MARKETING TELEMARKETING AWARDS 1998: Travel and Leisure

Winner

Client: EasyJet Airline Company

Agency: In-house

Launched in 1995 on a promise of low fares, EasyJet has expanded from a

fleet of two aircraft flying between London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, to

six serving additional destinations such as Nice, Barcelona and

Amsterdam.

The fleet is due to triple in size to 18 planes within the next two

years.

The EasyJet operation is only able to offer fares as low as half those

of competitors by cutting out the travel agent and selling direct to the

public.

It does this through its own call centre in Luton, where 130 sales

agents handle not only UK bookings, but orders from customers in France,

Spain and the Netherlands.

These customers pay the national toll in their own countries and EasyJet

pays for the calls to be transferred to the UK, where they are handled

by French-, Spanish- and Dutch-speaking operators.

The corporate telephone number, 0990 29 29 29, figures large on the

sides of all its aircraft, as well as in TV and outdoor advertising.

This number now accounts for about a third of all incoming calls.

However, EasyJet also uses other unique numbers in press advertising and

on its Internet site, for the efficient tracking of responses on a daily

basis.

Highly Commended

Client: BMG Records

Agency: Broadsystem

In what is an increasingly cluttered boy-band market, BMG Records wanted

to launch its new act 5ive in a way that set it apart from the

competition and bypassed the traditional and arduous route to awareness

by securing sufficient radio airtime.

The solution was to set up an automated line to provide details on all

the band’s public relations activities. The Freefone 0800 tariff was

selected to boost initial interest, and an automated service was put in

place by Broadsystem.

This had two advantages: it minimised operating costs, and incorporated

a pre-recorded greeting from the band members which gave fans a flavour

of the band and its debut release.

The information line took tens of thousands of calls. This resulted in

extensive sampling of the debut single by potential fans, and

contributed significantly to the single’s UK Top 10 chart success. The

database compiled via the information line has been used by BMG to send

fans information about the band’s new releases, in a further sales

drive.

Highly Commended

Client: Alton Towers

Agency: Telecom Potential Group

An information line devised by Telecom Potential to promote the latest

ride at the Alton Towers theme park and secure advance bookings, taps

into the young male psyche by taunting callers. ’If you decide not to

(try the ride) no-one will consider it a weakness or a lack of nerve.

Honest,’ mocks the recorded voice.

The ride in question is Oblivion, a 200ft, face-first vertical drop.

It is claimed to be the world’s first vertical-drop roller-coaster.

Details were kept secret until a week before the launch of Oblivion in

March. The Nationalcall telephone number and booking service were

launched the same day, with the number appearing in DRTV and press

ads.

It was part of the strategy that the information line should be an

experience, as well as a means of booking places. Within hours, all

available times for the first day were booked, and in the few weeks that

followed, up to the time the awards entry was prepared, about 20% of

bookable slots were being reserved on a daily basis.

This article was first published on Marketing