We made winter something to smile about
Barrhead Travel
- Campaign concepts
- Campaign development
- Multi-channel assets
- Copywriting
- TV production
- Radio production
Barrhead Travel is a Glasgow institution founded in 1975. This multi-faceted business has grown from one small shop to become one of the UK’s biggest retail firms with over 80 branches and 700 employees.
While everyone’s enjoying summer, Barrhead Travel turn their attention to winter. Historically a period that is often summer’s poor relation, for winter 22/23 they wanted a vibrant, attention-grabbing campaign that customers could connect with and – very importantly – would drive late bookings. We needed to tie together a variety of brand and campaign messages and show off the wide range of holidays available at this time of year. Barrhead Travel expected outstanding results from this campaign: holiday enquiries, extra footfall to their stores and steep sales targets to be met. Talk about pressure. Just recapping this is making us sweat.
The Challenge Ahead
We really did have our work cut out for us. There was ongoing uncertainty with travel post-Covid and some popular destinations were still imposing restrictions. Although the industry was showing signs of recovery, the pre-pandemic sales target was ambitious. There was a lack of consumer confidence with air traffic control strikes, security issues and airport delays. Plus, finding one hook for the campaign was tricky because winter holidays are so varied from ski trips to far-flung shores and more.
Love Winter
For those of us in the UK – especially Scotland – winter can be a slog. The sun disappears, the wind cuts through you, the rain doesn’t stop – and if it does, it’s probably because it’s snowing. We wanted to show that winter with Barrhead Travel could be one filled with sunshine, adventure, and excitement. In fact, there were so many different options on offer, customers could have whatever kind of winter they pleased.
Something to smile about
It’s no secret that if you can bring a smile to your customers’ faces, your work can be more memorable. Keen to inject some personality into the campaign and have some fun with it, we led with Holidays that make you love winter. We used well-known phrases commonly associated with winter in the UK – and gave them a visual twist: Christmas Jumper was someone leaping into a swimming pool, Autumn Leaves was palm trees baked in the warm glow of a tropical sunset, Chestnuts Roasting was a cheeky take on a man warming his… Anyway, you get the drift. Each visual we showed was bursting with life and colour, and depicted the massive variety of holiday experiences available.
A Winter Warmer
Our campaign was a breath of fresh air which excited and enthused the client. We delivered varied and flexible campaign, full of personality. The work appeared over multiple channels including radio, press, digital, social media, email, large-format poster sites, bus backs, phone boxes and point of sale. We delivered double-digit growth on 2019 performances and saw an incredible 30% increase in 2022 winter holiday sales. Impressive considering the market was in post-Covid turmoil. The work we did for Barrhead Travel proved so popular it ran again in 23/24. There’s no surer sign of a happy client.
30%
increase in winter holiday sales
