Thomas Cook Cruise Selector

Thomas Cook TV has the most extensive video library available to any tour operator/travel agent in the World. Some 17,000 hours of high quality video, indexed and metatagged, are available to deliver persuasive, relevant and compelling video content to potential customers through a variety of emerging distribution channels. Thomas Cook have run a TV channel for many years with etv and understand the benefit that video can bring, specifically when tied into a call to action. With the many hours of cruise footage available their task was to produce something which engaged a new cruise audience and utilised video to drive sales within the cruise section of the main website.

• To attract and capture customers through the brochure-of-the-future (interactive adverts)
• To drive sales to all three Thomas Cook booking channels – web, high street and call centres
• To promote and enhance the Thomas Cook brand
• To add a level of interest to the cruise section of the main Thomas Cook website
• To develop an application which provides feedback on user demographics and cruise preferences
• To provide an application which can evolve over time

The aim of this project was to create a personal video experience for the thousands of visitors to the cruise section of the Thomas cook website, which allowed Thomas Cook to track user demographics and interests in particular areas of their cruise business and to ultimately drive sales.

etv online answered the brief by producing an adaptive video experience which provides each user with their own personal cruise advert. The users goes through a set of steps which narrows down their criteria at each step, and provides a pay-off in the form of a seamless video experience which they can view, save and send to their friends. This is followed by a strong call to action, and dependant on the choices made in the application, drives the user to a relevant deep link, within the main Thomas Cook website, for booking.

This application was built using a combination of XHTML, Flash 10, Flash Media Server, .NET and SQL Server. The application uses streaming services and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for consistent, high-quality delivery of the files. In addition to the front-end interface the application is fully supported by a Content Management System (CMS) and in-house users at Thomas Cook can add, edit and delete videos from within the library in order to improve and evolve the system over time. In addition, the application shows carefully worded sales banners (illustrating Thomas Cook’s wider service offering) between screens which are also fully updateable from within the CMS.

Cruise selector

Thomas Cook was surprised that the majority of views of the application were unique and that customers were embracing new technologies so readily. The data gave the cruise sales team an important steer on what customers were looking for in a cruise whether it was the type or destination, lifestyle or activity which influenced their purchasing choice.

The application achieved over 10,000 unique users in its first four weeks since launch, and provided a 12% upswing in Cruise bookings online.

Thomas Cook saw a healthy return on invest and is looking forward to the future phases to enhance this service and integrate this into the other areas of their business such as holidays and other language versions.