sunvil

Over the past 35 years tour operator Sunvil has built a strong reputation in the independent holiday market; it has developed its product in line with demand, nurtured steady consumer growth and achieved high levels of repeat custom

the brief Sunvil began life in the 1970s, when the company offered a range of sunshine villas in one or two countries, to a small audience. It did what it did well and as a result, started to gain a loyal customer base.

Fast-forward to 2008 however and things were starting to change. The market had grown massively: they were more places to visit and more people wanting to visit them. Holidaymakers were spoilt for choice – and this stagnant seventies brand wasn't attracting their attention. It was Orchestra's job to change this.

Orchestra's solution was multilateral and kicked off with a much-needed re-brand. In keeping, Sunvil's media strategy also needed an overhaul; using traditional, outdated classified advertising and multiple insertions in newspapers advertising multiple destinations and products, was not proving a strategy for success.

We opted to move Sunvil out of solus classified press advertising into a combination of brand awareness building media, and media with a high affinity with the target audience. In-line with the new brand identity, the planning team used the mantra "whatever medium Sunvil advertises in or aligns itself with, it must have a strong editorial integrity or sense of honesty about it. Consider how people 'real-ly' experience the brand – and keep it real".

For the launch in January 2009, the media selection included Television (Travel Channel), including on-air spots and competition, Radio (Classic FM) competition campaign, larger display ads in national press and sponsorship of reader sections in travel magazines (keeping focus on 'real' people's holidays) all with a generic focus on Sunvil as a company. Specific destination advertising (often funded by a third party) was focused in the more traditional classified press arena as well as in travel magazines and as part of the TV and radio competitions. This allowed Sunvil to have a strong brand awareness campaign and, with more focused product specific campaign running in tandem, a halo effect was effectively achieved.

The TV airtime achieved a total of 1.7m impacts, with 12,829 entrants to the Sweden competition. 21% of the people who entered the competition opted-in to receive more information about Sunvil. Radio activity reached 685,000 people, and the competition (win a trip to Azores) received 11,597 entrants. 35% of those entrants opted-in to receive more information on Sunvil. Web traffic increased by a significant 79% in the month of January vs. December 2008, and by 52% year-on-year.