Travel Agency Ad Campaign
BACKGROUND
The Holy Land Franciscans are based in the heart of Jerusalem and are one of the three religious groups who share custody of the Holy Sepulcher, the Tomb of Jesus and attached church. The branch of the Holy Land Franciscans’ here in the U.S. runs a national shrine with a replica of the tomb, and has a separate nonprofit entity that is a travel agency specializing in guided pilgrimages to religious places, especially the Holy Land.
ISSUES AND BENEFITS
Holy Land Pilgrimages wanted to run ads in Christian magazines promoting their guided tours. Upon investigating, they had a couple of major benefits and a couple of messaging issues:
As a nonprofit, their trips were reasonably priced. This led some prospects to believe that the accommodations might also be “cheap,” when the truth was far from that. There was a need to communicate the level of the accommodations, while also letting people know that their trip would help support the Franciscans’ work in the Holy Land, much of which provides opportunity and support to Arab Christians living outside the Jerusalem barrier wall who struggle to make a living.
A Holy Land Franciscan friar is one of the main guides of the tour. This means that people looking to make the trip a “spiritual experience” have the opportunity to get spiritual depth and guidance. Additionally, these Franciscans are based in Jerusalem and have been running pilgrimages to the area for hundreds of years. This means they’re “local” guides with a wealth of historical knowledge and experience.
As one of the groups overseeing the Holy Sepulcher and also overseeing many other sites in the area, the Franciscans are able to grant a level of access to pilgrims that they can’t get on other tours.
We were able to work messaging around these major benefits into the language of their website, and then create some magazine ads around them.
CONCEPT 1
The first ad highlights the posh accommodations included in the tour playing on the opposite feel of first-class hotels vs. a nonprofit tour. I wrote the copy and worked with the designer to make sure we could feature many impressive pictures of the hotels included on the tour.
CONCEPT 2
When people travel, they often want the “local experience,” to go places and experience things only the locals do. So, I wanted to highlight the Franciscans’ prowess as local guides in this ad, as well as their authority, since they have in-depth historical knowledge as locals for many generations. The headline communicates that this is their home, and the subhead communicates their historical ties to the area.
RESULTS
As well as ads and new messaging on the website, we produced testimonial videos, created a travel guide for registrants, started a travel blog, and created a Facebook group for participants so they could begin communicating ahead of their trip and get travel advice from past pilgrims. I oversaw all content creation and did much of the writing.
The comprehensive strategy raised awareness of the travel group and contributed to a 40% increase in bookings in 6 months.