WASHINGTON -- Vacation.com, the nation's largest agency consortium,
tapped a top ASTA official to head its first national advertising
campaign.
Stephen McGillvray, formerly ASTA's senior vice president for
marketing and promotion, will serve as vice president of business
development for Vacation.com.
McGillvray will oversee the advertising campaign, which consists
of full-page weekly spots in USA Today's Travel section through the
end of 2001.
Of the campaign, McGillvray said, "It's a large challenge,
working to corral the eight consortia that joined together (to form
Vacation.com) into a cohesive whole but this is a major step on
that road."
"It's a national campaign, not just one that is targeting
specific markets, and I particularly like that USA Today is a
publication that skews heavily toward travel."
Kicking off with the issue of Sept. 8, the USA Today ads are set
to run each Friday.
Each spot will feature "bargain" products from Vacation.com's
preferred suppliers, along with contact information designed to
route leads through the company's Web site and toll-free phone
number to the customer's local Vacation.com agency.
The company committed $9 million of its own money on the program
the first year.
It hopes to garner supplier sponsorship once the initial run is
complete, according to Vacation.com president and founder Andrew
McKee.
According to McGillvray, the first challenge in organizing the
marketing effort is to get as many of the consortium's 9,000 member
agencies as possible to enroll in AgentNet,
Vacation.com's proprietary Internet service for agents.
AgentNet includes a lead generation and management system
specifically geared to respond to inquiries on the weekly USA Today
offers.
"They need to be a part of AgentNet for this to work, for them
and for us," McGillvray said. "That's the engine to drive business
to our agents and ultimately to our suppliers."
A 10-year veteran of ASTA, McGillvray served six of those years
under the chairmanship of Dick Knodt, now the president and chief
operating officer of Vacation.com.
"Dick has a lot to do with my coming here, no question,"
McGillvray said. "I know from working with him before what kind of
an executive he is, and I really like the team they have put
together here."