The challenge

Despite holidaymakers finally jetting off on their jollies, summer is the time when On the Beach suffers the most in terms of brand salience. On the Beach’s business model means an absence of physical touchpoints, like planes, check-in desks and resort reps, that competitors have.

Therefore, we needed their media presence to be as loud and appealing as their product perks and brand personality, to increase consideration and drive travellers to site to book their next holiday. But when Jet2, TUI and EasyJet outspend you by 75-94%*, this is a huge ask.

Objectives

Raise Awareness amongst the On the Beach target audience BC1C2 15-54
Maximise On the Beach consideration amongst Magic listeners
Support On the Beach’s wider marketing activity

The idea

The Magic network reaches 1,994,000 BC1C2 15 – 54 year olds each week, offering On the Beach a holiday-loving audience spending on average £1,550 a year on holidays (£50 higher than average) and going on an average of 3 holidays a year. They’re 15% more likely than average to be planning a holiday in the next 3 months and 59% more likely than average to use ‘On the Beach’ when booking holidays. They’re also 18% more likely than average to always be looking for inspiration for where to go on holiday.

This insight led to a sponsorship of the hugely popular Magic Radio Breakfast Show being proposed to reach a holiday-loving audience, and hosts Ronan and Harriet would bring the personality of the On the Beach brand to life with listeners.

Through promotional spikes, fun games, giveaways and by using Smart Speaker actionable audio ads, On the Beach would become synonymous with Magic’s lively brand and their perks and USPs would be ingrained in audience’s minds.

The execution

The drum beat of the always on credits and supercredits built awareness of the On the Beach brand name and were changed frequently to keep audiences across the latest perks and offers whilst the promotional bursts further highlighted many of the perks.

Listeners were invited on air to play our ‘Fast Track Game’ where a song was ‘fast-tracked’ and they had to guess what it was for the chance to win an amazing holiday.

Ronan and Harriet also hosted an entire Breakfast Show from the ‘My Lounge’ at Gatwick Airport to highlight On the Beach’s ‘free lounge access’ perk. Five couples were invited there to play the ‘Airport Lounge Olympics’ and they battled it out for the chance to win an all-inclusive trip to Mexico!

We even sent the Breakfast Show co-host Eloise to Spain to immerse herself in an On the Beach holiday of her own.  She shared her experience and all the perks she enjoyed via ‘Eloise’s Travel Diary’ live on air and listeners were challenged to guess ‘what happened to Eloise next’.

All on air promotions were supported by presenter live reads across the day to drive excitement for the giveaways and On the Beach’s array of perks and social content that drove entries whilst showcasing the On the Beach brand.

Magic also created a Smart Speaker quiz especially for On the Beach and invited audiences to try to make it all the way from the airport to ‘On the Beach’ for the chance to be entered in the draw to WIN a holiday thanks to On the Beach. Players navigated their way through entertaining questions that took them from the airport, through fast track, via the airport shopping, the lounge, onto the plane, to the hotel and then finally On the Beach.

Magic Breakfast and On the Beach ran a 12-month sponsorship which included always on credits and supercredits on air with 4 promotional bursts that included social posts, as well as an always on creative page. This activity was additionally supported by advertorials in Grazia, Closer & Heat and a 4-month burst of Octave digital audio over their key holiday booking period.

The impact

Unprompted brand awareness has increased 16% since the start of the campaign, taking On the Beach from 5th place in their competitor set to 3rd place and in the Top 3.

Consideration of On the Beach has increased 13% as a result of the campaign.

All brand considerations have increased since the start of the campaign, such as trust increasing by 21% (they are a provider you can trust)

Campaign recall remained high throughout the campaign – 58% at campaign end.

Action taken as a result of the campaign has remained high throughout, with 61% taking some sort of action at the end of the campaign.

“This partnership with Magic Radio has been such an exciting collaboration. Ronan, Harriet and the wider Magic team have helped us connect with our audiences and raised awareness of our brand in a way we’ve never done before. Just listening to the show every weekday morning, you can hear how they’ve embraced our brand and can deliver our commercial messaging in such a fun, animated and exciting way.”
Andy Stern, Head of Brand, On the Beach