Tag: Club Med

Singapore – In a bid to sharpen its regional focus and unlock new growth opportunities, Club Med has unveiled a major restructuring of its Asia Pacific operations, including the consolidation of business units and key leadership appointments.

As part of its major restructuring, Club Med is consolidating its three existing Asia Pacific business units into two integrated entities: East & South Asia and Pacific (ESAP) and China. Effective May 1, 2025, this move aims to streamline operations and improve responsiveness in high-priority markets.

While the company maintains its collaborative “One APAC” approach, the revised structure is intended to reflect the unique business environments of ESAP and China, allowing for more targeted strategies and regional alignment.

“This move opens a new chapter for Club Med in Asia Pacific. By tailoring our regional structure around the unique strengths of China and ESAP, we are well poised to accelerate our expansion with a strategic focus. With empowered leadership and a shared glocal vision, Club Med now has even more agility to seize opportunities in key markets and reinforce our position as the worldwide leader in premium, all-inclusive travel,” said Henri Giscard d’Estaing, president of Club Med.

To lead the new ESAP unit, Club Med has appointed Rachael Harding as chief executive officer. In this role, she will oversee both commercial and resort operations, reporting directly to Gregory Lanter, deputy CEO of Club Med.

Harding will focus on navigating the evolving market landscape, delivering strong brand and customer experiences, and driving a growth strategy across both mature and emerging markets in the region.

Commenting about her new role, Harding explained, “This business transformation empowers us to scale with greater purpose and precision across the region. With a refreshed leadership structure, a robust resort pipeline and stronger regional integration, we are advancing our ability to deliver elevated, seamless guest experiences. The 2024 results clearly demonstrate ESAP’s significant growth potential for Club Med, and we are poised to capitalise on every opportunity this new phase presents.” 

The ESAP leadership team is also being strengthened with several key appointments. Cindy Beleau has been named vice president of revenue management for APAC, where she will modernise pricing strategies with digital and AI-driven tools. Sandrine Rossi steps in as vice president of operations and product, bringing over two decades of experience in resort strategy and operations. Anastasiya Kulish will now lead as vice president of Japan Resort Operations, focusing on reinforcing Club Med’s mountain leadership in Hokkaido.

Meanwhile, Michelle Davies, currently general manager Pacific, will expand her responsibilities to include ESAP’s new markets. Olivier Monceau will now oversee the meetings & events segment in addition to his leadership roles in Singapore and Malaysia. Lastly, Jerome Ferrie and Arezki Haddad will serve as chief financial officer and chief human resources officer, respectively.

In China, Andrew Xu will remain CEO of Club Med China and take on the additional role of deputy CEO of Club Med, with responsibility for global finance.

The ESAP region has steadily recovered over the past three years, driven by returning customers, new market growth, and expanded resort capacity in areas like Hokkaido. Key developments include the renovation of Club Med Phuket, planned upgrades at Club Med Bintan, and the upcoming opening of Club Med Borneo in Malaysia.

In China, Club Med welcomed over 260,000 guests in 2024, making it the company’s second-largest market. Since entering the country in 2003, the brand has grown its presence to include five Premium All-Inclusive Resorts, four Joyview Resorts, and two Urban Oasis properties. Moving forward, Club Med will focus on maintaining its position in the premium segment and supporting both outbound and inbound tourism.

Producing and scaling paid and owned media creatives often involves inefficiencies, resulting in high costs, suboptimal creative output, and challenges in maintaining brand governance at scale. Time-intensive development, the demand for multiple ad formats, and resource constraints can overwhelm marketing teams, especially when specialised design tools are required.

Fragmented creative processes across regions further disrupt brand consistency, particularly during rebranding efforts. Manual workflows from creative to publishing take considerable time, and every time a campaign needs to be updated, the entire process has to be repeated. Adding to the challenge, some platforms inflate costs by misclassifying standard HTML5 banners as rich media. Addressing these pain points is essential to streamline workflows, reduce costs, and ensure unified brand communication.

This case study delves into how Bannerflow enabled the holiday lifestyle brand Club Med to overcome creative management challenges, streamline processes and achieve cost-effective solutions for cohesive and efficient brand communication.

The Challenge

In 2023, Club Med launched a new brand positioning and campaign while expanding across East and South Asia Pacific (ESAP). Creative management challenges emerged as local markets independently developed paid media creatives, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies. The process was time-consuming, with social media ads requiring multiple formats and programmatic displays demanding numerous permutations.

Without specialist tools and expertise, marketing teams struggled to balance creative production and their core responsibilities. These fragmented processes disrupted the rollout of Club Med’s new global brand identity. Additionally, the existing Creative Management Platform (CMP) inflated costs by misclassifying standard HTML5 banners as rich media, further straining budgets, and was not flexible enough to meet their cross-channel needs.

