Teletext topped holiday search chart in summer 2011

Teletext Holidays was the most visible holiday advertiser on Google during the late summer booking period, according to the latest analysis by Greenlight

Teletext Holidays was the most visible holiday advertiser on Google during the late summer booking period, according to the latest analysis by Greenlight.

The search specialist analysed the advertising strategies for UK firms around holiday-related keywords in June, July and August.

It found there were 4.7 million relevant searches with generic holiday-related terms dominant, accounting for 76% of all searches. ‘Cheap holidays’ was searched for 1.2 million times (26%).

When paid and natural results were combined Teletext Holidays came out on top, achieving the highest aggregate share of voice (55% natural and 62% paid).

The advertising platform beat Thomson into second, followed by icelolly.com, First Choice and Thomas Cook.

Direct Holidays was the biggest mover since the last holidays report, issued in February. It rose from tenth to sixth place with 34% natural and 26% paid-for share of voice.

Thomson was the most visible website in natural listings and Teletext Holidays the most visible in the paid media space.

Thomas Cook claimed top spot for social media presence, with 11,000 Twitter followers and a Klout score of 67.

Comparison of firms’ campaigns to consumer search behaviour showed the major sites upping their presence towards the end of the week, a time when customer searches actually are at their lowest.

Travel Supermarket best reflected the weekly cycle of consumer behaviour but fared less well on an hourly level, achieving highest visibility in the comparatively quiet morning period.

Thomas Cook and Travel Republic best reflected consumers’ tendency to shop for holidays at lunchtimes and in the evenings, between 12pm and 2pm and after 8pm.

Travel Supermarket also posted a heavy fall in the natural generic term search table, with a 22% decrease in visibility since February.

Thomson led the natural search table for short-haul terms, ranking first for 119 key terms. First Choice and Thomas Cook both improved their ranking on February.

Paid search was highly competitive  and saw icellolly.com and sunmaster.co.uk claim second and third spots ahead of more established online agents Travel Republic and On the Beach.

Holiday Hypermarket was the only new entrant in the top 10, but ebookers gained significant ground to reach 12th spot, up from 42 in February.

On the Beach had the most visible individual ad, with creative promoting ‘Very, Very Cheap Holidays’ and Atol protection. Low Cost Holidays had the most diverse campaign with 157 different pieces of creative.

 > Download the full report on Greenlight’s holiday sector page