IDEA GENERATION
DISCOVER BLACK TOMATO CREATIVE SERVICES
WHO? WHAT?
Black Tomato Creative Services was set up to help our partners build a connection and truly engage with the lifestyle savvy, global, discerning audience that has been the bedrock of our rapidly growing consumer base since The Black Tomato Group was established in 2005. Working within online and offline channels, our Creative Services arm offers expertise in idea generation, content production and
marketing and communication strategy and implementation. This expertise is used to help our partners engage with their target audience through the large number of consumers regularly visiting the The Black Tomato Group’s portfolio of websites, that includes: Black Tomato, Beach Tomato, Epic Tomato, Pinch Magazine, and The Black Tomato Agency
So what’s this book about? Well, it’s here to tell you a little more about what our Creative Services offering is; detailing the services we offer, showcasing some of the great work we have produced and explaining how we work.
Most importantly (and what would make us really happy) we hope it will create that spark of interest and build a connection with you and give us the opportunity to work together. And by working together, we mean producing work rooted in great creative concepts and content that stands out from the crowd, displays fresh and unique thinking and most crucially of all allows our partners to drive brilliant interaction with their target audience. Before we take you on a journey through our Creative Services offering, our co-founder, Tom Marchant would like to share some words on the journey The Black Tomato Group has taken and importantly what lies at the heart of the Creative Services arm of the company.
This is the phrase that sits at the heart of the Creative Services arm of The Black Tomato Group.
SOME MOMENTS FROM THE HISTORY OF BLACK TOMATO Black Tomato wins Guardian Best Travel Website award
Founders launch Black Tomato
Idea for Black Tomato is hatched around a campfire in Australia
Launches operations in the United States
Wins best online tour operator at the British Travel Awards
Launches Beach Tomato; Epic Tomato and Black Tomato named as an official ‘Global Cool Brand’
Three People One Laptop One Desk One Phone Line
Doesn’t sound like the easiest way to run a business but that was the reality of the situation when myself and my two business partners, James Merrett and Matt Smith, began The Black Tomato Group in 2005. But the one thing missing from that inventory was our most important asset. A belief that the way to connect with an audience is to build a connection through compelling creative output. What you need for that is not something you can buy in PC World or Ikea. What it comprises is having a big imagination, a willingness to challenge the status quo, to question everything and a passion to keep doing that so that you always produce the best possible outcome. In an environment often characterised by generic marketing messages and formulaic product offerings, you need to stand out. By standing out you can build a connection with the customer. We were lucky in that we all shared that outlook and also recognised that for three guys in their mid-twenties it could present us with a chance of turning our dream of building a strong lifestyle brand into reality. We were obsessed with travel but we were equally obsessed with understanding our audience’s constantly evolving lifestyle needs and creating a brand
that told them we understood this and, most importantly, understood them. Seven years on, the office set up has changed with the company now operating from multiple locations around the world. What has remained the same has been that passion for creativity and recognition. When utilised skilfully this passion can not only engage effectively with your target customer but the connection it fosters leads to stronger relationships and a better long term business outlook with substantially increased loyalty to the business. The only difference now is that this passion for and obsession with producing great creative work across all aspects of the business is now shared by a large group of talented individuals who we are lucky to have working within the company.
Over the years, we have been fortunate to see the creative output from the Black Tomato Group recognised in many ways from numerous best website awards, to marketing campaign awards. It has been hugely humbling to be acknowledged in this way. The launch of our Creative Services arm is taking our belief in strong creative a stage further, which for us is a natural part of the journey we set out on all those years ago. As we have grown we have had the opportunity to work regularly with partners from many different lifestyle industries. Whether it be tourist boards, hotel groups, fashion brands, beauty brands or other luxury lifestyle companies, we have worked extensively on a huge cross-section of creative and marketing activity. From producing custom website solutions to introducing partners to our audience; from filming videos that showcase the best features of a destination to creating newspapers; from sending our own editorial teams to produce content and broadcast live from a location, to custom making trips inspired by a fashion brand to advising on social media and PR strategies for clients. Through these and many more activities we have consistently enabled our partners to engage in a truly effective manner with both our and their target audience.
