Canada’s largest tour operator is kicking off a multimillion dollar ad campaign this month, pursuing a worry-free branding strategy for its vacation packages in a move one of its top executives says goes against industry convention.

David Hunter, vice-president of marketing for Signature Vacations, says, in future, when Canadians think of buying a holiday package he wants them to think of the Signature Vacations brand.

Hunter says less than 5% of Canadians now know the brand names of tour operators, adding, until now, branding has not been a factor in the travel industry.

He says the basis of branding is making sure the product or service offered matches consumer expectation, and it is this expectation Signature Vacations wants to meet.

He says extensive company research shows ‘loud and clear’ vacationers want a worry-free holiday.

Signature Vacations’ advertising tagline is ‘Don`t Worry…Be Happy,’ borrowed from the Bobby McFerrin hit song of eight years ago.

Dermot Blastland, president of Signature Vacations, says the company is changing the way it does business, ‘with a strong new identity and a service-oriented corporate culture.’

Hunter says once the Signature Vacations brand is established, the next phase will be market segmentation.

He says Signature Vacations, now firmly positioned as a mass marketer, could introduce exclusive holidays for upmarket consumers.

Incidentally, he says, Signature’s parent, Britain’s First Choice Holidays, started its own branding strategy 18 months ago.

Signature Vacations is the new name for International Travel Holdings and its regional operations, P.S. Holidays in Manitoba, Adventure Tours/Fiesta Sun in Ontario and Sol Vac in Quebec.

The new name was introduced in mid-August.

Signature Vacations’ sister companies, 50% owned Fiesta West in b.c. and wholly owned Encore Cruises in Toronto, are keeping their current names.

To promote the Signature Vacations brand, the company is using advertising created by Leo Burnett in Toronto.

Hunter says the advertising will break the week of Sept. 18 using tv, billboards, newspapers, trade ads and p-o-p travel agency displays.

Marovino & Associates in Mississauga, Ont. has also created a new logo for the Signature Vacations brand.

The tv component of the campaign has two 30-second spots that use the Don’t Worry…Be Happy tune, and the outdoor element is using more than 1,000 billboards in major markets.

Double-page spreads are planned for daily newspapers in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina and elsewhere, and more than 3,500 p-o-p display kits are slated for travel agencies.

Trade ads will appear in travel titles such as Travel Courier, Canadian Travel Press and Tourisme Plus.

The campaign will reach more than 90% of adults living in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

The targets of the campaign are men and women aged 25 to 46, who are predisposed to take packaged tour vacations.

These consumers tend to live in urban or suburban areas and have higher household incomes.

As befits a mass marketer, Signature Vacations offers a range of holidays, from a low-season week in Florida for $409 per person to a high-season 14 nights in Belize in Central America that costs about $2,700.

To support Signature Vacations’ brand building, Hunter says the company has, among other things, overhauled its main marketing tool – the 128-page brochure listing its tour packages – and set up a 24-hour-a-day help line for travellers and travel agents alike.

Signature Vacations is also offering a best price guarantee, so if customers see the company advertise a lower price than the one they have paid, they can apply for and get the lower price.

And early booking deposits have been lowered to $100.

Signature Vacations also promises 24-hour assistance once travellers are at their destination, and cash compensation in the event of unforeseen changes.

For those vacationers on the Internet, Signature Vacations will be the first national Canadian tour operator with a Web site: http://www.ith.ca.

Hunter says the keeping of travel trade statistics in Canada is poor, so industry figures tend to be best guesses.

However, he says of the four million air charter passengers in Canada last year, Signature Vacations serviced more than one million of them.

He says some of his company’s biggest competitors are Canadian Holidays, the package tour arm of Canadian Airlines International, Air Canada Vacations and Ontario’s Sunquest.