NEWS SPECIAL REPORT Thomson Royal Caribbean
MOMENTS: This year marks the final Thomson TV ad campaign before the iconic holiday name is subsumed into the Tui brand. Recently it’s been Thomson that has set the bar for TV ads, with the likes of Simon the Ogre and Miles the Bear, and the use of powerful music beds like Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. This year, Thomson takes its inspiration from the viral internet hit the Mannequin Challenge. The advert features a girl walking from the beach towards her father in a swimming pool – with ‘moments’ frozen around her – before jumping into his arms. As a TV holiday advert, it has everything required, but it doesn’t hit the previous heights achieved by this iconic brand.
7/10 P&O Cruises On the Beach
WHERE EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS: Royal Caribbean’s latest offering is far from a typical cruise TV advert. Gone are references to signature chefs or West End shows on board. Instead it focuses on the land-based experiences that can be enjoyed while on a cruise. The production values are superb as the advert builds up your curiosity between clips of latitude and longitude coordinates and a stunning scene. And the strapline ‘Where Extraordinary Happens’ is a powerful hook. Would it make a cruise virgin choose a cruise? I’m not entirely convinced. Would it make an experienced cruise consumer switch from another cruise brand to Royal Caribbean? Very possibly.
Kayak Travel Republic
7/10
THIS IS LIFE: P&O Cruises’ advert, featuring Rob Brydon, is starting to become a familiar part of the TV advertising landscape for the turn of year. This year’s advert has a certain charm brought to it by Brydon’s narration and acting, all set to the gentle music bed of the old Morecambe & Wise Show theme tune Bring Me Sunshine. If you are a cruise fan you will no doubt love it, although I’m not convinced it would make you switch brands. If you are a cruise virgin it may not resonate powerfully enough with you.
6/10
LOUNGE ON: This year’s On the Beach campaign doesn’t quite reach the heights of last year’s ad for me, but it’s effective nonetheless. The theme is strong enough and the script drives home the emphasis on lounging and relaxing. The ability to tailor the holiday and be in charge of all facets of an On the Beach break is strongly communicated by the voiceover, while the lead character lounges in various guises and holiday scenes. Will it inspire the viewer to take action? I feel it will – to its target audience anyway.
6/10
MY TOOLS 30: Kayak has hit the TV screen this year with a 30-second advert featuring and narrated by extreme snowboarding legend Jeremy Jones. The imagery is strong with some stunning photography, and the sentiments and words will no doubt resonate with the target audience. However, save for the website address in the call to action, it comes across very much as a US TV advert trying to appeal to an altogether different UK market, leaving me to wonder if that will hamper its ability to cut through to a wider British audience.
5/10
YOURS FOR THE MAKING: Travel Republic’s approach to its TV advertising campaign is a much more traditional one than previous outings. Soft, relaxing music, a calming voiceover and bright holiday imagery blend together to create a very watchable advert. Certainly the message of tailoring a holiday to meet your needs is driven home, both in the voiceover script and in the sign-off in the final clip. However, at the end of the advert I felt it failed to enable the brand to stand out from all the other travel adverts crowding our screens.
5/10
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travelweekly.co.uk 5 January 2017
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