Our extensive knowledge of the luxury industry and the discerning, urbane and highly influential consumer that we engage with enables us to provide a focused insight and understanding of how to connect with an audience. It has been to our delight that we have been able to bring this to the many projects we work on with our clients. The Creative Services arm of The Black Tomato Group embodies the belief in using creative output to inspire and engage with an audience. The collection of talent who work within this area also share the passion for innovative thinking and the creativity (for being better’s sake – not for just being different’s sake) that us three founders bonded over and started a business based around seven years ago.
The Creative Services arm offers a variety of services that we believe (and importantly have proved) can make a big difference to our partners. The rest of this book will tell you more about them. It’s been a long journey since the start of The Black Tomato Group but the one thing that connects our beginning and where we are now is that love of and belief in creativity having a positive business impact when applied in the right way. It’s been our enjoyment to build a connection with our audience and with our partners through this approach.
cut here to fold your very own paper plane and take a journey with us
Industries We Work With We work with partners across a broad range of industries. All share the same belief as us. That you should delight customers with your offering and find innovative and engaging ways to showcase it.
OUR SERVICES
We offer a range of services as part of our Creative Services offering. All are designed to help our partners engage with and stand out in the eyes of our audience. These services can be used individually or as a combination. All of the projects we undertake are produced on a bespoke basis and the services employed are based on our partner’s needs and the objective of the campaign. What follows is an overview of our range of services followed by case studies of successful projects we have run for our partners.
Website Promotion: Custom Creative and Sponsorship
ABOUT
portfolio
news
What is it?
Our websites present a great opportunity for partners to engage with a discerning audience through sponsorship opportunities. Â
What we do:
Our in house team specialise in producing custom creative, from microsites to key editorial and product profiling for our partners on our sites. All of the content produced is rooted in strong creative designed to engage with the audience. As well as custom creative we also act as units for partners to place key messaging in. Campaigns can be run on just one site or across multiple sites depending on the objectives of the partner and campaign. Â
Why it works:
Our award winning sites are highly trafficked with users spending long periods engaging with them. This ensues high levels of exposure and interaction with our partner brands, driving sales and bottom line performance for those partners featuring on the sites.
contact
E-NEWSLETTERS
what iS IT? The Black Tomato Group produces e-newsletters for all our brands on a regular basis, ensuring frequent engagement opportunities with the hundreds of thousands of people registered on our database.
LOU
WHAT WE DO: Our newsletters are based around strong messaging and creative content that is shaped by our in-house team of expert marketers. Â Due to the strength of the content, the newsletters achieve open and click through rates that are significantly higher than industry averages. Partners have the opportunity to appear within the newsletters, either as a featured item or as a fully dedicated newsletter introducing the partner and their offering in substantial detail.
WHY IT WORKS:
SOCIAL MEDIA WHAT IS IT? As a key outlet for engaging with our target audience, The Black Tomato Group operates multiple social media channels and strategies within them to ensure effective communication with an audience of over 50,000 followers on a daily basis. This presents an opportunity for partners to be profiled and promoted to our captive audience on a regular basis.
WHAT WE DO: The in-house Creative Services team devise engaging strategies to profile our partners within our social media. Often rooted in strong content and messaging that is viral in nature, details are planted across our social media channels as part of a wide social media strategy. The content has to be based around strong hooks that encourage click through, sharing and ongoing engagement.
WHY IT WORKS: Social media works if the messaging and content is thought through. Often people undertake social media for the sake of it without deeper thought into its purpose. Through working with our partners our team devise truly engaging social media strategies to bring to life the partner, which results in high levels of consumer interaction and substantially increased awareness for our partner.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
What is it ? The Black Tomato Gr oup has recognised long been as an ind ustry lea generation der in the of media c overage fo offerings r its own and its p artner of part of cam ferings a paigns. Wo s rking wit Tomato G h The Blac roup prov k ides part an opport ners wit unity to h generate media ex substanti posure i a l n both lifestyle travel a press in t n d he online arenas wh and print ere we hav e extensiv  e contacts . What we do: Working w ith our i n-house P our partn R team an ers we pu d ll togeth product a er engagi nd servic n g e campaig believe w ns that w ill have s e trong med By focusi ia interes ng on th t . e relevan offering, ce of th the stren e gth of m essage fo r
the titles and the audience we ensure that our campaigns achieve maximum exposure. Â Why it works: Our PR generating ability stems from our focus on developing genuinely innovative and creative product, service and wider campaign offerings. Working with our partners we develop the appropriate positioning and messaging for the campaign that will ensure it receives strong coverage. The extensive media exposure raises awareness for our partner, both through the campaign with us but also as standalone proposition too.
