National Holidays was the UK’s number 1 coach holiday company, and although coach travel has come a long way since the 80s, the perceptions of what it’s like (particularly with younger consumers) have not kept up.
The challenge was to help people see National Holidays differently. Not as “coach travel”, but as great value trips and experiences that are easy to book and genuinely enjoyable.
CHALLENGE
National Holidays needed to show that coach travel can be for everyone and that there is a trip suitable for everyone too! With trips across UK and European destinations, they wanted to show the experience as modern, straightforward and really good value!
KEY DECISIONS
Instead of telling people “coach travel is great now”, we designed a campaign that let audiences see it through the eyes of people they already trusted. The content had to do three things quickly: show variety, show value, and make the whole thing feel easy.
We then paired that content with a simple paid structure: first get the right people onto the right landing pages, then retarget based on real intent.
IMPACT
The campaign gave National Holidays a more modern way to talk about coach travel, using real experiences and real people to do the heavy lifting.
The Bruges Mini Cruise video coincided with a £12,000 uplift in Bruges break sales, and creative reached 38K views on one featured post.
STRATEGY
A five-month influencer campaign called “Get Onboard”, built around five different trip types, brought to life through influencer-led content and brand-led social support.
We researched and worked with a set of five influencers across family, budget travel, showtime and European travel, each chosen to reflect both current and future National Holidays customers.
Alongside the campaign, we developed a paid media approach in two stages:
Stage 1: Awareness and web traffic, always driving to a specific booking or enquiry page.
Stage 2: Retargeting, serving follow-up ads once someone had visited the site, using offers or informative prompts to nudge conversion.
