Tell us your story. How did What Marketing get started? 

The concept for What Marketing was born after members of the team were working internally for Invasion Camp Group. From an internal point of view, we already knew the needs of the client and what was required to be successful, so we applied the same techniques externally and filled a gap for creating great video & animation content matched with paid social adverts.

What makes What Marketing different?

We know what we’re good at and we stick to it: matching great video & animation content then matching them with paid for social content. We also specialise in the 18-25 market so we know what content people expect to see and react best to.

What is your favourite success story from your agency?  

We masterminded an idea that reached an estimated 100 million plus (and counting) in video views across all social platforms and TV channels around the world. We filled our HQ (that we share with Invasion Camp Group) with over 250,000 plastic balls turning the entire office into the world’s largest adult ball pit. Apart from a select few people nobody told any of the 40-strong team and we set up a variety of hidden cameras to get their reactions. The entire team worked from the ball pit that day and co-founder Lee McAteer ended up being referred to as ‘Britain’s Best Boss’ by virtually all of the British national press.

We had successfully taken an idea from concept, utilised all of our skill sets, distributed it through our initial channels and gained mega traction from press at all corners of the globe.

What are your future plans?

We plan to remain a small team and offer a great service, we’re currently working on projects that see us traveling all over Asia, Australia & Europe and we’ve already completed work across Canada, America & South Africa. We aim to keep on top of trends and continually seek new ways of doing things.

Which trends do you see in educational and active youth travel?

Traveling the world is seen as a bit of a granted for young people today. I think a massive trend we’re seeing is that more people want to build up their CV whilst doing this, be that through being a digital nomad and working on a freelance basis with clients for social media management / web design or graphic design, or by having volunteering so as to add to their credentials.

Which challenges do you see in educational and active youth travel?

The youth of today want instant gratification in the travel sector. Programmes that you have to apply for in which there are long lead times in finding out exactly where you are going, will in our opinion start to decline.

Travellers want to be able to plan their educational and youth travel experiences with plenty of time in hand. The extensive J1 visa for example in America doesn’t always allow for late placements or applying into the unknown in the first place as you don’t know exactly where you will end up apart from being in the USA as an overview. Applicants from the outset for the J1 visa ideally want to know in the first place exactly where they will end up from the outset and not at the end. 

Other worldwide travel programmes with great causes at their very heart that can give that instant gratification will start to see a further up surge in applications and as a result see greater numbers of participants or travellers. 

With video content becoming even more vital to the marketing of educational, cultural exchange and active youth travel programmes brands have to be careful they are not lost in the swamp of other’s excellent material. Brand loyalty isn’t what it once was, as it’s more about the consumer immersing themselves into imagining they are actually there and that is what a great video does. It captures the moments so beautifully that it makes the potential consumer desperate to be part of it so they don’t miss out.

What was your motivation to join WYSE Travel Confederation? 

We’ve attended a few events and been asked to help out with some filming for WYSE – this has always converted for us and we’ve walked away with business. On top of that, we do love a party and WYSE know what they’re doing.