In a very competitive tourism sector, TUI France is betting on immersive display campaigns in metros stations and stations to capture an audience in mobility. Between multi -channel strategy, brand storytelling and measured integration of the generative AI, the tour operator seeks to stand out through memorable advertising experiences rather than by programmatic bidding. Explanations with Aurélie Guyot, Marketing Director of Tui France.
What is Tui France’s marketing perimeter?
Marketing at TUI France is very large and covers several aspects, including in particular retail marketing. We have 210 franchised travel agencies and we live in a weekly way hundreds of partner agencies, such as the Leclerc Voyages or Carrefour Voyages networks. Marketing also encompasses the social media for the four brands of the group: TUI, Club Lookéa, Club Marmara and Nouvelles Borders. Each of these brands has its own positioning and requires specific speech, which results in the daily animation of 9 accounts on three main platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. Finally, the perimeter includes communication, media campaigns, speaking strategy and editorial marketing, since Tui publishes brochures each season.
What advertising channels is Tui France mainly use?
Tui France uses a wide variety of communication channels. We find the company both in television and in radio, in display and in digital and SMA (Social Media Advertising). We activate many levers and tools, which are used to monitor the KPI as well as to launch the countryside.
How does Tui France differentiate itself on the saturated tourism market to promote it?
Tourism is an ultra-competitive and saturated market. New advertisements are constantly issued and it is more difficult to stand out, especially since Tui France has a constrained budget to support four brands. Our strategy is therefore to create more memorable advertising experiences than programmatic campaigns. This results in partnerships with other brands to develop brand content and storytelling, which allows us to reach specific audiences with entry tickets much lower than a television or programmatic campaign in high season. We also carry out special operations (OPS), such as the covering of the entire Saint-Lazare pillar room. We also dressed a whole hall from Lyon station and the metro corridor leading to Lille Flanders station with display and screens broadcasting our offers. These operations aim to touch our target hearts in a mobility situation. We also create videos and microphones to distribute on social networks in order to widen the audience with lower costs.
Why do you favor advertising at the station and metro?
This strategy is based on two main observations: Tui’s heart of target is affected in a situation of mobility, that is to say during its daily trips for work or leisure. Passengers more often have time to look at advertisements. In addition, advertising is less suffered in transport because it is less intrusive than a pop-up or an email. We have carried out a programmatic display campaign at the station and metro on nearly 3,000 screens and we have observed that our customers stop and take photos of our special operations in these places.
How to link advertising impressions and return on investment (king)?
It is very difficult to assign a specific sale to an advertisement or a given activation, because TUI simultaneously active many communication levers throughout the year including television, radio, display, showcase campaigns, influence and SMA. To claim that a customer bought a trip following a single advertising exhibition seems a little presumptuous. We are studying allocation solutions, but they are to be taken with tweezers due to the very complex ecosystem, which includes BtoB, BtoBTOC, BtoC, four brands and all activated levers.
Do you plan to use connected television for your campaigns?
Connected television is a support that interests us. For the moment, we are using television mainly for branding goals on a national scale. For example, we have produced a partnership with TF1 as part of its Koh-Lanta program. But we work on the more “Drive to Business” objectives of connected TV with other channels such as radio for promotional campaigns or display. We have already made punctual targeting in TV, for example broadcasts in Lille for departures from Lille or targeting on MyTF1 as a function of travel appetite, but this remains a secondary objective compared to the national scope.
How does Tui France use generative artificial intelligence in its advertising creations?
We use generative AI for content creation, but only for “snack content” in social media. AI allows you to go much faster, to follow trends and reduce budgets. However, there is no question for the moment to use AI on assets that stage products or destinations. We want to show “real life of vacation” and the “real life of countries” so as not to inform the person who visualizes advertising. At TUI, AI can be used to put an asset in format or to target and monitor KPIs, but not for advertising creation. Creating a TV spot with AI is not on the agenda.
How do you perceive the evolution of advertising, especially with the development of AI?
AI will allow better quality advertisements in terms of creation, production and distribution. There is a generalized fatigue of advertising today, due to the daily exhibition of advertising messages. AI could potentially be a solution to reduce this fatigue. However, there may also be a on -board effect because the ease of creation of advertising by AI can lead to an increase in volume, and potentially to more poor quality content. At TUI, we already use AI to make advertisements more personalized and adapted, such as on Facebook in particular, depending on the weather. For example, we offer sun destinations when it rains.
What message would you like to get to programmatic players who would like to work with you?
The programmatic sector has even more intermediaries than in tourism, it is a very complex ecosystem that it is sometimes difficult to understand. Marketing teams are not specialists in all solutions and technologies and we are sometimes lost in the technical side or too much about data. I think that speech can be simplified and reworked in a more educational way.
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