Message in a Bottle added another award to its range of honours in March 2023. This time, it received an award in the Activity Sectors category of the Marketing Media & Advertising Awards 2022, with the campaign “Don’t let your dream turn into a nightmare”, developed for APAVT – the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies.
The aim of the campaign was to encourage the Portuguese to travel again, making consumers aware of the benefits of planning their holidays with an APAVT member travel agency. At a time when the Portuguese were more price-sensitive, the campaign played on the desire for low-cost holidays, but also on the risk associated with planning a trip without recourse to professionals.
The basis of the campaign was the “Dream Holidays” website – a landing page that presented various paradisiacal holiday destinations. By clicking on one of the options, the user was taken to a new page where the dream image turned into a nightmare. This contrast between realities illustrated the risk of consumers’ expectations being disappointed and reminded them of the security associated with the specialised professionals of a travel agency. At the same time, a strong Google Ads strategy was carried out, targeting users who searched for expressions such as “cheap holidays” and “low-cost travel”.
The campaign also extended to social networks, with the production of a kit of materials – including posts, reels and covers – always based on a logic of contrast between dream and nightmare. On a digital level, the campaign reached more than 3 million people. Finally, the agency produced a radio spot that was broadcast for a month on “Rádio Comercial” – a station aligned with the mood of the campaign and the target audience. In addition to the campaign concept, Message in a Bottle was responsible for all the visual and radio materials, as well as the planning and execution on various platforms. The Marketing Media & Advertising Awards recognised Message in a Bottle’s design and creative work with a Bronze award in the Activity Sectors category, sub-category Travel and Tourism.
