Ad agency builds on £1.5m travel boost by appointing former Holiday Hypermarket creator

A Birmingham-based advertising agency, M3, has appointed John Donnelly as non-executive director to build on more than £1.5m of recent contract wins.

The firm, which also has offices in Oxford Circus in London and Wolverhampton, has appointed the creator of Holiday Hypermarkets and the former managing director of First Choice Retail and Harvey World Travel, who will commence his role imminently.

Nick Lovett, managing director of M3, said: “Travel is one of our fastest growing sectors, up from £1m last year to £2.5m in gross annual billings in 2018.

“The M3 model appears to be very popular with clients in this sphere, who like our ability to understand the brief, develop the strategy and execute the campaigns – all set against benchmarks that mean something.

“We’ve got in-house teams that look after creative, branding, digital, video, media buying and event management. It’s the complete package and the appointment of John will take us to the next level, putting us in front of some of the most influential people and brands.

“His track-record and knowledge of the travel industry is second to none and we will look to leverage these qualities to develop exciting new marketing offers for companies working in the sector.”

Donnelly joined the Co-op as general manager and was eventually given the opportunity to bring the ground-breaking Holiday Hypermarket brand to retail parks all over the UK.

The business was sold to First Choice plc where he was appointed managing director of retail distribution, creating 37 further Holiday Hypermarkets and 400 retail shops.

Commenting on his role, Donnelly said: “I’m really excited to be appointed as Non-Executive Director for M3, a company I know a lot about and one that I have been very impressed with, especially in the way it has supported Solmar Villas to increase sales and put West Midland Safari Park on the map with a number of excellent TV adverts.

“The travel industry is continuing to evolve and I feel there’s a big opportunity around the popularity of ‘staycations’, representation marketing for foreign destinations and membership and reward programmes.

“I genuinely don’t think the sector has ever got to grips with the latter and that is something we will actively look to change, using all of M3’s creative and digital marketing techniques to achieve that.”