Five agencies walked away with awards at Royal’s first Royal Pitch session on Wednesday (8 June), which invited agents to pitch for a share of a £200,000 pot put aside to fund innovative ways to promote the Royal brand and grow sales.

Baldwins took the lion’s share of the first of four pitching sessions, impressing the judging panel – featuring successful Dragons’ Den contestant Levi Roots of Reggae Reggae Sauce fame – with their business plan, which will see the Baldwins team drive the buggy around Kent, Surrey and Sussex where their agencies are based and invite people to stop for selfies in the vehicle.

They will then be encouraged to upload their pictures to social media using the hashtag #BaldwinsBeachBuggy and to tag both Baldwins and Royal to be in with a chance of winning a family cruise for four.

After posting, entrants must head to a Royal-branded page on Baldwins’ website to answer a competition question. If they get it right, they’ll be in with a chance of winning the cruise. The first 100 correct entries will be invited to a Caribbean-themed party where their names will be entered into a raffle and the winner revealed.

From a shortlist of 12, five agencies pitched at the event at Royal’s Weybridge HQ on Wednesday – Best Destinations; Atlantic Travel; Baldwins Travel; Cartwright Travel’s Passion For Cruises operation; and Perfect Getaways.

Besides Roots, the agents pitched their ides to Royal vice-president EMEA Ben Bouldin and director of sales UK, Ireland and Spain, Stuart Byron. Baldwins director Nick Marks, operations manager Laura Hill and marketing manager Tricia Lester pitched the agency’s idea, which will see the buggy hit the road in July.

"We’re planning window takeovers and going to different agricultural shows, summer festivals," said Lester. "We’ll have a list of places where the buggy will go. It’s very fun and simple, if someone from one of our branches is going to one of these events, we will be there with the buggy to promote the competition."

The judges praised Baldwins’ proposal for being a scalable, fun, creative and exciting way to promote the Royal brand, and to gain exposure for the agency too.

All five entrants walked away with an award at the first Royal Pitch session. Atlantic Travel business development manager Emma McHugh earned the agency £3,000 for its Cruise Conversations concept – a series of six videos, with scope for more, exploring Royal’s offering such as how to pick the right ship and addressing any myths and preconceptions, all fronted by McHugh.

Cruise specialist Steve Philippou, director of Passion For Cruises at Cartwright, received £10,000 for a solo cruising pitch which he said was 20 years in the making. His proposal is based around pre-arranging a series of events, activities and dinners for solo travellers to get to know each other swiftly while onboard.

Perfect Getaways’ owner David Palmer and Liverpool store manager Michael Blackburn, meanwhile, pitched a Royal Caribbean concept store, featuring a virtual balcony, which would be supported by an expansive marketing campaign. The pair were awarded £1,000 for the necessary resources to create a feature wall at the Liverpool store promoting the line, as well as a cruise.

Finally, Best Destinations did not receive a share of the money, director Jon Haworth instead was given a cruise trip. The agency’s pitch titled Royal Reggae Giveaway, featured a Reggae style party and raffle.

“We actually had the idea for the Royal Pitch way before the pandemic," said Bouldin. "It was first thought of by our sales team [when] we were finding it hard to physically reach all the independent agents, it’s was hard to engage significant airtime.

“These sessions give individual trade members the chance to be heard. If they’ve got a good idea, it gives agents the opportunity to take matters into their own hands and, with some courage and bravery, have a go and pitch to us.”

The second Royal Pitch will open for applications on Monday 13 June, with the pitching session itself to be held in September. A third is scheduled for the final quarter of the year, and the fourth in Q1 2023.