Leo Burnett London has beaten incumbent VMLY&R London, Fold7 and TBWA\London to the TUI pan-European creative account.
Anglo-German TUI claims to be the world’s biggest travel and tourism business although, like its peers, it’s had a gruesome 2020, reporting a €2.3bn loss in August last year.
TUI Group CMO Katie McAlister says: “We’re delighted to have appointed Leo Burnett London to be TUI’s Group advertising agency and look forward to start working with them. The pitch process and meeting the wonderful agencies short-listed was one of the most enjoyable parts of what was an awful 2020.
“It was a very competitive pitch, and we’d like to thank all the pitching agencies for their hard work; it will be no consolation, but it made our decision really difficult and demonstrated the quality of advertising agencies in the market. We know that customers can’t wait to travel again this summer and beyond, so this appointment is the first step to reignite everyone’s passion to travel again.”
Leo Burnett CEO Charlie Rudd says: “We’re absolutely delighted to be working with TUI and have loved every interaction with them. The pitch was an exploration of Leo’s populist creativity approach for the world’s number one tourism company; we can’t wait to work with them on their brand evolution here in the UK and beyond as the world starts to travel again.”
Under Rudd (who, in his previous life, woke up to find he was no longer CEO of Ogilvy UK but “chief customer officer”) and CCO Chaka Sobhani, Burnett seems to be thriving, demonstrating continued excellence for McDonald’a and winning business, including Vision Express last year.
