Travel Agency Association Remakes Itself in New Consumer Marketing Campaign

Fresh off rebranding itself into the American Society of Travel Advisors, ASTA on Wednesday unveiled a new consumer-marketing campaign, logo and tagline, “We’ll take you there.”

The prior tagline for the American Society of Travel Agents was: “The global advocates for travel. Go with the pros.

While the organization has done consumer campaigns before, along with plenty of trade marketing drives to increase its travel agent membership, the new advertising push feels more modern and youthful than prior efforts.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIlfhad35ZU]

The video text overlays read:

Going somewhere?
A travel advisor will get you there with …
Less Panic
More Perks
Less gamble (sorry we’re closed sign)
More guarantee
Less bustle
More bliss
Whereever you want to go …we’ll take you there.
Find your travel advisor at TravelSense.org

There are plenty of youthful images in the spot, including a backpacker, couples drinking wine or champagne on a yacht, and a traveler taking a solitary walk along a pristine beach. When it comes to worries about panic and too much bustle, there are airport flight boards filled with cancellations, and overcrowded beaches. Travel advisors furnish “less panic,” after all.

The new campaign, which will be primarily online, came after online surveys and offline focus groups, and is way for the organization to look more outward, ASTA President and CEO Zane Kerby told more than 1,000 attendees at its global conference at the Washington Hilton Wednesday. He said the focus groups found that consumers weren’t sure whom a travel agent would work for while a travel advisor would assuredly work for the customer.

The campaign will keep off next week on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, ASTA’s first foray onto the latter platform.

The goal of the campaign is to attract 100,000 visitors monthly to TravelSense.org, up from the usual 60,000 to 80,000, said Kerby, who declined to specify how much the organization will spend on the campaign.

The switch from an association of travel agents to one of travel advisors “is a clarifying declearation of whom we work for, the travel consumer,” Kerby said.

The video drives viewers to the organization’s TravelSense.org website. Kerby said the board allocated resources into upgrading the site — the new version is being beta-tested — and it’s being converted from more of a content and travel tips site into a more modern-looking travel-advisor locator.

The rebranding comes with a new teal-colored logo, which is geared to be more modern, adventurous, and vibrant, Kerby said. There are different versions for luxury and corporate travelers.

In other news, the association brought the independent-agent focused National Association of Career Travel Agents into the ASTA fold. It, too, got a rebrand Wednesday, becoming the ASTA Small Business Network.