NEWS SPECIAL REPORT Strawberry agent pips rivals


Norwegian Cruise Line invited travel agents to pitch a marketing plan to promote its Premium All Inclusive fare. Winner Kate Holroyd of Strawberry Holidays tells Harry Kemble about her pitch


Kate Holroyd, by her own admission, was very confident walking into the Travel Weekly offices to give her Norwegian Cruise Line marketing pitch.


She’d taken the day off work


to travel to London by train from the northwest, where she co-runs Blackburn-based travel agency Strawberry Holidays with her mother-in-law and father-in-law. Just a few weeks before Holroyd’s


big day, NCL had invited agents to develop a two-month sales and marketing plan to promote its Premium All Inclusive fare. NCL introduced its all-inclusive


fare category to British sailings last year. It means passengers who sail with the line now have drinks, bottled water and gratuities included in the cost of their cruise. The prize for the best pitch


was £4,000 in marketing funds, a one-day consultancy from Karen Sequeira, NCL’s marketing director for the UK, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa, and business development director Nicky Foot, plus £1,000 for a night out for the winning agency’s team. As an NCL fan who’d been on five


cruises with the line since 2014, Holroyd felt the task was well within her grasp. She knew the NCL product from stern to bow. “I was very confident,” says


Holroyd, casting her mind back to the day. “I had confidence in my


“I had confidence in my plan and I was not in that room to do any theatrics”


plan and I was not in that room to do any theatrics. “I loved putting together the


plan, but pitching it was fun too.” In her initial entry for the


competition, Holroyd (pictured, left) submitted a short video of herself presenting her marketing plan for NCL. The day of the pitch was also her


daughter’s birthday. As Holroyd had to pick up her daughter from school that afternoon, she could not let her pitch overrun. The judging panel consisted of Clia UK director Andy Harmer, Travel Weekly editor-in-chief


Lucy Huxley and NCL’s marketing executives. Heavily pregnant with her


second child, Holroyd says the fact she is expecting helped give her a steely determination to win. She adds that being a mum is the


“toughest job anyone could have”. Holroyd pitched a digital campaign using social media platforms Facebook and YouTube that would encourage people to engage with Strawberry Holidays. The videos shown on


Strawberry Holidays’ social media platforms will use NCL content


14 travelweekly.co.uk 13 September 2018


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