Ensemble Launches Consumer Promotion

Ensemble Travel Group is helping its members boost their business with its just-released consumer promotion called “Vacation Therapy.” The multi-version promotion is designed around 16 breakout vacations complete with "therapeutic" offers from Ensemble suppliers. Members’ clients are receiving a specific series of customized offers and letter based on their personal profile.

“Ensemble Travel Group exists for one reason: to help our members become more successful and increasingly profitable business people,” said Jack E. Mannix, Ensemble Travel Group president and CEO. “In today’s tough times, this charge takes on an even greater role as we must aggressively support the membership with new avenues to profit. Ensemble Vacation Therapy does a terrific job positioning agents as real pros, both as travel experts and savvy marketers to their most important clients.”

Participating suppliers include: Crystal Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea, Yachts of Seabourn, Abercrombie & Kent, Y'alla Tours, Avalon Waterways/Burt Wolf Cruises, G.A.P Adventures, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Uniworld, Classic Vacations, Gogo Worldwide Vacations, CIE Tours, and Globus.

The series of promotional mailers offers was delivered to clients’ homes early in the first week of March. Each package effectively cuts through the “offer clutter” that is rampant in the current marketplace, and zeroes in on what matters most to the majority of travelers – value and price, Ensemble says. Although a majority of the offers must be booked by the end of March, Vacation Therapy gives agents the tools needed to demonstrate their personal interest in their clients on a long-term basis.

Initial reports show that the Vacation Therapy campaign has already generated strong interest and booking activity for members, Ensemble said. “This promotion is the best I’ve seen in the marketplace in years,” says Ensemble Travel Group member Susan Tanzman of Martin’s Travel & Tours. “The stimulus package is brilliant and sure to produce bookings in no time. Its approach is truly a call-to-action, but done in a manner that makes the client feel wonderful about the sale. Bravo Ensemble!”

According to Carol Black, Ensemble’s senior director of strategic marketing, the staff discussed various strategic and tactical ideas with members of its luxury and marketing committees before settling on a formal stimulus promotion.

“During our discussions several things stood out: First, the campaign clearly needed to address the barriers to sales. Second, it must provide a very personalized approach that opens a conversation between agents and clients. And finally, it must position members to offer solutions. We think Vacation Therapy can act as a shot in the arm for members by stimulating sales opportunities that will last far beyond the short-term.”

In addition to creating Vacation Therapy, Ensemble Travel Group members received their first 2008 profit sharing payment in January. “It was important for us to deliver when members really needed it,” said Mannix. 

Visit www.ensembledirect.com.