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Advertising Center Parcs

Center Parcs will tease biggest campaign of the year on Facebook before it goes live on TV in new strategy aimed at targeting Christmas rush

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By Jessica Goodfellow, Media Reporter

December 8, 2016 | 3 min read

Center Parcs is set to unveil its biggest campaign of the year in the next few weeks that will see the holiday park company trial a new marketing strategy whereby it will tease the campaign on Facebook before going live on TV just before Christmas.

Center Parcs new TV ad following the narrative of a family as they explore the great outdoors

Center Parcs new TV ad following the narrative of a family as they explore the great outdoors

The 50-second spot takes viewers through a forest fairytale set at one of its holiday parks and follows a family of four as characters from the tale are brought to life. It builds upon the success of emotion-led advertising first tested by the brand last year in its Bears campaign.

"In many ways it is a follow on from what we did last year when we embarked on a significant change in our advertising, where we moved away from showing the product and families experiencing a good time at Center Parcs and showed an emotional story based on research," said Colin Whaley, sales and marketing director at Center Parcs.

“We realised that beneath the service of people doing activities and having fun, the real reason people come back to Center Parcs so often is an emotional reason, spending time with family.

"This year we are taking that a little further around the theme of imagination, using imagination as a way of getting families to spend quality time together."

The campaign launches on 21 December on the company’s Facebook page, before featuring on TV from the 23 December. It marks the first time Center Parcs have launched the advert on Facebook first, followed by TV.

The campaign has been launched earlier this year in order to seed the idea of a holiday in the run up to Christmas, Whaley said, an important time to get share of voice. The eight weeks following the festive period is the travel industry’s peak booking season, when Center Parcs takes 40% of its total bookings of the year, Whaley revealed.

The integrated campaign includes cinema, digital and VoD activity, as well as social, PR and at each of its five UK villages. The split between digital and TV is 50/50, Whaley said, revealing that while TV is still an important part of the marketing mix it is “nowhere near as big as it used to be” as digital plays an increasingly important role in reaching its target demographic. The holiday company has increased its spend in paid social by over 100% this year compared to last year, he added.

The ad was created by advertising agency Brothers and Sisters.

Advertising Center Parcs

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