Harvest Digital wins Cruise Thomas Cook

The specialist cruise arm of Thomas Cook has appointed online marketing agency Harvest Digital to manage its online creative, media planning and buying, search and affiliate marketing.

Following a three-way pitch, Cruise Thomas Cook appointed Harvest Digital to drive traffic to its site, www.cruisesthomascook.com and increase bookings.

Cruise Thomas Cook works with a variety of cruise operators including Royal Caribbean Cruises and Ocean Village to offer a range of packaged cruise deals, including some exclusive offers.

It has access to the widest range of cruise holidays on the market, and provides objective advice to ensure customers find a holiday that's perfect for their preferences and budget.

Harvest Digital has developed creative which features aspirational photography of cruise holidays and has booked it on media including Teletext.co.uk.

The agency is also running behavioural advertising on Yahoo!, paid search on Google and MSN, including demographic search targeting, and an affiliate marketing campaign bought through buy.at.

Commenting on the appointment, Darren Stott, head of sales and marketing at Cruise Thomas Cook, said: "Harvest Digital has brought a strategic approach to our online marketing in order to make all the elements of our integrated marketing work together.

"This includes up-weighting the search bidding in line with our TV schedule and driving traffic through affiliate marketing which will support our drive to increase sales through the online channel".

Emma Wilson, director at Harvest Digital, added: "Thomas Cook is a brand trusted to offer the best holiday packages and is the UK's number one in cruise sales.

"We have combined targeted scheduling with demographic and behaviourally targeted online marketing to increase niche brand awareness as well as sales for the brand.

"We will test and optimise the media mix to drive volumes of targeted traffic to their site".

The account will include online marketing for Cruise Thomas Cook's Ventura, the superliner designed for Britain, scheduled to launch in 2008.

Harvest will combine display, search and affiliate marketing to generate bookings for the Ventura, which features a 3D cinema, several Marco Pierre White bars and restaurants, expensive modern art and a rock school for teenagers.

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