Thomsonfly – Promoting a National Airline Via Local Media

Entry to the JICREG Awards 2006

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 National Press 61% 69% 71% 74% 92% 76% 73% Regional Press 39% 31% 29% 26% 8% 24% 27%

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NMR: Jan/Nov05

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

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Exploring consumer insight … 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

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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

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Source: MPG Advocacy

And the Life is Local study highlighted the relevance of locality

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Source: Newspaper Society Research Consumers Choice V

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 Coventry, Doncaster, Bournemouth Newcastle, Cardiff London

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Big City Manchester

Swanse a

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

M anche ste r Rothe rham Liv e rpool Wirral Warrington Stockport She ffie ld

A 49 A623

Che ste rfie ld

A61 7 A57

Lincoln

A158 A54 A 49 4 A489 A 43 8 A 48 3 A5 A 46 5 A44 A 51

Stoke On Tre nt

M54 M50 A52 A17

De rby Nottingham

A50 A4 53 A 38 A1 6 A 11 01

Le ice ste r

A606

Pe te rborough Birmingham

A45

Cov e ntry

M42 A 46 M 69 M45 A42 2 A 42 9 A14 A 43

Northampton

M1

Be dford

A6

M ilton Ke yne s Cambridge

A 11 A1 0

Luton

A417 A41 A120 A 11 M10 M25 M5 A42 0 M1 A1 2 A4 33 M40 M 11

Ne wport

M4 8 M4

Swindon

A 34 A 40 74

Re ading

M4

London

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

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A1 3

Colche ste r Norwich Ipswich

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.

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Area AIR%: The percentage of all people in this demographic group living in the defined area who read the newspaper title”

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…

Luton catchment area Central London 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 London Delivers 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

Luton News & Dunstable Gazette Gp Luton Herald & Post Herts Mercury Milton Keynes Citizen Bedfordshire on Sunday Herts Advertiser Watford Observer Evening Standard Metro Surrey Advertiser Series Kent Messenger Series West Sussex County Times Series Brighton & Hove Leader Eastbourne Herald making media make a difference