Holidaylettings.co.uk gets January campaign on track

January 2010

Holidaylettings.co.uk, the UK’s favourite holiday home website, has started 2010 with its biggest advertising campaign to date. The firm chose Oxfordshire-based design company mark-making* to create a national campaign aimed at rail users.

The bright blue posters are currently splashed across more than 60 stations around the UK, with Birmingham International and Manchester Piccadilly chosen as the two key 'domination stations' to anchor the campaign.

The campaign concept is a simple but effective twist on railway signage. One poster plays with the standard ‘Way Out’ sign, while the other represents the holiday decision-making process as a rail map.

Steve Turner, creative director at mark-making*, explained: "The idea behind the campaign was to tell people how much more they get when opting for a holiday home rather than going down the package holiday route. Renting a holiday home offers better value for money, freedom and the chance to enjoy your own space. Clever use of site-specific advertising, strong use of the corporate colours and a simple clean message help to fix the holidaylettings.co.uk brand in the minds of holidaymakers."

The team at holidaylettings.co.uk, currently the UK’s fastest-growing holiday home rental website, estimate that more than 50 million rail passengers will walk past the ads in January alone.

Ross Elder, managing director of holidaylettings.co.uk, said: "Sharing the benefits of renting a private holiday home is helping millions of people change the way they holiday for the better. These striking, intuitive posters are part and parcel of our attempts to engage an ever wider audience of people with this most beneficial of holiday concepts."

This campaign follows 2009’s very successful London campaign that is probably best remembered for its taxi advertising, which covered cabs with sun, surf and beautiful people. Media Week loved the 'cheeky idea' and 'powerful execution', but Bath and North East Somerset Council initially refused to allow the campaign to run on local taxis because it objected to the images of swimwear-clad sunbathers (of both sexes). However, after embarrassing attention from the Western Daily Press, council officials did a hasty U-turn and conceded: "The advertising covers the bare essentials of our licensing requirements."