Ogilvy

Bringing fresh life to Iceland’s biggest travel brand

Background

Iceland Travel has been the country’s preeminent travel company and tour operator since 1936 – back when visitors were more commonly called “explorers” rather than “tourists”. Based in Reykjavik for almost 100 years, they’ve been proudly serving the diverse needs of clients from around the world by curating uniquely local moments.

Task

As part of global travel agency Travel Connect, they’ve recently repositioned themselves to serve the needs of the B2B market as it grows in Iceland. That required a thorough rethink of their existing brand and customer flow, as well as the development of an overarching narrative that tells the story of how their extensive B2C experience is applicable to a whole new client base.

Solution

We built Iceland Travel a new communications platform that focused in on the thing that sets them apart from everyone else – a lifetime of local expertise.

It started with a strategy that captured the business’ priorities over the next several years and revealed the deep industry knowledge that could be found across the organisation. To match it, we established “Because we’re local” as a tagline at the heart oft heir communication, giving potential clients a powerful reason to believe int he unique perspective that is provided by the brand.

For each of their service offerings – from leisure travel and luxury experiences to cruise and conference organisation – we then developed key messaging areas that spoke to the ways that being local is uniquely valuable. After all, if you were putting on an event, who wouldn’t feel comforted to know that their hosts know how every single projector in the building works?

This new tone of voice was accompanied by a design refresh that refined and streamlined their existing identity into a more impactful system that puts striking imagery of their surroundings centre stage. A new visual device then points directly to the coordinates where the photo shown was taken – a clear demonstration of the team’s inimitable local knowledge.

The project’s launch has allowed Iceland Travel to reaffirm their leading position in the market, while giving them a distinctive positioning upon which to win new B2B business.