Flight Centre launches 13 part TV series
Flight Centre has launched its first travel TV series – 48 Hr Destination – aiming to highlight through the eyes of its consultants the company’s knowledge and passion for travel.
Created by an in-house team led by head of creative and content, Luke Wheatley, the 13 part series features flight centre consultant, Greer Gardiner, who travels to 13 destinations around the world.
However, as she is only given 48 hours to visit each destination, she recruits local Flight Centre consultants in each location, to make the most of her time.
Destinations include Queenstown, New York, Cape Town, Vancouver, Auckland, Japan, Darwin, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dubai, Phuket, Edinburgh and San Francisco.
The series has been produced in association with with Empire Post, a Brisbane based post production studio, and is a first for the Flight Centre group.
It has secured broadcasting with Network Ten on Sundays at 3:30pm, tenplay.com.au, and TVNZ in New Zealand.
Commenting on the series, Wheatley said it provided an “exciting opportunity” to showcase the world’s destinations.
“As a company our aim is to ‘Open up the world for those that want to see’,” Wheatley explained.
“For our people this means our purpose is to open up their world by helping them develop professionally and personally. For our customers this means opening up their world through the exciting medium of well-organised, targeted and great value travel experiences.
He said the travel series was a new way to inspire people, and confirmed plans for a second season.
Asked about monetisation, Wheatley told Mumbrella: “Currently there are no plans to monetise the episodes as we want to keep our editorial integrity as the story comes first, however everything that the viewer sees Greer experiencing can be booked by your local Flight Centre consultant.
“This is part of a full integrated marketing campaign, where we have supported the series through out owned channels across publications (Travel Ideas, our travel publication), In store (digital screens), eDM and Social.”
Flight Centre was unable to disclose the specific details of its deal with Ten, however confirmed advertising during the show was decided by the network.
Will be interesting to see if this works and what Flight Centre consider working to be. Is success sales? Some sort of brand preference measure? A score on expertise (versus DIY online competitors)?.
The audience projections from that time slot would be very modest. So perhaps a neat idea that might be throttled by the last mile of execution.
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This is an amazing challenge. I travelled the whole world with my family. If my experience is anything, I tell you 48 hours is too less to justify any place and experience all good things it has to offer. It requires loads of planning, logistical synchronizations, money and timing.
Roll it on, eager to see.
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