Longman: ‘Leaving a brand, not a business, behind’
Tom ParryAs the Thomson brand changes fully to Tui, the travel giant has high hopes for its reinvigorated offering. Tom Parry speaks to UK and Ireland managing director Nick Longman.
Tui UK and Ireland’s boss hopes third-party agents will see the operator as “reinvigorated” following its rebrand from Thomson in the UK last week, after more than 50 years.
The official switchover on October 19 marked the culmination of a process launched in 2015 to bring all of Tui’s major European tour operator businesses under the same group brand.
And in the same week, Tui held a special event to reveal its new booking concept, dubbed Realeyes.
The Realeyes prototype, part of a new Destination U concept, enables holidaymakers to choose a trip that matches their emotional needs.
It uses facial coding and “emotion measurement” technology to “tap into the subconscious”. A unique algorithm computes a person’s subtle facial responses to different images of destinations and experiences, and then uses the data to come up with holiday options.
Speaking to TTG at the launch event for Destination U, Nick Longman, Tui UK and Ireland managing director said the technology could not practically be installed in every Tui store, but that the company would monitor how customers reacted to it. “Say we ended up with one per region, then we could create a programme of where it could go,” he said.
Asked about the official shift of Thomson to Tui, Longman said he hoped third-party agents would now see the brand as “refreshed”. “I think we have been quite honest in our relationship with third-party agents… but what we have always maintained is we will sell through them and we will offer reasonable commission.”
New lease of life
“I’m hoping there is an opportunity for them to feel that the brand’s been a bit reinvigorated, that they’ll see customers coming in and asking for the brand. And as we can maintain those positive relationships with agents I’m sure we’ll see sales through that.”
Longman agreed the switchover had been one of the “biggest things” he has overseen in his role to date, but he insisted staff had responded positively.
“I know how loyal our retail staff are and they love the Thomson brand, so I thought they would be quite a tough nut to crack… but I went to our retail managers conference a couple of weeks ago and had some incredibly warm feedback.
“They are our customers too so I was quite encouraged that if they saw the merits then our customers would see those too… the staff engagement in all of this is crucial and they are going to be brand advocates for us when people come into store and ask why we’ve changed.”
Asked whether he was “sad” to see the Thomson brand go, Longman added: “We’re leaving the brand behind but not leaving the business behind; the product, the service.”
Longman went on to explain that the brand awareness campaign would be a multi-stage process. Currently it is simply focused on the name change, but the next advert will centre on why customers should book with Tui.
“Historically we have not done a lot of brand awareness advertising because people knew the Thomson brand… this ad campaign is all about brand awareness, hence the sponsorship of the monorail at Gatwick and of Sky One,” he added.
Parody video
Asked about Thomas Cook’s move to create an advert spoofing the Tui rebrand, Longman commented he was “sure it was done with the best of intentions and tongue in cheek”.
Cook released the parody video on its social media channels earlier this month, imitating Tui’s “Thomson is changing to Tui” campaign with a similar voiceover and imagery.
While Tui states in its advert: “We cross the ‘Ts’, dot the ‘Is’ and put ‘U’ in the middle”, Cook posted its own version, claiming: “We cross the ‘Ts,’ draw the ‘Ks’ and put ‘homas coo’ in the middle”.
Longman told TTG: “Generally the comments on social media have been pretty positive around Tui and [social media users are] maybe questioning why Thomas Cook has the right to poke fun in a light-hearted way themselves.
“So we take it in the spirit in which it was intended and thank them for drawing attention to our campaign.”
Longman also commented on Cook being overtaken by Jet2holidays as the UK’s second largest licensed tour operator.
“I think it was always the case that it was Thomson and Thomas Cook who were thought of as the big two, so I would imagine they are not overly pleased that they have now moved down to number three and Jet2holidays has overtaken them… maybe now [Cook] will look to focus on that,” he said.
Tom Parry
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