MindShare loses £9.5m Thomson

Thomson Travel Group has dropped MindShare from its Thomson Holidays £9.5m media buying business and appointed Mediapolis instead.

The move consolidates all the group’s media buying into Mediapolis, which already has the £7m (AC Nielsen-MEAL) Lunn Poly account.

Sources say the value of the combined account will rise to £23m this year as the group ploughs additional money into marketing its Internet operation.

The appointment forms part of Thomson’s drive to consolidate its roster of marketing agencies.

Thomson recently announced it is investing £100m in the Internet. The investment will include a number of separately branded Internet supermarkets selling its own and competitors’ holidays direct to different niches of the market.

The first online supermarket is called First Resort and launches on March 21.

The appointment of Mediapolis comes at the end of a period of change at the Thomson Travel Group.

The company recently appointed senior Whitbread marketer Ed Aspel as its new board-level director, with a brief to ensure its holiday-makers feel the benefits of last year’s brand overhaul.

This followed the promotion of Shaun Powell to the position of managing director after a period acting in the role, as exclusively revealed in Marketing Week (February 2).

Prior to this, Lunn Poly appointed Hugh Edwards from Dixons Stores as its marketing and buying director.

Thomson reported a 38 per cent fall in earnings to £77m last year as a result of increased competition from new direct entrants and lower-than-expected demand over the Millennium.