Thomas Cook ready to PUNCH out in 2010

Great news! PUNCH Canada has been named Agency of Record for Thomas Cook Canada solidifying its position as THE travel and leisure Marketing Communications firm.

Thomas Cook ready to PUNCH out in 2010

Thomas Cook has named Punch Canada its agency of record, ending its seven-year relationship with Brainstorm Group.

The company began an agency review last autumn when it altered its vendor policy, making it necessary to regularly review third-party relationships. Brainstorm was invited to defend the account along with Punch and three other unnamed agencies.

Paul Larcher, senior director of marketing for the travel brand, said he was "perfectly happy" with Brainstorm, but ultimately opted for Punch.

"We were immediately drawn to the energy and creative thinking that Punch demonstrated in the selection process," Larcher said. "The agency has strong travel credentials and they made the connection between creative ideas and strategic thinking that we were looking for."

Punch has done work for Emirates airlines and managed the "It’s Better In the Bahamas" campaign.

During the review process, Punch was assigned a separate project organizing a media event for Thomas Cook’s newly launched travel insurance services.

"We kept it separate from the RFP," Larcher said. "Perhaps in going through that process, it did give us a little insight into their agency and more confidence in selecting them."

Larcher initially invited Punch to the review because of an existing business relationship with Erin McNeill, the agency’s vice-president, group accounts.

"I left [Thomas Cook] in 2000 for six years, and while I was away I worked [at Echo Advertising] with Erin," Larcher said. "I had heard she was at Punch, and knew they did work in our category, so I contacted them."

Thomas Cook has a 14-member internal marketing team that handles most of the creative, media buying and public relations work across its multiple brands. (The company’s consumer-facing brands include Sunquest and ALBATours, while its business-to-business ventures include Fun Sun Vacations, Encore CruiseEscapes and The Wholesale Travel Group, among others.)

Punch will "augment" the internal team’s work, handling overflow as well as consulting on long-term strategy and advertising plans and serving as an events and public relations team.

Punch is currently working on two assignments for 2010.

The Out Islands of The Bahamas

Check out the latest slide show from TripAtlas.com profiling the beauty and splendor of The Bahamas Out Islands. Featured are Bimini, Andros and Long Island. Gorgeous weather included.

From the melting pot into the fire

I just returned from the media preview for From the Melting Pot into the Fire at the Gardiner Museum and it is -- in a word -- extraordinary.

The exhibition of conceptual work by Israeli ceramic artists that explores the issues of land, identity and home in contemporary Israel. The exhibition does not endorse any single political, social or artistic point of view. Instead, visitors are encouraged to reflect on the work and form their own opinions about the issues it raises. Notably, the labels that accompany each work, usually written by an exhibition curator, were written by the artist and provide an intensely personal response to the complex issues addressed.

The intimate and personal nature of this exhibition provides visitors with an individual rather than a political perspective of the issues that have and continue to shape life in contemporary Israel.

From the Melting Pot into the Fire has its origins in the Fourth Biennale for Israeli Ceramics that was organized by the Ceramic Artists Association of Israel (CAAI) and hosted by the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv in 2007. (The CAAI is a non-governmental, non-profit professional organization that supports ceramic artists in Israel.)

Yael Novak from the Ceramics Artists Association of Israel acted as that group’s curatorial liaison to the Gardiner Museum, and was on hand this morning. She recounted beautiful, intimate and sometimes sad stories about the pieces. Here is her piece below.



She has created the Israeli landscape with her pottery, using negative space as well.

I was also drawn to Avner Singer and Varda Bar Shamai's The Building Blocks of Memory / Monument for the Hebrew Language. There are 30 cubes: 27x27x27 cm each. I wasn't aware that the Hebrew language wasn't a spoken language until relatively recently -- about 200 years.




I found the whole experience moving. Perhaps it was because of Yael's personal tour... Regardless, From the Melting Pot will surely encourage discussion and maybe get you to think of ceramics a bit differently.