Bates nets 10m Center Parcs Euro account

The Bates Group has taken control of the whole Center Parcs account – worth more than 10m – across Europe.

Bates Europe beat Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, J Walter Thompson and the DDB network to the international account – covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany – which it will run from its London and Amsterdam offices. Bates Dorland has held the advertising account in the United Kingdom since 1986.

Tom Wright, Center Parcs director of marketing, sales and product development and a former Carlsberg-Tetley new product development director, comments: “We will ben-efit from shared learning and experience by using a single-agency network across Europe.”

Bates Europe will work with its sister agency, Scholz & Friends, in Germany.

International strategy has yet to be finalised but Wright reveals that a heavy emphasis on television advertising will continue with a major push scheduled for September.

He adds: “Different communications strategies will be developed for different markets – the Center Parcs brand is very well known in Holland, where it was established nearly 30 years ago, but it is relatively new in Germany.”

Center Parcs, which specialises in short-break holidays, emphasised the range of activities available in a TV advertising campaign launched by Bates Dorland last year.