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Harvest wins paid search for Orchid Travel

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Sep 19, 2007

Online marketing agency Harvest Digital has won the search engine marketing activity for Orchid Travel, part of Thomas Cook UK and Ireland.

Orchid Travel specialises in last minute holiday accommodation deals, Florida beach holiday packages and Mediterranean and luxury cruises.

The agency will manage a campaign that integrates search engine marketing with Orchid's last minute travel inventory.

Harvest Digital will optimise the latest price points in the search advertising copy to drive highly targeted traffic through its website.

Customers click through to a booking engine where they can search for available package holidays by departure date and destination.

The site has recently been redesigned and features other calls to action including offers for key resorts and regions and a 'Deal of the Day'.

Commenting on the appointment, Steve Fenton, Head of Orchid Travel explained: "We selected Harvest Digital to manage our search engine marketing because of their experience in the online travel sector, especially in other areas of Thomas Cook.

"They demonstrated that they would optimise the budget to hit strict targets and feed our latest inventory into the keyword activity they create".

Emma Wilson, Media Director at Harvest Digital, added: "Orchid Travel has redesigned its site to make it a more effective channel for attracting and converting customers; it plans to increase its use of online marketing beginning with search engine marketing which we are integrating with its up-to-date pricing and availability and Orchid's offline marketing activity".

Research commissioned by Harvest Digital in conjunction with Nielsen//NetRatings and Adviva discovered that 55 per cent of internet users book holidays online while only seven per cent of internet users book on the high street, and that two-thirds of internet users take two or more holidays a year.

The research demonstrated the positive impact search engine marketing has in driving traffic to travel websites.

After viewing a travel advert online a quarter of respondents said they would conduct a search for the advertiser's name, and 31 per cent said they would query a search engine for a general term related to the advertisement.