The TUI Group (TUI) is a multinational leisure, travel, and tourism company. The largest tour operator in Europe, TUI’s portfolio includes an extensive hotel network, cruise lines, and five airlines. 

CHALLENGE

TUI has always worked closely with their partners, this includes running comarketing campaigns. However, with teams working across multiple source markets, comarketing efforts were executed at a local level, with little cross-market collaboration. Additionally, teams had established processes at a local level making it tricky to leverage customer data effectively. 

“Our comarketing offering wasn’t very robust. Because everything was analog, we weren’t able to use customer data to enhance our offering or demonstrate success. This, coupled with the fact that all source markets were operating independently meant we just weren’t leveraging the scale of TUI’s business and its ability to speak to customers in multiple markets,” explains Peter Emmerson, Senior Partnerships Marketing Manager at TUI UK and Ireland. 

In 2023 Peter began looking for solutions to both build out their capability and streamline their efforts across multiple source markets. 

“We had an efficient model in place to deliver partner marketing and drive bottom line revenue. But we recognised the need to enhance our offering. So we began to look for the additional expertise to support our modernisation programme and enable delivery at scale,” explains Peter. 

SOLUTION

In 2023, TUI engaged Platform 195 to help overhaul their partner marketing operations. . 

“We didn’t launch into one big project, we started making small changes bit by bit. It’s been an iterative, constantly growing process with different projects and workstreams,” says Peter. 

As the work continued, the conversations with Platform 195 broadened to include larger challenges and more cross-market activity. This iterative process has led to significant marketing transformation within TUI including the implementation of TUI Reach, a seamless data-targeted marketing platform. 

Built using Platform 195’s Uplift Ads+, TUI Reach harnesses over a billion travel-intent data points from millions of live, in-market holiday buyers. 

OUTCOMES

Having first tested TUI Reach in the Spring of 2024, the TUI team has been steadily increasing the volume of campaigns running on the platform. Reaching across above and below the line channels, TUI Reach includes Digital Out of Home, Connected TV, Social, YouTube and Display.

 “The impact of having an intelligent solution in place is clear. In the first six months of the financial year we have already delivered three times the revenue that we delivered last year,” notes Peter. 

With greater ability to now leverage their scale and customer data, TUI is able to deliver more targeted and effective marketing for their partners. This has led to other projects including aligning TUI’s digital inventory management across all markets and exploring greater revenue opportunities around sponsored listing and in-store media. 

“There is a huge amount of opportunity for us to build on the early success of TUI Reach. We rely on Platform 195 to guide us strategically because of the knowledge they come armed with. All the processes, opportunities – they have seen them before. They have tried and delivered the solutions. So, it’s all proven,” says Peter.