A picture speaks a thousand words
our videos share
an entire story
WHAT IS IT?
Our Creative Services team offer video production services whereby we will conceive, film and edit videos for our partners as part of campaigns or as standalone video campaigns. Recognising the increasing prominence of video as a media platform and influencer of search engine optimisation but most importantly audience engagement and inspiration, this is a key and fast growing arm of our Creative Services offering. Â
WHAT WE DO:
Working with our partners we will propose video concepts for how we can bring their product and/or service offering to life through video so that it truly connects with the audience. Once agreed on the concept we then produce the videos and subsequently promote them through our other services. Our focus is to produce innovative concepts married to strong creative that stand apart from other video offerings. We focus on producing content that inspires, has longevity and most importantly, delivers on our partners’ goals. Â
WHY IT WORKS:
Video is arguably the best platform to inspire users about your offering. With it you have the chance to bring to life an offering that few other forms of media can. As well as inspiring and engaging with users for a substantial length of time, it is also recognised by Google and the other key search engines as being integral to what constitutes good content and therefore how sites and services rank in search results. By producing video, you are not only inspiring the end user but ensuring on-going visibility from key search engines long into the future.
In Print Black Tomato Creative Services
offline
offline Services
description of the service what is it?
what we do:
Although recognising the absolute importance of online engagement, our Creative Services team also believes in effective campaigns in print that can support and compliment online campaigns. The ability to still touch something tangible and be inspired by the printed page still has a place in effective engagement strategies and we regularly work on partners to bring print led campaigns into marketing activity to produce an integrated campaign that covers online and offline environments.
Our key piece of activity in print is to produce bespoke newspapers and booklets for our clients and then distribute them through the multiple channels that we have access to. Working with our suppliers, our art and content teams have and continue to produce beautiful newspapers that bring destinations, products and service offerings to life in a beautiful and compelling way. Crucially our print formats are always supported by online content and microsites, with calls to action within our papers linking the offline and online platforms.
wh y it work s: People like to take time to enjoy content as well as get quick fixes for it online. Newspapers and booklets allow people to enjoy time with the content when they want to disconnect for some precious moments. The luxury industry lends itself wonderfully to producing inspirational content around product offerings and our Creative Services Black Tomato Creative Services
team bring our partners offering to life in brilliant ways. On top of the content, the distribution channels we have means that the print formats produced get into the hands of many thousands of people quickly. This allows many potential customers to engage with partner offerings in a truly effective manner. offline Services
What is it?: The Black Tomato Group sends out thousands of documents a year to our clients, from travel details to direct mail messaging. This format acts as an excellent vehicle for our partners to place their own promotional material in. Through this they get direct, tangible access to our clients.  What we do: Our Creative Services team work with our partners to produce bespoke collateral to be placed in the packs.Whilst we will work with our partners’own material, we like to collaborate with our partners to produce this bespoke collateral so that it fits within the creative look and feel of our mail outs.  Why it works: In pack promotion allows our partners to introduce their offerings to our many thousands of clients in a tangible format that can make a genuine impression on receipt. As well as the hard copy format we also encourage partners to provide calls to actions for the recipient. Although most often achieved through our sites, this can also be done directly to ensure that the initial impact is sustained and can take the customer into an online environment where the partner can engage with them further.
events
A FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION : SIMPLY INVALUABLE.
WHAT IS IT? The Black Tomato Group runs regular events for our customers and friends, ranging from intimate VIP dinners to large events for hundreds of people. The events provide an excellent platform for our partners to introduce their offerings to our audience and engage with them in an interactive and personal manner. Â WHAT WE DO: As well as a calendar of regular events that partners can sponsor we also work on a bespoke basis with partners to devise events that really bring their offering to life in the eyes of our consumers. We like to make our events as creative and memorable as possible so that they leave an impression on the guests. As part of this we always ensure that the partner being profiled gets to display their offering in a fashion that will strike a chord and have the strongest impact with the people attending. Â WHY IT WORKS: The chance for our partners to profile their offering in a close environment and in an innovative fashion ensures that the captive audience leave with a clear understanding of and interest in our partner. As well as the event we organise follow ups from our partners and will also profile the event on our sites both in the run up to it, during it (via social media) and then post it via newsletters updating on recent activities for the Black Tomato Group.
