Club Med appoints Peretti to build its brand

Club Med, the all-inclusive holiday company, has hired Peretti

Communications to handle its lifestyle and consumer PR requirements on

six-figure fees.

The initial year-long contract began last week, with the four-strong

Peretti team, including company director Annabel McAvoy, headed by

managing director Francoise Peretti.

Club Med’s press and PR manager, Constance Perrin de Nelle, will

continue to handle national newspaper travel stories, with Peretti

taking control of PR in the lifestyle and magazine sectors, as well as

organising ’sporty events’ to raise the firm’s profile.

Until last year, Club Med used Bugsgang and Associates for its consumer

work, and before that Ann Stabler PR. Neither company was asked to pitch

for the work this time.

After the Bugsgang contract ended, the consumer PR function was

temporarily taken in-house until Perrin de Nelle decided she needed

help.

Club Med sends 40,000 UK passengers each year to its 125 resorts around

the world.

Perrin de Nelle said: ’Eighty per cent of people have heard of Club Med

but only 30 per cent really know what we do. We need to increase

people’s understanding of the brand, not just their recognition of

it.’

Peretti hopes to make use of Club Med’s 50th anniversary in its PR

strategy, and is planning a series of PR events to mark the occasion

between April and August 2000.

Financial Dynamics will continue to take care of Club Med’s corporate

and financial PR, reporting to Perrin de Nelle.

Perrin de Nelle was appointed to the post earlier this year. Before that

she was PR manager for a hoteliers trade union in Paris.

She said she hoped ’to extend Peretti’s initial contract with Club Med

if the agency proves itself’.