Ensemble Travel Group reports it plans to launch a year-round Ensemble Vacation Therapy campaign as the centerpiece of its 2011 marketing plans for members. Carol Black, senior director of marketing strategy, unveiled the campaign during Ensemble’s International Conference in Orlando.
The extended promotion consists of a new Ensemble Vacation Therapy catalog published in the winter and fall, which will drive sales for members during two prime selling seasons. The catalog will feature a strong offer and enhanced customization features as well as an e-marketing component.
“The promotion was extremely compelling as it demonstrated agents’ personal interest in their clients by presenting unique travel options that resonated with travelers and offered solutions that appealed to their daily emotional challenges,” said Black.
Agency owners as well as front-line specialists continue to give the campaign high marks. “The Ensemble Vacation Therapy project has proven to be one of the most effective marketing pieces we have ever used,” says Jerry Vaughn of World Voyager Vacations. “It drives calls and bookings very quickly after consumers receive it. Adding the e-mail distribution component to it has extended its reach in a very positive and beneficial way. We have received a steady stream of calls, many of which turned into very good bookings of multiple staterooms on cruises and multiple travelers on land vacations.”
The spring/summer Vacation Therapy promotion builds on an array of mailers offering different prescriptions and cures for key customer types, Ensemble says.
The mid-year campaign is integrated with interactive online, e-marketing, and social networking opportunities for members. In addition to exposing the full array of Ensemble Vacation Therapy offers to existing customers and encouraging them to share their “discoveries” in various social networking environments, pay-per-click advertising on Facebook will be a pivotal lead-generator for members.
While Ensemble Vacation Therapy will serve as the showcase for members’ selling efforts next year, embedded in their marketing plans is an array of complimentary results-driven components. This includes free target mailings and specialty mailers, including the organization’s hosted cruise and Ensemble Hotel and Resort Collection collateral, free e-mail programs, small ship cruising and customized single supplier mailings and a robust monthly e-zine.
Another tool for members in 2011 will be, Ensemble Lifestyles. First launched in 2008, the publication sports a “When your passion is travel” tagline and is specifically designed to meet the aspirations of the different types of affluent customers.
Included in the consortium’s e-marketing portfolio is the Ensemble E-Matrix program, powered by TRAMS and designed to further integrate the marketing and sales process and monitor results.
Ensemble also provides customer segmentation tools that not only identifies the right client for the right promotion, but also delivers it in language and graphics that appeal to the customer’s hot buttons and tastes. It also identifies those clients who have survived the recession with the disposable income to buy.
Visit www.ensembletravel.com.