time due to client confidentiality of booking data

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We then used JICREG to filter all our individual title selections and ensure the campaigns were as efficient as possible

Total average issue readership:“The total number

of people in this

demographic group who read

the newspaper title

Area average issue readership:“The total number

of people in this

demographic group who

read the newspaper title in

the postcode sectors specified.

Area AIR%:The percentage of

all people in this

demographic group living in the

defined areawho read the

newspaper title”

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We could then map our outdoor formats to key catchment areas

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There are two elements to the London Plan which need to be considered…

Central London

Luton catchment area

Gatwick catchment area

The strongest plan would ensure a presence both within central London and the Luton & Gatwick catchment areas

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What are the opportunities for each?

Central LondonDelivers a young, affluent audience

High level of disposable income Less likely to have a family High propensity to go on weekend breaks High frequency of travelling with a low far airline No loyalty to any airline as choice mainly driven by

price/route/flight time

Local catchment area

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Again JICREG enabled us to support this theory and grow usage of regional press

Evening StandardMetro

Surrey Advertiser SeriesKent Messenger Series

West Sussex County Times SeriesBrighton & Hove Leader

Eastbourne Herald

Luton News & Dunstable Gazette GpLuton Herald & Post

Herts MercuryMilton Keynes Citizen

Bedfordshire on SundayHerts Advertiser

Watford Observer