UPDATE 15 September 2010. Our entry was Highly Commended in the contest, effectively 4th in a competition that ran across the whole of Europe – the winner was British Airways, runners up Virgin and L’Tur (Europe’s market leader in last minute travel) came third. Clearly, Luxury Backpackers were thrilled at rubbing shoulders with such iconic and global brands for a fraction of their agency budget.

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel website recently challenged brands and agencies to design a creative ad campaign to run on it’s site. The winning campaign will receive 250,000 euros in equivalent CPM advertising media value.

It sounded like something fun for us to get stuck into creatively and after some initial consideration we decided to work with a small independent travel brand called Luxury Backpackers. The firm was started in 2001 when owners Jill and Carlo Nash realised they were no longer ’students travelling on a shoestring’ but actually professionals with a bit of spare cash who wished to take an extended trip around the world. Like others, they wanted to explore the world, immerse themselves in other cultures, meet travellers and friendly locals but without the flea ridden hostels, endless queues and overcrowded tacky tourist spots.

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