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING WHAT IS IT? The Creative Services team is always looking for innovative and provocative ways to bring campaigns with our partners to life. One area where we have expertise in this is experiential marketing. From pop up bars, to treasure hunts within cities and commissioned street art depicting a partner destination, the Creative Services team has undertaken many successful experiential marketing campaigns to bring a partner’s offering to life. WHAT WE DO: We really enjoy working with partners who want to undertake different approaches to engaging with the target audience and experiential marketing is one such way of doing this. We work side by side with the partner to develop ideas (or are happy to submit ideas for review) that can form the basis of experiential marketing. Our objective throughout this is to focus on driving
maximum awareness of the activity and thus profile for the partners and the Black Tomato Group from the campaign. The activity always has strong calls to action to go online and is supported by extensive social media, PR and online promotion. WHY IT WORKS: The customer these days receives many thousands of marketing messages a day. To engage with them you need to stand out. All of our services are rooted in this belief and the experiential marketing activity is a great example of standing out. It allows partners to interact effectively to display innovation and creative thinking and genuinely stand apart from the crowd. From a practical perspective, this activity also lends itself to strong data capture, links both the offline and online marketing arenas as it is promoted through both and drives extensive PR coverage.
Tomato has been working with Israel since 2010 “ Black and we couldn’t be happier! They always understand
our concepts. We are honored to be one of their destinations. Israel Tourist Board
”
Working with various brands and tourist boards our in-house editorial team with years of experience have created content both online and offline for various sites and publications. Examples of this content provision include the Israel Tourism board.
Our experienced in-house editorial team are known for producing up-to-date and fresh content that transports readers to the destination. Through our inspirational tone of voice that seeks to be informal and yet informative we are able to engage and stimulate the reader.
Content Provision - Israel
New York City is a notoriously difficult destination to reposition. With such a huge global presence, the general feeling from consumers is that they already know exactly what NYC has to offer. However, through creative content and promotion across Black Tomato we were able to uncover the city’s underground art scene, complemented by our expert pick of places to stay, eat, drink, see. Working alongside NYC & Company was a great example of how our clients can benefit from Black Tomato’s own influential brand positioning within the travel and lifestyle space.
Black & Beach Tomato are a breath of fresh air, bursting with unusual and exciting marketing initiatives. They are fun, creative and most importantly their work is effective. - British Virgin Islands Tourist Board
British Virgin Islands 18.4285˚ N, 64.6243˚ W
In 2012 Creative Services worked alongside the British Virgin Islands Tourist Board to promote the Caribbean islands to Beach Tomato’s stylish and travel-savvy audience. Based on a three-tiered campaign, the BVIs were brought to life, literally, through a creative social media driven campaign across central London. Further supported by extensive editorial content and a live takeover of the Beach Tomato magazine, we were able to offer BVI Tourism the opportunity to be promoted in a unique, on- and offline campaign. In addition to extensive PR coverage achieved, the campaign was also supported by Black Tomato as a tour operator and as a result we delivered tangible booking figures as a result of the collaboration.
Social Media microsite
competition
third party press coverage
video content
queensland event
From Bush To Beach 2011 saw Beach Tomato transport its audience to the beaches and rainforests of Tropical Northern Queensland via the newly launched Beach Tomato site. By sending out our intrepid video and photographer to explore the coast and beyond, we created a dedicated area for the Northern Queensland where a journey from the bush to the powderwhite sandy beaches showed our audience the less trodden paths of this seemingly well-known region. A multimedia platform, the campaign consisted of video footage, imagery, editorial content, social media interaction via a competition, and in-house events. This campaign was our first example of footage being captured on the ground out in the field of the destination. team at Black and Beach Tomato have always been so enthusiastic and “ The genuinely interested in finding ways to promote destination Queensland. For us it is really important to show some of the hidden gems of our destination and build the Queensland story and we’ve been able to successfully achieve this through our continued partnership. Tourism Queensland
”
Papua N ew Guinea Approached by The Tourism Promotion Authority we were challenged to open up this little known island destination and unravel the myths behind a country that seemed to outsiders to be lost in time. Our solution: to pair innovative and engaging digital content on a dedicated platform (built specifically for the campaign) with a bespoke client event held in central London. Whilst actively engaging with many of our top VIPs by raising awareness and driving interest in travel, we decided to go one step further and send a member of our team across the globe to see for themselves what the country had to offer. We instantly became an invaluable and reliable resource to our clients looking for advice on travelling to PNG.
