Virgin Holidays and Microsoft launch ‘digital alternative’ to brochures

A digital alternative to traditional holiday brochures has been created by Microsoft and Virgin Holidays.

A digital alternative to traditional holiday brochures has been created by Microsoft and Virgin Holidays.

‘Plan-it Mojo’ is built as an extension of the Virgin Holidays website and is supported by rich media multi-platform advertising across Microsoft’s services.

It acts as an interactive guide to all the operator’s locations across the world.

Features include on-the-ground information about each destination, pulling in content sources from across the internet and pin-pointed using an interactive map using Bing Maps functionality.

This allows consumers to select and save their flagged places of interest to the cloud from a number of categories such as entertainment, sport, food and drink, nightlife and hotels.

The ‘Plan-it Mojo’ hub is built using responsive design to optimise to any screen, be it PC, tablet or mobile, and is designed to provide Virgin Holidays’ customers with a tool to research, refine and book their holidays.

All content is sourced and created to ensure that it resonates with Virgin Holidays audiences, such as Blogs and Vlogs from well-known travel writers with expert views on activities, sights and entertainment spots, as well as bespoke videos.

Experian targeted traffic drivers will ensure that Virgin Holidays’ most important segments are reached across the Microsoft network.

The hub will be supported with branded editorial content developed for the travel section of the new MSN, along with rich media advertising across Outlook and Skype with a custom Windows 8 Ads-in-Apps creative that will follow the initial launch.

Owen Sagness, general manager of Microsoft Advertising & Online UK, said: “It’s exciting when an innovative brand like Virgin Holidays sets you a unique challenge like this one.

“Leveraging our technical expertise and ecosystem our ad solutions team has been able to build the ‘Plan-it Mojo’ hub from the ground-up.

“Supported with a range of digital creatives driving traffic to the interactive hub, the campaign is designed to reach audiences across any screen through a number of Microsoft’s services.

“The combination of our technological abilities, the depth of our content offering on the new MSN and the reach of our advertising offering across screens and ecosystems means we are in a unique position to deliver this campaign for Virgin Holidays.”

The operator’s head of marketing, Sam Otter, said: “This industry first provides a new and engaging way for consumers to view our content, creating an interactive platform for them to plan their holiday.

“It’s only been possible thanks to our unique media partnership with Microsoft, and we can’t wait to see our customers’ reactions to what is a yet another pioneering activity from Virgin Holidays.”