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’.
