Last week, Ensemble gathered its agency owners and managers for the first time since its June acquisition by Navigatr Group. The meeting, dubbed Horizons by Ensemble, was held at Eden Roc Miami Beach and Nobu Hotel Miami Beach.
The consortium’s president, Michael Johnson, and other senior executives outlined the vision for Ensemble going forward — which relies heavily on the agent-facing technology platform ADX — and unveiled the group’s refreshed branding.
Travel has evolved, and it’s time the consortium does, too.
“Travel has evolved, and it’s time the consortium does, too,” Johnson said. “Ensemble is the 50-year-old new kid on the block.”
Reflecting on Ensemble’s History and Acquisition
Ensemble was originally founded in 1968 as Giants. In 2004, the organization rebranded to Ensemble Travel; at its meeting last week, it simply became Ensemble.
“Born in the spirit of collaboration and connection with our members and partners, Ensemble operated as a formal cooperative business for the first 50 years,” said David Harris, executive chairman of Ensemble.
For about 30 years, Harris owned and operated a travel agency that was founded by his parents. He was an Ensemble member for more than 20 years, and served as an elected board member for more than 13. He became its CEO in 2019 and, after its acquisition earlier this year, moved into the role of executive chairman.
“During the course of [Ensemble’s] history, there were certainly market swings and ups and downs, but together we have always shown what it means to be resilient as well as to be adaptive, and to evolve in order to remain relevant,” Harris said. “Navigatr saw this.”
Ensemble moved from a cooperative model to being fully owned by Navigatr Group after its members approved the acquisition. In fact, 95% of shareholders voted in its favor, Harris said, a “truly amazing” percentage.
Acquisition Is Additive for Members
With the acquisition, Michael Johnson became Ensemble’s president. Johnson formerly worked with Navigatr.
He said the acquisition was one meant to add value for the consortium’s members, not force anything upon them. Ensemble’s existing programs remain for members who want to use them.
From the beginning, we’ve believed that the strengths of the Navigatr Group can be complementary to Ensemble, and that investing in this great company represents an opportunity to do something special.
“From the beginning, we’ve believed that the strengths of the Navigatr Group can be complementary to Ensemble, and that investing in this great company represents an opportunity to do something special,” Johnson said.
The acquisition will build on Ensemble’s 50-year success in building programs for members and suppliers, as well as its marketing, events and training offerings.
“But perhaps the secret sauce is the sense of community,” Johnson said. “Ensemble’s sense of community is like no other. A sense of common purpose. The new Ensemble is about all of that, and more — ‘and’ is a key word in our vocabulary."
ADX: A Promise of Enhanced Productivity
One of the main offerings Navigatr brings to Ensemble is the agent technology platform ADX (short for Agent Digital Experience). So far, 60 Ensemble members are using ADX.
Maximizing the value of each transaction with existing clients is far more efficient than growing your funnel.
The software was created by TripArc, another company under the Navigatr umbrella. It enables advisors to bundle together travel, including debit memo-free air, and add in service fees and markups. It ties everything together into a neat itinerary for clients and gives them a single price.
Dave Volman, president of TripArc, gave an example of how it could help an agent increase revenue.
If an agent sold a cruise for a 12% commission (totaling $674.88) and charged a planning fee of $100, his or her total revenue would be $774.88.
However, if that agent used ADX to bundle air, a hotel with a markup, activities and insurance, his or her revenue would go up to $1,345.68.
“Maximizing the value of each transaction with existing clients is far more efficient than growing your funnel,” Johnson said.
He noted ADX is not mandatory, but an option for members.
New Ownership, New Logo
With Ensemble’s new ownership comes a refreshed brand and logo, announced by Shahla Lalani, senior vice president of marketing, and Scott McKay, vice president of brand creative.
Ensemble now styles itself as “ensemble” in all lowercase letters. Its logo features many of the letters touching each other, as well as the new tagline, “further together.”
McKay said the tagline is based on a proverb that encourages those who want to go fast to go alone, but to go far, go together.
New marketing pieces are coming, too, including a consumer-facing magazine called “Range” and several new digital assets.
Headquarters Staff and Growing Membership
While Johnson admitted Ensemble saw some attrition in members in 2020 and 2021, the consortium has added 26 new members since the acquisition with a “healthy pipeline” of other interested agencies.
“Now, respectfully, 26 members sounds great, but anyone can massage numbers to tell a story that fits their preferred narrative,” Johnson said. “What we’re focused on at Ensemble is adding members to turn the dial. This is not a popularity contest; it’s about driving results.”
Ensemble is also focused on bolstering its headquarters staff to better serve members.
So far, the consortium has increased the size of the organization by close to 20%, Johnson said. It has plans to up its headcount by yet another 50%.
Kristina Boyce, senior vice president of operations for Ensemble, said that headquarters team has been reorganized into different “centers of excellence.” Each focuses on an area of importance for Ensemble, such as data, partner relations and more.
Boyce also announced the launch of the Ensemble Training Academy. The online course is focused on new-to-industry advisors and has been designed to help agencies onboard new advisors faster.
