TUI celebrates its city breaks and experiences in new film by Leo Burnett

The latest campaign highlights TUI’s expertise in city breaks and experiences, demonstrating that booking holidays and experiences through TUI helps create enriching moments that last a lifetime.

17 March 2023 – London, UK: With this next instalment of TUI’s ‘Live Happy’ campaign, Leo Burnett and TUI shine a light on the ease of booking city breaks and experiences through TUI.

The Cities and Experiences work follows on from TUI’s ‘Live Happy’ campaign, which launched in October 2021, and saw TUI revamp their brand identity and brand world with the help of Design Studio, influencing how the brand looks, speaks and feels for people across all touchpoints of the customer journey. 

This latest instalment of the campaign is designed to bring to life TUI’s holiday expertise, showcasing its surprising range of city break locations and activities and helping to change perceptions that TUI only offers ‘sun and beach’ style holidays.

While showcasing city breaks, TUI aims to cement the brand in the hearts and minds of their customers by opening their eyes to new travel experiences. The campaign also celebrates TUI’s app, which offers customers the chance to book a curated list of city escapes, experiences, events and recieve in-city support.

The 40” film aims to capture not just what cities look like, but what they feel like through the eyes of the customer. The film was shot by directing duo Gareth Jackson and Mark Karinja, who make up + jacksonkarinja.

The film documents the ease of booking a city break with TUI, showcasing how consumers can easily book travel, hotel, experiences all in one place, taking the hassle out of organising a ‘DIY’ trip and making the process of booking city breaks easier than ever before. 

The film spotlights trips to sought-after destinations across the globe, focusing on New York, Barcelona, Paris, Lisbon, Venice and Rome: just the tip of the iceberg of the destinations that can be booked through TUI. 

The film highlights the culture and experiences within each popular destination: from shots of the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset to driving past the colosseum in Rome in a classic car, we see the sights and experiences within each city, including a walking tour of Rome by a TUI tour guide. We see a couple signing “I could live here” – encapsulating that holiday feeling. The spot ends with the voiceover summarising: “Flights, hotels, experiences – all in one place. The best city breaks made easy. TUI – Live Happy.” 

The media has been planned and bought by EssenceMediacom and premiers in the UK during Channel 4’s Gogglebox on Friday 17th March at 9pm. The campaign is also supported in OOH, print, radio, social and digital channels.

The first installment of ‘Live Happy’ was Leo Burnett UK’s first work for TUI after winning the global account in January 2021. 

Katie McAlister, Chief Marketing Officer at TUI, said: “At TUI we are committed to creating enriching and lasting memories for our customers, and the concept behind this film is to highlight the kind of moments that travellers will remember forever when they book a TUI City Break with us. We’re confident that the film, and the holiday feeling it portrays resonates with audiences, and we hope to see customers travel on a TUI city break with us in the near future.’’

Mark Elwood, Executive Creative Director at Leo Burnett UK, said: “The film democratises city breaks: showing the nation just how easy it is to book a city break, no matter how travel-savvy you are, you can experience the very best with TUI. When filming, we set out to capture what these cities actually feel like, and what sets a TUI city break apart from the rest.”

CAMPAIGN TITLE: TUI Cities & Experiences

CLIENT: TUI

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Leo Burnett

CCO: Chaka Sobhani

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mark Elwood

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Rob Tenconi & Mark Franklin

COPYWRITER/ART DIRECTOR: Steph Ellis & Rory Hall

DESIGNER: Carmen Perez Jimenez

PLANNER: Aileen Baker & Elly Fenlon

BUSINESS LEAD: Lauren Martin & Paul Wilde

ACCOUNT TEAM: Rob Ellen, Daisy Jackson, Selen Demirel

AGENCY PRODUCER: Megan O’Hagan

PROJECT MANAGER: Jess Dee

MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: EssenceMediacom

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Curate

DIRECTOR: Gareth Jackson and Mark Karinja (who make up the directing duo, + jacksonkarinja)

OFFLINE: Uppercut (NYC)

POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Black Kite

AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: 750MPH

PHOTOGRAPHER: Christian Kozowyk

ART BUYER: Jo Hodge

PHOTOGRAPHY AGENT: BA Reps