got the competition licked
“The past two years have been the consolidation phase, but we have growth plans for 2016-17”
partners don’t just pay for the calls, they get different inventory out of the back of their tenancy,” he said. “We have 1.2 million customers in our database and 300,000 following us on social media, but it’s a broad church in terms of who is coming to our site. There’s a female bias: 58% versus 42% men. [In terms of socio-economic class] A/Bs represent 24.9%, C1s make up 32.2%, C2s equal 20.5% and the remaining 22.4% are D/Es. “That’s the split in terms of visits, but the transactors tend to be the C1s, C2s and D/Es.” Latham said there was a dominance around the northern airports and that, historically, Icelolly attracted clients from the industrial cities and blue-collar workers.
“We will look to areas with high populations for future growth – somewhere like Glasgow rather than the southeast, for example,” he added.
Mass-market approach
Icelolly has enjoyed notable success in terms of sponsorships and partnerships that raise brand awareness. It works with household names such as Ann Summers, Matalan, Ideal World, M&Co and the Metro newspapers. It also sponsors Ant & Dec’s
Saturday Night Takeaway, securing three mentions of Icelolly per show. “This mass-market advertising
works pretty well for us, so you’ll see more of that going forward,” said Latham. “Things such as sponsoring Celebrity Mum and Dad of the Year – this year, Gary Barlow was crowned. He was actively promoting his new show Calendar Girls at the time, so he actually got presented with his award 12 times. We got great mileage out of that.” But Icelolly still has its challenges, one of which is to make it clear
that it is a comparison site, not an online travel agent. It has just produced a new TV
ad, featuring Cyril the Squirrel, with the new strapline: ‘Compare, call, save.’ “So far we’ve uploaded it
only on to YouTube. But it’s had 350,000 views already, so we’re now working out where to put it on regional and possibly even national TV,” said Latham. Icelolly is also working to
engage audiences through more modern channels, and recently held a Blog on the Beach event. The social media masterclass for about 35 travel bloggers featured workshops on the use of GoPro cameras, working with the travel industry and optimising your blog. “It created such traction it began
trending on Twitter,” said Latham. “Pay per click is incredibly
expensive and to get the return is hard, so we’re trying to build other channels to support it.” Icelolly also expects consumer
behaviour to change, and believes a lot more searches will move from desktop to mobile and tablet.
Hardy said: “We’re preparing for
that, and we’re also looking at how to increase our clicks. “Currently, partners want them
to call as they can then upsell. But we believe we can increase their click-throughs as incremental business.”
Growth plans
Latham hopes to see significant growth in the business from next year. “Over the past couple of years, we have become more corporate, for all the right reasons,” he said. “The past two years have been the consolidation phase, but we have growth plans for 2016-17.” Ultimately, Icelolly believes its business model is a “triumvirate” between itself, its partners, which give it stock, and its customers. “Customers want to see a range and depth of product and a range and depth of price, and they want us to do it in a quality, but light-hearted, way. “For God’s sake, we’re not
selling funerals. These are holidays – arguably the best purchase people make each year.”
8 October 2015
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