We’ve worked with Visit Wales since 2005 to change the outdated perception of Wales as an old-fashioned holiday destination. The 2010/2011 campaign showed what it felt like for a visitor to have a holiday in Wales. We found a real family, The Drakes, a family of five from Huddersfield, who’d recently had an underwhelming holiday elsewhere, and treated them to a ‘proper holiday’ in Wales, filming them throughout to see how they reacted. Alongside the TVCs, you could also visit the website, where a map plotted the family’s journey around the country, telling their story through web films and additional content showing the places they visited and the activities they experienced.

The following year we refocused the Proper Holidays thinking for young couples. We recruited one young man, through repetitive holidays spent lazy by the pool, and took them both on a 7 day holiday of a lifetime in Wales. The country readied itself for Piers' arrival – ready to prove to him that the country could offer more holiday than he could ever have imagined. The nation pledged where they would take him and what they would show him, uniting the voice of the Welsh people to show off the best of their country. Piers and Emma responded to the Welsh welcome and sailed, dined, mountain rode, whiskey-tasted and sung with an Opera singing as suggested. And more. The whole trip was documented and played out through social media, radio partnerships, digital out of home and followed up with TV spots.

Visit Wales estimates the 'Proper Holidays' campaign helped bring in £132.6 million into the Welsh economy in 2010, on a budget of less than 1/50th of that.