At the Latitude Cruise Conference today, onboard Ambassador Ambience, Advantage’s Jonny Peat, senior commercial manager, announced the launch of a new Marketing Programme, designed to give members a competitive edge in engaging with their customers.

The innovative new programme will offer members more choice, flexibility, and access to powerful direct and digital marketing tools at a low cost, all powered by detailed customer booking data.

Jonny Peat, senior commercial manager, The Advantage Travel Partnership said: “With many of our members seeing cruise as a significant growth opportunity for them, we are continually reevaluating our proposition to ensure they are getting all the support they need from us and more. We know that through providing dedicated marketing services we are delivering real value to members and that’s what sits front and centre of the Latitude offering.”

David Forder, Advantage’s Head of Marketing, added: “Our mission is to empower our members with the tools and resources they need to grow their business and deliver exceptional travel experiences. This new data-driven marketing programme gives members the benefit of our size and scale to produce high-quality, targeted marketing at a low cost. We are also including a cruise-specific option to help members grow their new to cruise business, and further demonstrate their unique position in helping customers select the right options for their travel needs.”

A New Era of Personalised Marketing for Travel Agents

The Advantage Marketing Programme will give members the opportunity to sign up for an annual plan that includes a substantial amount of personalised, data-driven direct-to-consumer marketing. By leveraging customer data, members will be able to target specific customer segments with highly tailored email campaigns and direct mail.

The programme offers four unique options to suit varying business needs:

• All-Inclusive Package: Offering exceptional value, members receive both digital and printed direct mail featuring personalised magazines sent directly to their customers. At least four publications will be mailed each year, fully branded with the member's logo, customer name, and contact information. Emails are also customised with members' branding, contact details, website, and social media links.
• Digital-Only Package: For members who prefer to engage digitally, this package includes beautifully crafted online magazines and great deals sent regularly to customers.
• Simply Cruise Package: Tailored for cruise specialists, this package provides members with a complete suite of cruise marketing content, including dedicated offers and magazines, with the only cost being the printed Cruise Collection guide.
• Store-Only Package: For members who prefer to distribute physical magazines themselves, personalised copies of customer magazines are sent directly to the member's store for distribution.

Customer Segmentation and Personalisation: A Targeted Approach

Using members' customer booking data, the new Advantage Marketing Programme segments customers based on their recency and frequency of bookings. This system rates customers from 0-5, helping agents determine which customers are most likely to rebook:

• Scorching – Most loyal customers, highly likely to book again
• Sizzling – Likely to book with some encouragement
• Lukewarm – Some potential for re-engagement
• Chilly – Customers who may be booking elsewhere
• Frozen – Inactive customers who haven’t booked in a long time
• Newbies – New customers who haven't travelled yet

Members can create a personalised marketing programme by selecting which customer segments to target. This targeted approach allows travel agents to re-engage their most valuable customers while nurturing new ones.

The programme’s marketing activity focuses on key seasonal campaigns such as the Turn of Year (January to February) and September’s Cruise Month, ensuring agents stay top-of-mind with customers during peak booking times. Participating members will have access to highly engaging magazines such as Journeys (featuring holiday ideas and destination inspiration), Navigate (for cruise content), and the Cruise Collection guide.

Currently, 141 member branches have already joined the Advantage Marketing Programme, with plans to maintain this number for 2025 and grow in 2026. This innovative programme gives members the tools they need to engage customers effectively and increase bookings.

Cruise Month Consumer Prize Draw

Jonny Peat also shared onstage the results of Advantage’s cruise consumer prize draw, which ran during September and received 13,825 entries from consumers entering to win an all-expenses AmaWaterways river cruise with flights. Each member received a personalised, trackable link to the online competition entry form, and they also received a suite of digital assets to help them promote the competition across social, email and web.

Peat added: “This competition was designed to help grow members' customer base and showcase that they offered cruise products. Running a consumer competition on behalf of our members was a first for us. The competition ran for one month with 36 member businesses taking part and almost 14,000 entries in total was fantastic. 50% of consumers who entered said yes to signing up for our members' marketing and wanted to be contacted about their holiday plans which provides a fantastic opportunity for our members to contact them, grow their database and secure more bookings.”

At the end of the competition, Advantage members received all of their entries back with a toolkit on how best to re-market to everyone who entered the competition, which included follow-up cruise offers. The company is now looking at new ways to further support members with their own marketing and to help them acquire and engage with new customers.