directline-holidays.co.uk case study

Watching the routes to the sun

Keeping track of every online advertising campaign is critical to the success of this web and phone-based holiday company. With online browsing and booking growing significantly each year, the company needed a cost-effective and scalable way of monitoring its all important web-based advertising.

A key objective of directline-holidays.co.uk is to make the most of marketing spend, making online advertising work effectively for them and their thousands of customers.

Our Special Rate Services (SRS) Solution gives each online ad campaign a unique telephone number, helping directline-holidays.co.uk to gather statistics on how much business is generated from each advert. Crucially, this allows the holiday company to gain an accurate picture of marketing return on investment.

Shaping an advertising campaign through customer response

Offering over twelve million holidays worldwide, directline-holidays.co.uk has seen business go from strength to strength since operations began in 1993. The company’s accessible service meets the needs of all types of customers – both those wanting to view and book holidays online and those who prefer to discuss their holiday with a consultant and book over the phone.

Gathering the right data

Making the most of the increase in holidays chosen online, directline-holidays.co.uk uses this channel to advertise a selection of package and luxury breaks. The success of these adverts used to be based on the assumption that each marketing channel – not just online – would generate an equal amount of bookings. However, with the increasing importance of web-based advertising, directline-holidays.co.uk wanted to find a way to give this channel its own set of statistics.

Within a matter of weeks of being briefed, our consultants had developed and implemented an SRS Solution to allow directline-holidays.co.uk to do just that. With 30 SRS 0870 numbers up, running and assigned to website ads, directline-holidays.co.uk was ready to begin capturing data for the new year – the busiest holiday booking period.

Real-time statistics, on-target advertising

Monitoring the amount of traffic that each number produces gives a unique insight into the effectiveness of adverts. By tracking the cost of each advertising channel, the number of calls it generates and the number of subsequent bookings to come from those calls – directline-holidays.co.uk has an accurate picture of marketing return on investment at its fingertips.

Our SRS Solution gives directline-holidays.co.uk detailed real-time statistical call information. Access to this priceless up-to-the-minute feedback makes it possible for the holiday company to fine-tune and alter its advertising campaign in line with customer response.

The right tools for a superior service

It’s easy to see why our SRS Solution is so popular with directline-holidays.co.uk, as Matt Adams, Marketing Manager explains, "ntl:Telewest Business SRS numbers are easy and inexpensive to set up, and have given us an invaluable insight into the effectiveness of our advertising – allowing us to extend and expand our marketing budget."

Call centre staff find it very useful that the SRS numbers instantly enable them to identify which campaign a customer is calling about – helping them to deal with the call more efficiently. "Knowing which marketing campaign generates a phone call allows our Travel Consultants to provide tailored call handling and a superior service," confirms Matthew Flint, Sales Director at directline-holidays.co.uk.

What it has made possible

In an industry where competitive advantage is everything, SRS numbers have helped to give directline-holidays.co.uk the edge. Tony Bradley, Managing Director of directline-holidays.co.uk comments, "The ntl:Telewest Business SRS Solution gives our customers reassurance about the cost of their call, and us a depth of information that allows us to optimise our return on investment."

And with the information to hand allowing directline-holidays.co.uk to test the effectiveness of different marketing channels, the company is planning to expand its quota of SRS numbers over the coming years. Matt concludes, "Over the last 12 years no company has been able to trump the service of ntl:Telewest Business – we’re expecting to be working with them well into the future."