Simon drew on his B-to-C experience to underline how both brand and demand have their part to play in a successful marketing campaign.

Simon disarmed his audience by admitting that he knew virtually nothing about I.T., very little about the public sector and not a lot about B-to-B! However he informed them that he had worked on several very successful B-to-C marketing campaigns which may prove relevant to them. One in particular highlighted that when you combine Brand and Demand it really can work.

The company concerned was Thomas Cook and Simon began by asking his audience who they considered Thomas Cooks main rivals were. He pointed out that it was not in fact, other travel agents such as Thomson, Co-operative Travel etc. but in reality it was companies such as DFS, Comet and B&Q. Because when people have 1,000 to spend they probably have to decide are they going to spend it on a new sofa, TV, kitchen or a holiday. As most holidays in the UK are sold between Boxing Day and the end of February, you have to create a real demand in this period before you can say buy your holiday from us.

For 2008, Thomas Cook launched a campaign called Vote for an Extra Day. The brief was two- fold to build the name of Thomas Cook in the wider vocabulary (brand)… but also to sell more Thomas Cook holidays (demand). The solution was to create a debate about why the UK had the lowest number of Bank Holidays in Europe, with a petitionto demand for an extra one… and at the same time, offer every customer a free day on every holiday they booked with Thomas Cook.

A great idea that generated a lot of good will towards the Thomas Cook brand.

People were encouraged to sign a petition for an extra bank holiday. They could do this by going into Thomas Cook stores, online or on Facebook (a very early example of a successful Facebook marketing campaign). Obviously, while people were in-store it was a perfect opportunity to sell them a holiday face to face, whilst the online and Facebook campaigns gave them great data capture and the chance to engage with customers using a variety of different media.

The next stage of the campaign was to offer potential customers their extra day. A TV campaign was launched, offering 14 days for the price of 13 days and 7 days for the price of 6. Giving away millions of free holiday days created lots more positive feedback for the brand. They then followed this up with a tactical TV campaign offering free days in different countries over every weekend of the January-February period, creating even more demand.

The result was a PR triumph with over half a million people voting for the extra day and Simon delivering the signatures to 10 Downing Street. Plus over 30,000 people joined the Facebook campaign, a massive number for that time. And in terms of sales it really delivered with a huge 20% increase in holiday sales. All of which just goes to show that with the right combination of Brand and Demand, you really can deliver the knockout punch.