Premium travel magazines
An award-winning magazine for Kuoni.
Kuoni got in touch as they needed help to relaunch their customer magazine. They wanted to showcase their brand as the foremost expert in luxury travel. Travel is my big passion and Kuoni is a brilliant brand so I was delighted to be asked. The catch? They had just six weeks to get the magazine to print…
I love a challenge, and the refreshed and re-imagined magazine was published in December 2022, a beacon of hope in the post-pandemic era. The results were outstanding, and I’ve continued to work with them on magazines, trends reports and sustainability messaging.
The client loved it, and the magazine went on to win the Best Customer Magazine award at the 2023 Travel Marketing Awards and it’s been shortlisted again this year… watch this space!
THE BRIEF
In a market saturated by consumer travel and competitor magazines, Kuoni knew they had to shine brighter with a publication worthy of our highly affluent, discerning customers. It needed to feature insights, ideas and exceptional travel writing.
But this wasn’t just about just about creating a great travel magazine. Our goal was to leave readers with an unforgettable impression about the world of experiences that make an adventure with Kuoni so special. Through the magazine we wanted to demonstrate the ‘Kuoni difference’ – in other words, luxury travel experiences like no other, underpinned by our unparalleled expertise.
The magazine would be a gift to existing customers that would leave them excited and ready to book their next great adventure. But it needed to be a flexible tool that could be seeded digitally with the goal of sharing our incredible offering with new customers.
WHAT I DID
I worked alongside a small internal marketing team still depleted post Covid, integrating seamlessly with the team but also injecting a new, fresh and credible approach to our magazine.
Together we created a sumptuous, beautifully-designed, perception-changing magazine filled with outstanding travel content, insightful news and trends stories. The unique point of difference? We give each issue a unifying theme to ensure the magazine feels new each time. For the first issue we explored “make this year to…” encouraging readers to be brave. Spoil themselves. Seize the moment. Travel again. The message was a gentle nudge for consumers to return to longer-haul and more adventurous travel post pandemic.
To ensure fresh and independent storytelling we commissioned known travel writers to get their unique take on this. From Sarah Bravo’s family adventure to the Azores to Georgie Darling’s foodie odyssey in Vietnam, and stories on wellness and sustainability, our features communicate the breadth of travel experiences we offer beyond the luxury beach escapes we are known for.
By reflecting news, views and trends from the world beyond Kuoni, we gave the magazine an editorial feel that positioned the brand as part of the zeitgeist yet always allowing the voices of our in-house experts to shine.
And while we would never chase celebrity for celebrity’s sake, where relevant we teamed up with renowned experts to share their insights. Adventurer and presenter Simon Reeve graced the cover and shared his perspective on wanderlust in a time of climate crisis, while fashion designer Thandi Ojeer shared an eye-popping journey to Tanzania in pursuit of her passions.
Design-wise we wanted the magazine to hold up against any newsstand titles. We created pace and flow with a mix of image-led pieces, gorgeous long reads and snappy roundups. The finished product was delivered in a beautiful paper wrap to create immediate impact on receipt. Beautifully designed by our in-house studio, the result was high quality touch and feel, for a brand where premium quality is key.
We needed to balance our vision of a beautiful travel magazine with commercial priorities, ensuring the inclusion of key destinations as well as generating third party revenue from partners and suppliers. We decided to carry fewer traditional ad slots and instead focus on paid inclusions.
By working closely with partners but maintaining editorial control, we found creative solutions to merge paid features seamlessly into the magazine while maintaining integrity. Quality writing underpinned by personal experience – like in the California road trip feature and Vancouver city guide – make these authentic and interesting stories in their own right.
The overall budget was £90k to include all content production, design, artworking, photography, printing and distribution costs.
RESULTS
The magazine sits proudly at the heart of the Kuoni content eco-system with plans to increase the number of issues per year and grow its distribution.
The magazine was initially distributed to 60,000 customers, selected for being either our most loyal repeat customers or newer customers to encourage brand loyalty. In this way our flagship content piece worked as hard as possible, both as a reward and a tool of acquisition.
An additional 8000 copies of the magazine were handed out upon request via walk-in customers across our 26 Kuoni stores across the UK, and in selected John Lewis department stores. This provided a piece of quality content that our personal travel experts could put straight into the hands of customers for them to take away and read at their leisure.
The magazine was also used as part of the core collateral at the Destinations Travel Show, where a further 1500 magazines were given to highly affluent travellers as they actively planned their journeys for the year ahead and beyond.
And in the three months since launch, the magazine has generated 214 bookings. It cost £1.35 per unit and made £6 per customer in profit. Revenue from ad sales also created £45,000 in revenue.
This isn’t just another marketing piece. It’s a flagship content piece that stands out against a backdrop of faster paced, persuasive sales-focused communications. It allows readers to kick back, relax and leaves a lasting impression. Relaunching the Kuoni magazine with independent storytelling at its heart has raised our profile and added gravitas to what we say.
“We couldn’t be happier with our decision to entrust Ellie and her team with the relaunch of our Kuoni Magazine. Ellie’s creative ideas, inspirational editorial, and meticulous planning are truly exceptional. What makes Ellie stand out is her ability to balance engaging and creative content with the magazine’s commercial objectives. Working closely (and often at lightning speed!) with our in-house design team, Ellie has delivered two stunning and successful issues. And to top it all off, our 2022 issue won the Best Customer Magazine award at the 2023 Travel Marketing Awards!”
Find the complete issue 1 here and issue 2 here.