Butlin's returns to TV with 'altruistic' mission

Butlin's has redefined its brand purpose, which is communicated internally within the company as, "Helping hardworking families rediscover their sparkle", and aims to convey this in the new campaign.

Created by Now, which started working with the leisure brand in mid-2011, the campaign launches on Boxing Day and will run until the end of January.

The new campaign combines a storybook-style animation format with the YouTube song 'Trololo', and shows a family enjoying each other's company and "getting their sparkle back" at a Butlin’s resort.

Butlin's has ditched its previous brand character, Ludo the green and fluffy dinosaur, in favour of the new format.

Rachel Kepinska-Smith, head of brand at Butlin's, told Marketing that the holiday brand had been associated with negative perceptions before, but that the new campaign was designed to "break" those connotations, with an "altruistic purpose" that champions hardworking families.

Kepinska-Smith said the ad was a demonstration of the favoured phrase of the brand's founder Billy Butlin, which he quoted from Shakespeare, namely, "Our true intent is for all your delight."

She said the music from 'Trololo', the viral hit fom Russian singer Eduard Khil singing in a 1970s recording, "can’t help but make people smile". She added that the TV ad iwas designed to "provide a free sample of the feeling people get of being on a Butlin's holiday".

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk