Rapp Collins scoops Air France CRM task

The agency takes over the account from OgilvyOne and is responsible for Air France's direct marketing programme, regular communications with members of Air France's loyalty programme -- Frequence Plus -- and management of the Air France database, in China. Yann Thefaine, regional marketing manager for Air France in Greater China said: "Among the agencies which entered the pitch, Rapp Collins came up with a pertinent strategic approach centred around two key issues for Air France: CRM enhancement and channels integration among the commercial organisations and a clear focus on ROI measurement for campaigns and actions and solutions on how to do it." Thefaine pointed to Lufthansa as Air France's main competitor and described the category as being one which had been badly hit by crises: "Namely, 9/11, Sars, Gulf war, slumping economy and lower costs in Europe. However, this has led to a consolidation over the sector. Air France taking over KLM to become number one across the Greater China region, is one good example." "While this is a big win for us in terms of budget and the scope of the assignment, its greatest significance lies in the network collaboration. That was crucial in helping us win the account," said DDB Asia chairman Aaron Lau. "This sort of collaboration seems to be happening far more often in China. The infrastructure, not growing as rapidly as the business opportunities, means there is much more need to forge alliances in order to harness the services for clients." Air France is currently in the midst of significant expansion into the Greater China region. According to Lau, the region has seen hefty increases in passenger traffic between Paris and China. Air France already has daily flights to Shanghai and Beijing and recently became the first European airline to operate a direct air service to Guangzhou five times a week. The new CRM programme for the airline will move the entire database, as well as China frequent flyer schemes, direct mail and online marketing programmes to Beijing, as the majority of passengers on these routes are China nationals.