The team at TUI UK were recipients of the Travel Creator Marketing Campaign of the Year Award at The BCAs for their Cities & Experiences Campaign.
The category, voted on by members of the bCreator Committee and public, was incredibly strong with Pepper Studio’s campaign for Tourism Ireland with Tripadvisor, Surfshark VPN’s smooth journeys beyond borders and THE FIFTH’S Eurostar Unfiltered campaign also shortlisted for this Award.
Creators who partnered with TUI UK on this campaign included Tonia Hope, Stuart & Francis and Lucy Edwards.
Following their Award win, we spoke to Hayley Shortman (above: 2nd from right) who is the Influencer Marketing Manager at TUI UK about the campaign and what they look for when working with creators.
Where did the idea come about for this campaign?
The campaign was a wider brand activation that went across a variation of channels including TV, Radio and digital. We’ve been working really hard at TUI to incorporate creator campaigns into our business as usual as we know they can drive real resonance with the brand and especially in this case where we were aiming to drive awareness of a specific product offering, we wanted to do that in a way that could be tailored to so many customer types.
How did you select creators for this campaign?
Our goal was to always ensure we picked creators who could diversify the way we showcase travel and demonstrate how our city breaks & experiences were inclusive for everyone. Not only did this show how TUI are able to adapt to different needs, but it gave us an authentic way of demonstrating our breadth of destinations and experiences.
If a creator wanted to work with you, how would they go about it?
Understandably, travel is an enticing industry to work in and with TUI travelling to so many countries in the world, there are so many experiences we can offer to the creators we work with.
The best relationships we have built are with the creators who understand why people would want to book with TUI and what makes us different. That loyalty isn’t something that goes unnoticed and just like our customers are loyal to us as a brand, we want to demonstrate the same ethos in our partnerships.
So I would definitely say take the time to understand if TUI feels like the right brand fit for you and ultimately your audience.
The creators who take the time to get to know us as a brand really stand out, and I always think putting a pitch together with that in mind can help inspire some ideas that maybe we’ve not thought about before.
Did anything surprise you about this campaign along the way?
We’re getting so many learnings from combining creator content with our paid campaigns, so it’s always a great surprise to see how the creator content contributes to driving results.
Our TikTok Brand Lift Study showed us that creator content drove a 6.9% increase in awareness for our city breaks offering which was a great result for us. With every campaign, I just love to see how the content comes together and the different stories our creators can tell.
We were delighted to have TUI UK and Marella Cruises also join us at the bCreator Travel Show in March 2023 for a day of exciting panel talks, podcast recordings and brand exhibitions.
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