Virgin Holidays has been arranging holidays since 1985 and claims to be the largest, most successful transatlantic tour operator, and market leader for travel to the USA and the Caribbean. Virgin Holiday's DM programme consists of 16 campaigns a year, with a major push to its database every December, two heavyweight drives around May and September and segmented monthly campaigns with variable volumes.

Virgin Holidays needed to drive New Year sales, a key period for the industry, but a difficult one to make the brand stand out as many holiday companies and other brands are promoting discounts and sales during that time. So it was important to do something different creatively.

The mailer was fronted by a cheeky burlesque girl covering her modesty with a disc emblazoned with the message "We've taken off everything we can". It ran as part of an integrated campaign between Christmas and New Year 2010. An email was sent out on Boxing Day and the direct mail piece dropped three days later. For consistency, all the creative featured the same burlesque dancer. For the DM piece, a maltese cross format was used which revealed offers as the customer opened each panel.

The campaign resonated very strongly with the public, with 50% of respondents saying they were likely to respond and 50% saying they liked the creativity/design of the mail. The results were positive - there was growth in spontaneous brand awareness including a growth in key segments, and an increase in in bookings by 25% year on year.

Creative was used that reflected the cheeky brand personality of Virgin Holidays.