As viral takes on Jet2’s #nothingbeatsajet2holiday campaign take over the social media landscape, campaign creator Don McGrath, executive creative director/co-founder at Leeds agency Supersonic and former executive creative director at Home, who originally delivered the campaign (which first launched to a little fanfare in 2016), reflects on how his ad became the feelgood hit of the summer.
“Another day, another morning waking up to a flurry of WhatsApp messages sent to me by friends featuring the latest #nothingbeatsajet2holiday TikTok videos or news articles. Today it’s Jeff Goldblum, Mariah Carey and a Google easter egg. Last week it was Joe Jonas, CNN and the New York Times.
When I first got into advertising, I remember the excitement of seeing my very first idea put into print. Better still, when I proudly gathered all the family on the sofa to watch my first ever TV ad play out live. Now, this latest global viral trend has me feeling all kinds of long-forgotten excitement. Who will it be today? Liam Gallagher? Margot Robbie? Pep Guardiola (please!)?
People keep asking me if this whole thing is an accident or by design? The truth is you can never design or engineer something like this. But there was some method somewhere behind the madness.
When I first came up with the Jess Glynne/Hold my Hand concept way back in 2016 (I was ECD at Home Agency in Leeds) we wanted to create a brand platform to help Jet2 break into the top 3 consideration set for holidays.
At the time, Jet2 were seen as a low-cost airline and the marketing was very much price and destination-led. But holidays are much more of an emotional purchase than just a seat on a plane; holidays are things that people work their whole year for. So, we needed an idea that would connect emotionally with people and help to build trust in the Jet2holidays brand.
Fast forward several years and the campaign has been played out with relentless consistency, etching the song and the visual treatment onto hearts and minds. And that’s the key, the relentless consistency. As a creative, I spent years fighting my instinct to change things, to create something new. But we sat in so many focus groups where we kept hearing the same positive feedback and we realised that we had an idea that was built to last.
We had to remind ourselves that when you are getting bored of an idea that you’re working with day-in, day-out, it’s only just starting to sink in with people in the real world.
Music is always so subjective and the track divided opinion, but everyone had an opinion and crucially everyone associated it with the Jet2holidays brand. It got to a point where Jess Glynne would go on stage and say ‘Ok, who’s ready to go on holiday?’ before launching into the song. It felt like our brand idea was becoming part of popular culture.
Then, in 2024, the first videos featuring the track and now iconic voiceover being played over vacation fails appear on TikTok, with the upbeat, joyous nature of the track and voice being completely at odds with the chaotic videos it accompanies. Then things just spiralled and the rest is fast becoming TikTok trend history.
A major key to the success is that Jet2 have embraced it all in the right way. They haven’t jumped on the bandwagon. They haven’t tried to control the narrative. Instead, they’ve quietly got involved, creating relevant content that shows that they know and understand their audience, engaging with fan content and even giving away £1,000 prizes to some of the best content creators.
As of today, #NothingbeatsaJet2holiday has become the unexpected sound of the summer, with over 1.5 million tiktok videos, well over 100 million views and is the biggest trend on TikTok. As for tomorrow? Who knows, but I can’t wait to wake up and check my WhatsApp messages. Come on Pep…”
