Sunshine Saturday: Brits warm up to travel campaigns after Christmas

This year's Sunshine Saturday (6 Jan), the UK's biggest day for holiday bookings, brought a wave of sunshine for several travel brands as their advertising campaigns caught the attention of potential holidaymakers.

Looking at the period between this past Christmas and mid-January of the new year, data from YouGov BrandIndex reveals that consumers in the UK were more likely to be taking notice of brands such as Jet2holidays, easy Jet holidays, On the Beach, Booking.com and more.

Let’s explore snapshots of Ad Awareness from a few of the most popular companies showing positive movement across the online travel provider sector.

• Strong starts for Jet2holidays, TUI and Booking.com: We asked people if they saw an ad for a brand during the Sunshine Saturday period and consumers placed these three travel providers in pole position. Booking.com and Jet2holidays improved their Ad Awareness scores in the leadup to and after Sunshine Saturday while TUI maintained a stable level of advertising attention.
  
• EasyJet holidays and On the Beach’s Ad Awareness scores soar: Despite starting the period with lower Ad Awareness scores compared to the previously mentioned three brands, both EasyJet holidays and On the Beach garnered higher scores in the approach to Sunshine Saturday. Easyjet holidays improved its Ad Awareness score from 9% of UK consumers saying they saw an ad for the brand right after Christmas to a peak of 22% in mid-January. Similarly, On the Beach’s Ad Awareness jumped from 4% to 19%.
  
• British Airways Holidays and Hays Travel outperform the overall online travel provider's sector: Ad Awareness grew for the two travel brands between Christmas and mid-January, placing the brands above the sector average. While Hays Travel’s peak Ad Awareness score came days after Sunshine Saturday and has since stabilised, British Airways Holidays Ad Awareness continues to advance its scores to date.

These are just some of the travel providers showing gains across the sector. YouGov tracks other major players such as Trivago, Virgin Holidays and Expedia so please reach out to learn more about how these brands fared amidst the Sunshine Saturday period.