Since the start of Oyster Travel’s journey in 2009, the travel agency has continued to grow – we sensed an opportunity to accelerate this growth, particularly in the local area.

For this campaign, the brief was clear: put Oyster Travel on the map across Norfolk and East Anglia, making it the travel agency of choice for the region.

Our primary objectives were:

– To generate new enquiries by raising awareness of Oyster Travel in and around Norfolk through content and social media.

– To position Oyster Travel as the local, trusted travel expert in East Anglia.

– To capture additional contacts through signups to the Oyster Travel newsletter.

– Hold a competition to drive entries to a prize draw for £1,000 towards a holiday, creating an opportunity to collect new customer data for future communications.

At the start of any journey, you need to do your research. To increase brand awareness and connect with the local audience, we first needed a clear understanding of Oyster Travel’s target market.

Their ideal customers? Primarily females aged 35-65 who are passionate about travel. These individuals often lead busy lives or seek expert guidance. Importantly, they value trusted recommendations and are based locally in Norfolk and East Anglia.

With this in mind, we began working on a campaign to engage this audience. The campaign’s key messaging presented the agency as the local specialist, highly rated by customers, with no hidden service fees – emphasising the value of using Oyster Travel in making travel as stress-free as possible.

To appeal to the target audience, we developed a strategic social media campaign across Facebook and Instagram that positioned Oyster Travel as the go-to, independent travel experts.

For this campaign to have the impact required, a creative refresh was essential.

We developed an aspirational, sophisticated new look and feel for Oyster Travel, keeping the brand essence but elevating it to match the company’s offering.

Through attention-grabbing new copy and creative, we communicated a sense of adventure, escape and relaxation in Oyster’s social posts.

We designed a dedicated campaign landing page to provide an overview of Oyster’s offering and a clear call to action. This page expanded on the messaging from the social posts and allowed us to track the customer journey and measure conversions effectively.

Maintaining a cohesive campaign identity, we kept a consistent look across all assets to deliver a message that the audience would remember.

But it does not end there – this landing page also sets the foundation for future campaign optimisations, particularly for PPC and other paid advertising activities. It presented the brand’s core offering so well that it has since been adapted to become the main homepage for Oyster’s website.

To further boost brand awareness, we launched an exciting competition offering participants the chance to win £1,000 towards a bespoke, tailored holiday with Oyster Travel.

A competition-specific form page was created to streamline entries while encouraging users to find out more about Oyster Travel. After form completion, participants were directed to the main campaign landing page, further reinforcing brand awareness and engagement.

This campaign, run across the two social media platforms, leveraged paid advertising to direct users to an online entry form.

For an additional entry, participants were encouraged to like, follow, and tag a friend – maximising reach and engagement while reinforcing brand recognition.

The competition was also sent to Oyster Travel’s email database, helping to remind lapsed customers of the brand’s offering. A final email announcing the results was sent to all that entered with a £50 voucher for their next booking – giving those that missed out a consolation prize, and a nudge to book with Oyster for next year.

By crafting targeted, engaging creative aligned with Oyster Travel’s audience, the campaign delivered remarkable results.

Website traffic increased by 367% compared to the previous period with 10,697 new users on the website.

– Organic traffic was up by 27%
– Direct traffic increased by 86%
– Over 19,000 increase in sessions from referral traffic

Paid social media activity generated 207,499 impressions and 5,728 clicks.

The competition also generated excellent results, with an impressive 4,465 form submissions. Oyster Travel’s Instagram account also garnered 310 new Instagram followers, with 263 tags and comments, and 500 new Facebook followers with 240 tags and comments. Our competition landing page generated a fantastic 5,706 views.

Beyond the numbers, the campaign had a tangible impact for Oyster Travel.

Vicky Samwell-Buckenham, Managing Director at Oyster Travel, reported in October that they had “a queue outside the door before the shop had even opened”. In what is usually a quieter period for the travel agency, this was clear evidence of the brand’s growing recognition and appeal.

The campaign also generated a pool of warm leads, providing Oyster Travel with a valuable audience for future outreach, and helping to build connections with potential customers.

Building on this success, we’re excited to continue working with Oyster Travel. Future efforts will focus on enhancing brand visibility through SEO-led
blog content, targeting key travel niches like safaris and cruises to inspire and engage their audience even further.

This is only the beginning of an exciting journey for Oyster Travel, with more milestones to come.