First Choice will launch a multi-million pound ad campaign featuring a family rapping the praises of their holiday on December 22. It will appear across TV, cinema, print, radio, digital channels and social media. The campaign will launch in cinemas followed by a TV debut on Christmas day during The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4.
Jeremy Ellis, Tui UK and Ireland marketing and customer experience director, said: “We felt that the rapping style would make people sit up and listen and put a big smile on their faces. It’s very different to anything in this category before. Whether you like rap music or not, the message will get through.”
Music video director Emil Nava is behind the production. Nava, based in Los Angeles, has worked with artists including Ed Sheeran, Rihanna and Beyonce.
Ellis said the style would suit the First Choice client profile, which is younger than the traditional Tui customer. “They are a bit more digital-savvy and more of them book using mobile technology than Tui clients.”
The campaign is proof that Tui is investing in the First Choice name. “First Choice is here to stay on the basis that we have a significant part of the all-inclusive market value in it; 60% of package holidays are all-inclusive and having an all-inclusive brand allows to get a share of that market. If we were to fold it into Tui, we would simply lose that share,” Ellis said.
First Choice accounts for more than one million packages. “All of these things suggest it will be around for as long as it takes,” Ellis added.
Ellis said the aim was to grow the brand. He added that the removal of the First Choice name from shops and the rebranding of First Choice Airways had adversely affected it, but that it had “not lost any volume”.
