Travel Leisure

Senior vice-president and CMO, Booking.com Booking.com is a brand that understands the value of consistency. Over a decade in, the travel platform continues to launch campaigns under its ‘Booking.yeah’ brand platform. Arjan Dijk has led the marketing team since 2019. Under his leadership, the brand has moved away from what he sees as an artificial divide between performance and brand marketing, with Dijk instead preferring to split Booking.com’s marketing into low, medium and high intensity activity. Now, the brand’s owner has said it is “gradually” reducing the amount of investment it makes in paid media channels as it looks to drive direct bookings through its Genius loyalty programme and “connected trip” offer, which allows travellers to book an entire trip through the Booking.com platform. Efficiency of marketing spend has also been a major focus under Dijk’s leadership, with the brand stating it is always looking for the best way to “put [budget] to work”. Overall, the business grew its revenues by 25% across 2023, while adjusted EBITDA rose 34% to $7.1bn (£5.5bn).■

Chief customer & marketing officer, EasyJet 2023 was a strong year for EasyJet, which reported record profit before tax in the second half despite a difficult operating environment. Leading the marketing agenda is Robert Birge, who oversaw a 34% increase in sales and marketing spend over the year to £232m. As part of that investment, Birge has taken the airline in a different creative direction with the launch of its brand platform, ‘Get Out There’. Achieving distinctiveness is a challenge in the travel industry, but the new platform strives to do so by tapping into the emotion of travel and EasyJet’s challenger spirit. The launch campaign saw tourist attractions like the Mona Lisa break free to travel the world themselves. Building on the platform, EasyJet took its ongoing partnership with the Eurovision Song Contest to a new level this year, celebrating with a series of in-flight activations. The airline has also executed some innovative recruitment campaigns over the past year to tackle outdated stereotyping, including one ‘talking billboard’ featuring an EasyJet pilot.■

travel, leisure & hospitality

Robert Birge

Arjan Dijk

Group marketing & sales director, UK & Europe, Merlin Entertainment Merlin Entertainment’s Sara Holt was promoted twice in 2023, expanding her remit to oversee all divisions and operating groups in the UK, as well as the resort theme parks business in Europe. She now manages a team of 150 and has a £30m marketing budget, with accountability for a £700m P&L. Last year Merlin launched a TV campaign promoting the new Alton Towers ride, The Curse at Alton Manor. It was shortlisted for a Marketing Society award and, according to Holt, has “paved the way [for] driving significant ROI”. Building on that momentum, this year Merlin broke from tradition by launching its first-ever enterprise-wide brand campaign, as it fights to win consumers’ discretionary spend and drive incremental demand into its category. Although the company has yet to return to its pre-pandemic heights, visitor numbers increased by 12.8% in 2023 to 62.1 million. With the launch of its first masterbrand campaign, Holt and Merlin are hoping they can increase that number even further in 2024.■

CMO, On the Beach Zoe Harris has worked hard to broaden On the Beach's appeal beyond the cheap and cheerful perception it once had. Almost four years into her role, she is now on a mission to “decommodify” the travel booking platform and ensure its marketing spend works as hard as possible. This has meant a new focus on highlighting On the Beach’s points of difference to travellers, whether that's its perks proposition or its new brand ambassador, Paddy McGuinness. As a result, On the Beach reported its “highest ever” top three consideration score at 30%, as well as its “best summer ever”. Total transaction value hit a record £1.1bn. That momentum continued into the first half of 2024. The brand’s top three consideration score hit 29%, rising to 46% among those consumers aware of its perks. On the Beach is an organisation that recognises the importance of the marketing function, with Harris describing it as being “front and centre” at the business. This is reflected by a decision to elevate Harris to the board where she is helping to drive the direction of travel for the business, as well as bringing the voice of the customer into the room.■

Zoe Harris

Sara Holt

Marketing director, British Airways With a £7bn transformation plan in the works, British Airways is eyeing up a more customer-focused future. With this future in mind, marketing boss Hamish McVey has led the launch of BA’s first big TV campaign since 2019. The campaign builds on its ‘A British Original’ brand platform, first unveiled at the end of 2022 with an extensive print, digital and outdoor campaign. The campaign went on to win a 2023 Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, while the business’s owner IAG posted record profits for its 2023 financial year. Instilled with confidence in the platform, McVey worked with agency Uncommon to craft the new TV spot. It tells the story of a baby on her first flight, dreaming about the future experiences she will have with the airline. A striking outdoor campaign launched shortly after, featuring photos of passengers’ looks of wonder as they stare out of plane windows. The ads effectively play off the brand’s existing equity, such that the full BA logo doesn’t appear at all. Outside of his work leading BA’s marketing, McVey was appointed chair of ISBA’s executive committee in March and will help to guide the industry body’s future agenda.■

