Christmas Day will see First Choice Holidays launch its most adventurous advert to date to highlight its family holidays proposition. The campaign will start with a heavyweight TV presence showing an emotive message promoting family holidays, before moving to a range of executions that will see the theme run through an integrated campaign covering direct mail, web advertising and promotions.

Following the success of last year’s campaign, which featured people rising into the air as a metaphor for the generous legroom on First Choice’s longhaul aircraft, the new campaign will focus on family bonds and the importance of quality time spent together.

The “Arms Full” TV commercial concentrates on the range of emotions experienced by a father as his son runs into his arms, accompanied by moving piano music in the background. The underlying message is simple: ‘being together is brilliant.’

The importance of being together as a family, which is at the heart of the new ad campaign, reflects the finding of a recent survey conducted by First Choice, which revealed that families spend more quality time together during a one-week holiday than they do at home in everyday life.

At home, just over a quarter of families say they get together for an evening meal up to three times a week, with one family in 10 managing it just once, if ever. In contrast, holidays see an overwhelming majority of families (96%) share meals between four and seven times a week.

It is therefore small wonder that 99.5% of those recently surveyed by First Choice saw a holiday as an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ time to bond as a family.

A 60 second version of the TV commercial will premier on Christmas Day with ongoing full and 30 minute executions on terrestrial and satellite channels planned to air right through to March.

Andrew Laurillard, Head of Brand Strategy for First Choice, said: “Families are a very important segment of the inclusive holiday market and First Choice have a very strong presence in this area. Our service, quality and product range are excellent, and we feel that this was something we should make more of in our communications.”

The new commercial’s family message will be accompanied by a revised version of the successful SwimKids spot, which highlights how First Choice has taught more than 10,000 kids to swim over the past two years.

Full-page adverts will also be placed in selected women’s magazines including Now, OK, Best and Bella from late January to March, and the new “Arms Full” commercial will feature in cinemas during half term and Easter.

Display advertising online is planned for January through to March on parenting portals such as ‘mumsnet’ and ‘iVillage’, with the emphasis on communicating tailored family product messages.