BLM bolsters Thomas Cook business with Club 18-30 win

BLM Media has secured its hold on the £5.7m Thomas Cook media planning and buying account with the addition of the Club 18-30 business. The business has been moved from Zenith Optimedia to BLM without a pitch.

BLM already handles Thomas Cook Tour Operations and sub-brands such as Thomas Cook Travel Shops and thomascook.com.

The youth holiday brand is intending to spend up to £1m on advertising this year in an effort to revamp its image following a wave of negative publicity. Club 18-30’s image took a battering in 2003 after incidents of drunken misbehaviour and violence by British holidaymakers in resorts such as Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes. The brand is now overhauling its proposition to move on from bar crawls and drinking games to pursuits such as paintballing and scuba-diving.

The brand’s ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, has developed a campaign that breaks this month. It aims to give the brand a more aspirational image, and the new focus is based around the phrase “be on the list” (MW last week). Club 18-30 is setting up exclusive nightclub events across the UK targeting young people.The campaign is intended to encourage people to visit the website, and includes advertising in magazines such as Company, Cosmopolitan, Heat and Maxim, radio advertising on Kiss 100 and Galaxy FM, and outdoor activity.