Vice-president of brand & marketing, Trainline The pandemic was devastating for the UK rail industry, with all but the most essential travel halted. But just a few years on, Trainline is stronger than ever. The company’s ticket sales in the year ending February 2024 reached £5.3bn, up 22% year on year and far exceeding the £3.7bn made in 2019. Leading the comeback from a brand and marketing perspective is Jo McClintock. Since joining Trainline in 2021, she has grown the marketing team from six people in one market to 49 across five. McClintock encourages her marketers to “think like scientists”, as she tries to instil a culture of curiosity based on taking risks. The former Moonpig and Skyscanner marketing leader has also overseen a significant increase in Trainline’s brand marketing budget. Based on extensive behavioural science research, McClintock has launched two ongoing brand campaigns. The first, ‘I Came By Train’, is an unbranded campaign designed to grow the train category and lean into its sustainability credentials. The second, ‘Great Journeys Start with Trainline’, launched in April 2023 and positions the brand as one that delivers on customers’ needs.■

Jo McClintock

Hamish McVey

Regional marketing director EMEA, Airbnb Marketing boss Lulu Skinner has been at Airbnb for nearly nine years. The start of her current role as regional marketing director for EMEA in August 2021 coincided with the travel business ramping up its investment in brand building. Now firmly bedded in, this shift helped Airbnb boost earnings, direct bookings, and retention in 2023. Sales and marketing spend last year reached $1.73bn (£1.35bn), while the firm generated $9.92bn (£7.90bn) in revenue - an 18% increase year over year. That double-digit growth continued into the first quarter of 2024, which marked Airbnb’s strongest first quarter in its history. Despite upping its spend, Airbnb claims to take a “very disciplined” approach to marketing, which it credits with its ongoing success. The brand's latest advertising campaign, ‘Get an Airbnb,’ is designed to “educate” customers rather than drive sales. Now, Airbnb is looking to expand beyond its core business and become known for aspirational experiences. The recently launched ‘Icons’ campaign is part of this drive, allowing customers to win stays at venues like the recreated Barbie Dreamhouse.■

CMO, Formula E Ellie Norman has just joined electric car championship Formula E as CMO. Explaining the “reshaped role”, CEO Jeff Dodds describes Norman’s job as being akin to “chief noise officer”, as she’s charged with helping Formula E become the fastest growing motorsport on the planet. Prior to joining Formula E, Norman was chief communications officer at Manchester United, a role she took up in September 2022 following a stint at Formula 1. Describing herself as “customer obsessed and target-driven”, her role at Manchester United was newly created, with the overarching goal of bringing fans around the world closer to the club. Norman’s efforts evidently paid off. Brand Finance’s analysis of the top 10 most valuable football club brands saw Manchester United jump from ninth to fourth place in the 2023 ranking - overtaking rival Liverpool in the process - as its brand value soared 11% to £1.17bn. The club maintained its position this year, with its brand value up a further 3%. An active member of the wider marketing community, Norman has been a non-executive director at The Marketing Society since 2021 and mentors through The Marketing Academy.■

Ellie Norman

Lulu Skinner

Global customer director, Premier Inn Tamara Strauss already had two decades of marketing experience in the travel and hospitality sector when she joined Premier Inn in 2019. Two years later she oversaw the launch of its brand platform ‘Rest Easy’, which saw Sir Lenny Henry return as the voice of the brand. The third instalment of the platform came in June. Whether you’re a business traveller or a cosplay enthusiast, ‘Do Your Thing’ showcases the hotel chain as a welcoming and inclusive place - and as with the previous two campaigns, it doubles down on comfort and consistency as a point of differentiation for the brand. Parent company Whitbread has consistently hailed the platform's success over the last three years. In its 2023 annual report, the business credited its “highly effective marketing”, led by Strauss, with strengthening Premier Inn’s brand positioning, boosting website visits, reducing customer acquisition costs, and driving unprompted brand awareness up to 95%. Premier Inn also delivered record profit before tax and continues to outperform the midscale and economy market. So it’s no surprise to see it break into Kantar’s BrandZ ranking of the most valuable UK brands.■

Managing director of marketing, Paddy Power Given Paddy Power’s cheeky tone of voice and penchant for attention-grabbing stunts, it would be easy to write off its marketing organisation as a one-trick pony. But marketing boss Michelle Spillane has shown herself to be very serious about effective marketing. She credits Paddy Power Betfair’s business intelligence setup as the best she has worked with, and her team uses its econometric modelling to make key media-buying decisions. These capabilities have combined with Paddy Power’s new creative from BBH London - a relationship started in January 2023. The brand’s TV campaign for the UEFA Euros tournament ranked top for effectiveness among all Euros-related ads, according to System1, which gave it an exceptional score of 5.9 stars. ‘Europe’s Favourite’ stars former Eastenders actor Danny Dyer as it pokes fun at England fans, from their lack of humility to their style and wit. Parent company Flutter Entertainment reported a “strong” performance for its UK and Ireland division in 2023, adding 2 percentage points of market share to reach 30%. Revenue for the division grew 14.4% to more than $3bn, a double-digit growth rate that continued into the first quarter of 2024.■

Michelle Spillane

Tamara Strauss

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