Black Tomato offered such a great combination of innovative and creative ideas to promote PNG, it was a pleasure working with them. Feedback after the activity was informative and we look forward to another opportunity to work together. -Papua New Guinea Tourist Board
raffles
hotels and resorts
Raffles as a brand is globally recognised as a beacon for world class service in unique and historical settings. Needing to reach a younger yet no less wealthy audience, Raffles approached Black Tomato with the challenge of creating an innovative new digital marketing campaign to educate our audience on the unsurpassable luxury found in 6 of its hotels around the world. Through a combination of engaging and insightful editorial and a VIP client dinner hosted in London we were able to target Raffles’ ideal client base. Results were fantastic with sharp booking spikes seen around our marketing activity and a huge amount of coverage surrounding the campaign in the national and international press. From the results of the initial campaign we have moved on to create a much larger marketing campaign to include further properties aimed at continuing to raise awareness.
I thoroughly enjoy and value our relationship with Black Tomato. They are a dynamic and progressive organisation with similar brand values to ours. There is great synergy with our organisations and they are true innovators. They occupy a unique positioning in the market place and their refreshing approach to business, combined with the variety of brands they can leverage, ensures their commercial success for their partners. -Raffles
The newly re-branded Indian Ocean hotel group LUX* appointed Beach Tomato to support their re-introduction to the luxury travel market. By shining the spotlight on LUX*, the inspiration behind the brand and its innovative concept of “lighter luxury�, Beach Tomato was perfectly suited to both promoting LUX* Island Resorts and also driving bookings through the awardwinning tour operator services of Black Tomato.
Mamont vodka &
Epic Tomato
Our brands tell stories; be they of luxury, of culture or of adventure. Positioning ourselves as the travel provider for luxury brands we revel in the opportunity to tell the story of a high-end brand, to explore its origins and creatively promote its key marketing messages. Mamont was a vodka borne of adventure; a pioneering expedition on the remote Antarctic ice sheet in search of the frozen Mammoth. With the creation of a premium spirit they came to us looking to tell their story. Our solution: to showcase their branding on our now multi-award winning site Epic Tomato by relating our intrepid sense of travel and adventure to a vodka with similar principals. Mamont benefited from website sponsorship at the launch of Epic and therefore prime positioning in a highly trafficked online space. For almost 2 years we have supplemented this fantastic digital presence with regular events to showcase the partnership of Epic Tomato and Mamont Vodka to our VIP clients. The result: a wider distribution network for Mamont and vastly increased awareness of their branding.
Leading high-street fashion brand Reiss collaborated with Beach Tomato in order to promote the Spring/Summer collection. As part of the campaign the Creative Services team produced engaging and editorial-rich lifestyle content, drawing on our fashion and travel knowledge, to bring to life Reiss’ summer range. By securing an incredible 12-night trip to the Cook Islands we heightened awareness of the campaign and the Spring/Summer collection drawing approximately 15,000 entrants to the competition and joined forces for Reiss in-store summer parties across the UK.
campaign we worked on with Beach Tomato was a “ The huge success. I look forward to working with them again. �
OMOROVICZA Omorovicza is a cult cosmetics brand stocked by a selection of luxury international retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman NYC, Harvey Nichols UK and Lane Crawford Hong Kong. As part of a digital marketing campaign, Beach Tomato partnered with Omorovicza to showcase the brand and its unique product range. Promoted as a dedicated microsite, the Creative Services team produced insightful content surrounding the story of Omorovicza and its founder Margaret Heinrich, effectively driving Facebook advertising to the brand to further increase engagement and awareness.
