Lastminute.com focuses brand strategy on spontaneous bookings with ‘Love Living’ campaign
Lastminute.com is aiming to capitalise on today’s “culture of immediacy” by centring its brand message around spontaneous bookings in a multi-channel ad campaign called Love Living.
The travel and leisure brand has run extensive research into the behavioural patterns and preferences of its customers to ensure it can meet their evolving needs and expectations. This has involved analysing booking data and other first-party data to gauge more about its customers so it can be better placed to improve the relevancy of its communications.
Lastminute.com chief marketing officer Sarah Bartlett told The Drum defining the role data can play within a business remains a “big challenge” with every brand worth its weight eyeing how to unite disparate data sets to develop single customer views and profiles, with which to better target with relevant content and advertising.
“This is definitely an ambition for us. It’s vital we listen to our customers and know who they are and what their wants and needs are so we can ensure our product meets those needs.
“We have been doing a lot of work to understand them more, starting with looking at booking data, then looking at who they are so we can tailor our proposition based on that information. We then overlay that with customer research and surveys,” she said.
Trends have shown that people are increasingly booking in very last-minute windows with mobile devices bolstering this trend further, according to Bartlett. Currently over half (55 per cent) of sales on its mobile site in the last two months have happened two days or less before check-in, according to the brand.
Mobile also plays an intrinsic role in ensuring it sustains its relationship with customers in between bookings, according to Bartlett.
“Mobile allows us to have a relationship across the entire customer life cycle. So if a customer has made a booking we will ensure we get them ready for their trip what they may need and automated campaign activity around what they have booked. If they haven’t gone through to book then we can send them alerts to show the price has come down again for example. We are doing that more and more through our social channels too," she added.
"People don’t plan ahead and technology allows them to be more spontaneous there is this ‘culture of nowism’ in which people want immediate gratification. It's about getting the most out of your time and that is what this campaign is aimed at."
The campaign, which debuts on ITV2 tonight (22 April), will run across print, social media, and other customer relationship channels for the coming months. Lastminute.come worked with agencies adam&eve DDB and Manning Gottlieb OMD on the campaign.
Throughout the year it will focus on promoting tactical prices including its Price Match Guarantee and sub brands such as Top Secret Hotels.
