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Club Med appoints Cogent Elliott
Club Med consolidates marketing services with appointment of Cogent Elliott and Brilliant Media
Club Med UK has completed a three month review of its marketing agency structure and has appointed Midlands based Cogent Elliott to handle their million pound UK marketing account, spanning digital marketing, CRM and eCRM. Media planning and buying will be handled by Brilliant Media who work closely with Cogent Elliott.
The re-tender process and subsequent appointment was led by Club Med’s Head of Marketing, Sarah Mason as part of Club Med’s ambition to consolidate agency support into a single agency relationship encompassing marketing communications. Public Relations continues to be handled by Four Communications who have held the account for over two years.
Cogent Elliott will plan activity across every media channel including digital, traditional, direct and customer relationship marketing and work closely with Four Communications to roll out key messages. Advertising and marketing communications activity will support brand management activity which is led by Club Med’s head office in Paris.
Part of the new agency’s focus will be to manage Club Med’s UK marketing plan to grow awareness and drive holidaymaker volumes. A renewed focus of the campaign will be digital activity, with 70 per cent of activity to be undertaken in an online environment, compared to the previous focus of approximately 30 percent, reflecting the make-up of the current Club Med consumer and the audience the brand wishes to attract.
Cogent Elliott and Brilliant Media beat off six agencies including incumbent creative agencies Publicis, media buying shop Carat, direct marketing agencies Juice and Talisman and relationship marketing agency Full Six to land the account. Roster consolidation was handled by the Haystack Group.
Alex Warren of Cogent Elliott will lead the account, supported by Emma Lilley and Kate Harper who will handle CRM and eCRM. Media planning and buying is headed up by Paul Bramwell of Brilliant Media.
Sarah Mason, Head of Marketing, Club Med UK commented: “We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Cogent Elliott to handle marketing communications and Brilliant Media to undertake media planning and buying on behalf of Club Med UK. Both agencies have been appointed with immediate effect as part of Club Med’s strategy to develop a more cohesive approach to communications, across all media platforms. Whilst we were very impressed by the level of understand and in-depth analysis of the agencies who presented credentials and ideas, Cogent Elliott displayed a real understanding of the customer journey from enquiry to booking and provided creative ideas which have the potential to increase awareness, drive bookings, and generate results in both a traditional and digital environment.”
Tim Pile, CEO, Cogent Elliott continued: “We are delighted to be working on such an iconic global brand as Club Med. We have spent the last month immersing ourselves in the Club Med offering and have already begun planning activity for the forthcoming 2008/9 Autumn and Winter seasons.”
Sarah Mason continued: “The objective of this exercise was to reinforce Club Med’s repositioning as a luxury operator and redefine how Club Med develops its marketing communications and planning across all media channels. Cogent will support Club Med’s global repositioning strategy to create a more aspirational and refined holiday experience, as Club Med seeks to redefine their offering for a more sophisticated and upmarket audience”.
For a quote or industry commentary from Sarah Mason, Head of Marketing, Club Med please contact Four Communications.
Sarah Mason, Head of Marketing
Sarah Mason joined Club Med in 2000 as advertising and promotions manager and went on to re-structure the marketing team bringing all disciplines, which previously operated separately, into one team. Sarah studied French and Italian at UCL and later went on to complete a Masters in business and marketing. Sarah has vast business experience in marketing and strategy gained both agency and client side.