MediaCom lands £3.2m Center Parcs media task

MediaCom has won the &£3.2m media planning and buying business for Center Parcs.

The agency picked up the holiday resort’s account after a three-way pitch against Carat and Manning Gottlieb OMD. The pitch was overseen by Center Parcs sales and marketing director Jennie Ayres. The business moves from Zenith Optimedia, which declined to repitch.

Burkitt DDB handles the advertising and was appointed early last year (MW January 21, 2002), replacing Bates UK. Ayres appointed WWAV Rapp Collins North to develop its customer relationship strategy in December last year.

Center Parcs aims to capitalise on the demand for domestic short breaks, which it believes is set to grow as families become more anxious about rising international tension and the possibility of war with Iraq. It has four UK holiday sites, although a fire closed its Elveden Forest site in Suffolk for a time last April.

The Center Parcs brand is owned by Deutsche Bank, which bought the resorts from Scottish & Newcastle in 2001. However, Sun Capital, an investment company co-founded by entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, bought the UK property assets for &£465m and rented them back to Center Parcs in a sale and leaseback deal last November. Osmond is currently leading a hostile bid for Six Continents’ bars and hotels business.