Travel Republic has revealed a new look for its ‘iconic’ brand across all its customer-facing activities, including its website and social media channels. The new brand identity has been created to support the brand’s growth strategy and builds on the roll out of its award-winning Power to the People manifesto launched earlier this year, which underpins Travel Republic’s vision to become THE trusted brand for the working people known to deliver security and reliability at the right price.
Antonio Fellino, Travel Republic’s managing director, said: “The new look for the brand is all about supporting our driving ambition is to be the People’s Travel Champion, in every way from the value we offer through to the great service we deliver. Through the new positioning, Viva Travel Republic, we celebrate the beliefs that make Travel Republic more than an online travel company, and a people’s holiday champion.
“Our strategy is centred on creating a stand-out customer experience, that drives long-standing brand preference. We are already making great progress in this area, which is demonstrated through the recent increase in our Trustpilot rating, positioning us as ‘excellent’ with a score of 4.7/5.”
Fellino adds: “The new brand identity feels more modern and contemporary, rooted in its original form but with new life, and reflects a powerful symbol for our people flying the flag for travel.” Through research the new design has also shown to have more appeal to a wider audience, with better stand-out with a look that feels more exciting.
Kate Staniforth, Travel Republic’s Marketing Director says that the aim of the brand refresh is to drive affinity and preference for the brand by positioning it as the people’s champion, defending customers’ rights to a well-deserved holiday.
She says: “Alongside the Power to The People manifesto, the marketing strategy going forward will be rooted to more customer-centric energy and carpe diem attitude, capturing the excitement of booking a holiday, as well showcasing those precious holiday moments – because everyone deserves the right to a holiday that actually looks like the photo on a website.”
Travel Republic – heralded as the original online travel agent that disrupted the UK travel market back in 1983 – has helped over 20M passengers with their holidays over the last twenty years. And, as a key part of the brand’s birthday celebrations this year, the brand has given more than £250K worth of free holidays to customers, as well as over £1M money-off vouchers and other money-saving offers, as a way to thank customers for their loyalty.
To help support and drive the future growth strategy of the business further, the brand has also added a number of senior positions to its leadership team in recent months.
Kate Staniforth joined the business as its new Head of Marketing and Sanjay Patel and Victoria McQuillian have both recently joined the brand’s leadership team as Head of Trading and Head of Partnerships and Business Development, respectively.
Staniforth has extensive experience of the UK travel industry having worked in the sector for nearly ten years and joins the UK’s most highly trusted and customer-rated online travel agent from Travelopia, where she held the position of Head of Marketing UK and Rest of World for their Sunsail and The Moorings brands for the last five years.
In her role at Travel Republic, Staniforth is responsible for setting the brand’s marketing strategy for the future, as well as leading all areas of the marketing mix, including brand and creative, direct marketing, social media, CRM and PR.
As Head of Trading, Patel is responsible for developing and driving the trading strategy of the Travel Republic websites to help the business achieve its commercial goals. His remit includes the day-to-day trading activities, yield management, sales centre and working with key stakeholders to drive conversion and acquisition. Patel started his career in travel at Thomas Cook in a variety of Commercial Analytical and Ecommerce roles, Patel then worked for Olympic Holidays. In 2015 he relocated to Los Angeles where he worked for a number of Health & Wellness tech Start-ups managing ecommerce and digital marketing.
As Head of Partnerships and Business Development, McQuillan is responsible for exceeding revenue & margin targets through proactive partnerships, innovative marketing campaigns and product optimisation. McQuillan has a 20-year career history of working in travel, having started her career with the MyTravel Group before joining On the Beach. She brings to Travel Republic extensive experience of working in ecommerce environments and managing strategic projects and partnership marketing.
Commenting on the appointments, Fellino concluded: “These new colleagues are already making a significant contribution to the business. Their combined expertise and experience are playing a pivotal role as we drive forward our transformation, ensuring we continue to deliver exceptional value to customers and further position the band as the People’s Travel Champion.”