The Objective 

Club Med’s primary goal was to implement a centralised, efficient, and user-friendly CMP that could:

  • Simplify and accelerate creative production to meet diverse ad format requirements across a variety of channels
  • Enable marketing managers to manage creatives without specialised design expertise.
  • Ensure brand consistency and governance across 11 ESAP markets.
  • Optimise costs associated with creative development and ad serving.

The Solution

To tackle the challenges of creative management, Club Med partnered with Bannerflow to deploy a CMP tailored to the unique demands of the ESAP region. A pilot program was launched across Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand to evaluate the platform’s capabilities, focusing on creative scaling, user-friendliness, brand consistency, and support for local languages.

The implementation began with establishing a centralised regional library of brand assets within Bannerflow, ensuring all markets had access to materials aligned with Club Med’s global brand identity. Ten standardised creative templates were then developed and deployed across the region, streamlining the creative process while maintaining visual consistency. Direct integrations with ad networks like Google’s DV360 and Meta Ads Manager further simplified the publishing process, reducing operational complexities.

To maximise efficiency, Club Med provided training to marketing managers, enabling them to independently produce high-quality creatives without requiring specialised design skills. This approach empowered local teams while maintaining cohesive brand governance across all markets.

The Results

The initiative exceeded expectations, prompting a regional rollout across 11 ESAP markets, including Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Australia. This expansion showcased the effectiveness of Bannerflow’s platform in streamlining creative management while addressing the unique demands of diverse markets.

Significant time savings were achieved, halving creative production time across the region. Marketing teams saved 204 hours of manual work and were able to produce twice as many ad sizes without requiring additional resources. This efficiency allowed teams to focus on strategic priorities rather than routine tasks. In total, 312 man-hours were saved, and the potential freelancer costs in the ESAP markets were reduced.

Cost efficiency was another standout result, with ad-serving expenses reduced by 80% and the elimination of the need for external support to create sufficient HTML5 ads for the region. The removal of rich media fees for standard HTML5 banners played a pivotal role in cutting costs, making the platform a financially sustainable solution.

Brand governance was made simpler and brand consistency improved significantly, driven by a centralised asset hub that ensured uniformity across all markets. Additionally, the ability to share creatives across regions fostered better collaboration and alignment, ensuring the brand’s global identity was upheld.

Moreover, ads were distributed directly from Bannerflow to the media buying platforms, enabling the marketing team to update campaigns with ease through a live connection. This streamlined workflow not only improved campaign performance but also made the process more efficient, benefiting both the marketing team and their media agency.

Lastly, creative output soared, with ESAP markets generating 510 creative assets across 51 campaigns, which has since scaled into thousands of creatives. Additionally, 36 diverse regional templates were developed and released, and 78 creative sets were created across the ESAP markets. These assets supported various initiatives, including tactical promotions, sale openings, and always-on marketing efforts, demonstrating the platform’s capability to handle high-volume demands effectively while enabling local market adaptations as required.

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Club Med’s success in ESAP inspired a global rollout of Bannerflow in 2024, unifying creative management across all regions, including Europe and North America. This marked a transformative leap in efficiency, cost savings, and brand cohesion—elevating Club Med’s creative operations to new heights.

Singapore – Global hotel company Club Med is putting a strong emphasis on its lifestyle allure, transforming the concept of escapism into a destination through its latest advertising venture,named “That’s l’Esprit Libre.” This campaign not only refreshes Club Med’s image but also emphasises its modern visual identity.

Club Med is rebranding with the tagline “That’s l’Esprit Libre” to reflect its heritage and global presence. Their new campaign addresses the social aspects of travel and vacation experiences by combining a stylish, lighthearted tone with a modern aesthetic.

Commenting about the brand’s revamp, Quentin Briard, Club Med’s CEO of marketing, digital and technologies, said, “With our complete creative overhaul, Club Med is entering a new era aligned with our premium and lifestyle positioning.” 

l’Esprit Libre means having peace of mind and living a different way of life that elevates and enhances the ordinary. “That’s l’Esprit Libre” highlights those special times when we truly unwind while on vacation, letting go of the stresses of everyday life to rediscover what really matters. It urges us to rediscover the easy joys and find contentment in the here and now.

Meanwhile, Jules Renault, director of Soldats Agency, said about the commercial, “It’s anything by a typical commercial. It’s meant to be like a celebration – playful and fun. There’s irony and attitude in the voiceover’s narration, addressing an audience that’s not gone on vacation yet.”