“
Our campaign with Beach Tomato saw amazing results Omorovicza
�
Working with the well-known and iconic L'OCCITANE beauty and cosmetics company, this campaign was the first of its kind targeted directly at a purely US audience. Inspired by the L'OCCITANE brand we created an online platform consisting of product and editorial content inspired by the region of Provence, France and the natural ingredients of L'OCCITANE products. Direct email communications and PR coverage aimed at the US (publications such as Huffington Post US and Vanity Fair online) allowed us to target a specific audience successfully.
Molton Brown Beach Tomato collaborated with leading beauty brand Molton Brown to introduce their new fine fragrance inspired by Tahiti to the UK market. Utilising Beach Tomato’s unique position as the authority on the best of beach culture, travel and beauty, the project was perfectly suited to our expertise. Prominently promoted across all partners’ marketing channels, in-store at Harrods and nationwide throughout 40+ Molton Brown stores. Additionally Beach Tomato raised significant awareness of the new fragrance and secured the ultimate competition prize offering one lucky reader a 5* all expenses paid holiday to the paradisiacal island of Tahiti.
When global fashion brand Jack Wills approached Black Tomato Creative Services to promote their new collection we immediately saw the opportunity for a multi-tier digital brand collaboration through the award winning Beach Tomato media platform. Having conducted a photo shoot in Sri Lanka, Jack Wills were looking to host a competition throughout 60 of their global stores with the concept of the general public recreating a particular look from their recent collection.
Using the Beach Tomato Twitter feed we saw more than XXX entries with online traffic driven directly to a dedicated microsite that included fashion guides and profile on Jack Wills. Focussed on engaging a wide demographic through a mix of social media activity and online content creation we were able to raise brand awareness exponentially throughout the UK market and the online space.
“The campaign we worked on with
Beach Tomato was a huge success. I look forward to working with them again. � Jack Wills
Black Tomato is a very different type of travel company; we are a tour operator that focuses on experience first and gets away from bland brochure style trips. From the start we have been known for our engaging and inspiring content, always looking at ‘travel fuel’ – why people go away and what influences their experiences.
Online
ASSETS Working across a multitude of platforms over the last 6 years, the Black Tomato Group has now grown to encompass 5 distinct brands and is ideally positioned to engage with a wide reaching ABC1 audience around the globe.
Our online travel, fashion and lifestyle magazine, a one-click destination for the lowdown on the very best of coastal culture featuring beautifully presented travel editorial on where to see and be seen, the best beach abodes and what to wear when you are there.
In the pursuit of unique experiences combining the essence of becoming a pioneer and the opportunity to experience places and cultures that few others have ever seen, Epic Tomato have introduced some of the world’s most isolated locations into the holiday agenda of an everincreasing roster of discerning international clients.
A digital magazine exploring the connection between travel and people’s passions and lifestyle choices, recognising that it is often these very passions that set people on the road. PINCH explores this relationship and provides inspiration for the next lifestyle experience, whether it be across the world or across the road.
The Black Tomato Agency is our award-winning full service events arm of the Black Tomato Group. We provide our services both in the UK and Worldwide and specialise in creating incentive group travel, conferences, meetings, corporate entertainment and CSR programs for international blue chip companies.
what the press say about black tomato “Going Up: Black Tomato – Is anyone else addicted to travel site Black Tomato?”
Grazia “The ones to watch. Black Tomato is part of the group of people redefining travel”
“Creatively designed holidays which mix luxury adventure and plenty of insider tips: That’s the point of Black Tomato. Luxury Briefing likes their style”
Luxury Briefing
Condé Nast Traveller
“Creative directors alike, tailoring luxury holidays off the beaten track. But it’s the innate sense of style and exuberance throughout that makes the service special.” “Black Tomato offers not just an imaginative Shortlist portfolio of destinations but innovative services also”
Financial Times – How To Spend It “Black Tomato’s innovation is to look after its clients like a best friend”
Daily Telegraph
Readers’ Travel Awards
2011 : rated 6th in the Best Travel Websites category CondĂŠ Nast Traveller
British Travel Industry Hall of Fame
Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010: Tom Marchant Travel + Leisure
Top 22 Trips of a Lifetime 2010
Travel Marketing Awards 2010 British Travel Awards
Best Online Tour Operator 2011 Travel Marketing Awards 2010
Best Website
47th in list of the fastest growing
100 privately-owned companies in Britain 2010 Sunday Times Fast Track 100