Background Information

Jet2holidays is a package holiday provider and the largest tour operator in the UK, after overtaking TUI to the top spot in early 2023.

They fly from 11 UK bases to over 68 overseas destinations, with over 550 resorts on their books catering to a wide range of tastes and budgets. Their industry-leading customer service has been widely recognised by awards from trusted names like TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, and Which?

Active International has enjoyed a productive and successful Corporate Trade partnership with Jet2holidays and their media agency Wavemaker since 2017. In that time, we’ve helped them expand their customer base in the UK market and navigate challenging times for the travel industry — including the impact of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost of living crisis.

Business Challenge

Increase marketing budget and expand UK-wide brand recognition while driving business efficiencies.

When we first started working with Jet2holidays, they were reasonably well known in Northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, where they fly out of several regional airports. However, brand recognition was significantly lower in the rest of the UK — particularly the South. Jet2holidays were looking to boost awareness of their flights and holidays out of London and other southern bases, aiming to increase sales in this area.

Working with Wavemaker, we helped them achieve these goals and increase their marketing budget with our unique holiday trading model.

The Solution

Guaranteed holiday sales that part-pay for media spend and boost brand exposure to new audiences.

As a bonded travel agency with ABTA and ATOL accreditation, Active International’s trading model allows us to incentivise people to choose Jet2holidays over their competitors. We offer discounted holidays to our partner network, while Jet2holidays receive 100% of the cost of every holiday we sell.

These guaranteed sales are then used to part-fund media spend across TV, radio, cinema and print. It’s the same model we use with other big name travel companies, from package holidays to airlines to hotels, with much success — because it’s low risk with no downsides.

We guarantee and deliver sales through trading media spends that were going to be spent anyway, as well as working closely with Jet2holidays’ media agency Wavemaker to ensure no disruption to media planning and buying.

The Result

• Trading together since 2017 • Guaranteed ROI for Jet2holidays of 20% in sales on all media traded.

As the relationship has progressed, we have more than tripled the volume of holidays purchased annually over five years — and right through the pandemic — we’ve guaranteed and delivered considerable sales volumes of holidays to Jet2holidays, as well as introducing new customers who have converted into repeat bookers thanks to Jet2holidays’ excellent customer service.

As an accredited travel agency, we handle the booking admin, and as experienced media traders, we liaise directly with Jet2holidays’ media agency and the Media Owners. This means very little time is needed from Jet2holidays to facilitate the process, and they can enjoy all the benefits. We’re looking forward to our continued work together and have plans to help them find other business costs they could potentially part-fund with holidays.