Which travel brands are winning with their winter campaigns in UK

As the turn of the year came around, the UK travel sector witnessed its usual surge in advertising activities, with leading companies vying for consumer attention in a highly competitive market. In this article, we delve into data from YouGov BrandIndex to analyse the performance of some of the biggest travel companies and assess how effectively they converted awareness into tangible purchases.

Looking at the two-month period between December 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024, our data reveals that consumers in the UK were generally more likely to be taking notice of Jet2holidays. The tour company has seen the highest uplift in Ad Awareness scores from 19.4% on December 24, 2023, to 35.9% on January 29,2024: an improvement of 16.5 points. The high Ad Awareness could be attributed to their Prepare2Peak campaign that runs until the end of February.

Booking.com and easyJet holidays improved their Ad Awareness scores by more than 12 points in the New Year. The percentages of UK consumers who reported seeing advertisements for Booking.com and easyJet holidays increased from 14.4% and 8.7% during the Christmas period to reach their highest levels at 26.8% and 20.8% in mid-January.

Trivago’s Ad Awareness jumped 9.8 percentage points from 5.7% to 15.5% with a little help from its AI-led TV advertising campaign, which launched mid-December.

TUI’s scores rise from 20.9 to 28.6 (+7.7); the brand’s first-ever Christmas commercial sustained a consistent level of advertising attention, beginning with high Ad Awareness and maintaining stability throughout.

British Airways Holidays, Virgin Holidays and Expedia saw slight gains in Ad Awareness, each rising between 4.8 to 6.5 percentage points.

The turn of the year marked a strategic battleground for UK travel companies as they intensified their advertising efforts to capture consumer attention. Jet2holidays emerged as a standout performer, achieving a substantial 16.5-point increase in Ad Awareness.

In another article we analyse how successful they are at converting consumers, from Awareness to Consideration and finally Purchase Intent.

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