Alex Palmer from Haygarth explores the far-from-normal retail experience in major airports and what shoppers are looking for when travelling.

Between packing your bags and jetting off on your summer holidays, you’ll no doubt pass through one of the vast shopping areas found in major airports. It’s a retail experience like no other – where else would you order a pint at 6am, grab £100 sunglasses on a whim, panic-buy a dangerously big bag of sweets for the office or pay twice the high street price for a bottle of water without a second thought? Also… luggage shops. Who’s buying luggage at the airport?!

It’s certainly a far cry from the normal weekly shop or a trip down the high street. But away from the idiosyncrasies, there are some strong fundamental principles of retail in play that tap into a totally different shopper mindset and set of behaviours. Which is little wonder when you consider that the value of the travel retail sector is estimated to be £50bn, rising to £90bn (M1ndset report, 2017) – clearly it’s doing something right.

You only have to look at WHSmith to see this in effect. While it was recently voted ‘the worst high street retailer’ (Which? Survey 2018), with trade down 5%, its same figures in travel retail saw a rise of 7%. Without the threat of Amazon looming over it, and with a captive audience of shoppers keen to bag some holiday reading, plane snacks and a bottle of water to replace the one they had to hand in at security, the store is a finely-tuned retail machine. If good shopper and retail marketing is about keeping it simple, WHSmith excels here. Its stores are well-placed, key product categories (newspapers, books, drinks and confectionary) are well-positioned to maximise impulse purchase, stock is managed efficiently (from a merchandising and replenishment perspective) and unlike the high street equivalent, the till area is well-staffed. In other words, it’s optimised for shoppers who want to get in, get what they want and get out without having to Usain Bolt it to their gate.

At the other end of the spectrum, away from holiday ‘commodities’, there are other interesting observations in luxury/premium goods. This area is less focused on fast-paced, impulse shopping and more about considered purchase, often where the shopper is not the end consumer. Because of this, retailers and brands set out their stall in a completely different way, with service and experience playing a more heightened role.

For spirits and cosmetics in particular, travel retail exclusives, gifts with purchase and premium sampling are really effective ways of engaging shoppers in a ‘must-buy’ opportunity. Jack Daniel’s’ ‘Bottled in Bond’ is a great example of an exclusive premium SKU developed specifically for travel retail to increase desirability for whiskey lovers (and/or gifters). Likewise, cosmetics giant Estée Lauder has achieved huge growth in travel retail through a combination of exclusive sets and scents and beautifully designed stores with attentive service. For the modern, savvy shopper, both examples offer increased value over and above price/discounting. Of course, it’s also a big help when the layout of the airport (such as Gatwick) creates a deliberate flow of customers right past your retail space.

Both Jack Daniel’s and Estée Lauder have demonstrated an understanding of how shoppers think, feel and behave in the travel retail environment – tailoring their offering to a broad range of travellers, with a broad range of motivations and needs. From the business executive passing through for the 5th time that month, looking to pick up a gift for their partner, to the excitable family on their first holiday of the year with some money to spend on travel accessories; the opportunity for brands and retailers is to understand these behavioural differences and deliver the right product, in the right way, at the right time. With a guaranteed high shopper footfall passing through everyday, it’s too big an opportunity to miss.

Alex Palmer is an Account Director at Haygarth, an award-winning creative agency that create powerful brand and retail ideas that amaze and persuade people to buy.

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Travel hubs offer fantastic spaces for a full spectrum of promotional activity ranging from sampling to immersive experiential activations, says Andrew Bodwick of SpaceandPeople

Travel hubs, like airports and train stations, offer a fantastic platform for a full spectrum of promotional activity ranging from sampling to immersive experiential activations. There has been an evolution in these venues recently to be more than just pure transport hubs, but rather retail destinations which has increased dwell times and customer engagement. The potential of these venues is relatively untapped but when used strategically can garner impressive results.

The opportunities in airports, for example, are broad and with the detailed demographics available, brands can be extremely targeted in their approach. Airports offer significant dwell time (2.5 hours with 70 to 80 minutes on average in the departures terminal[1]) which provides brands with a captive, relaxed and receptive audience, typically with a high socio-demographic profile.

If the passengers are going away on holiday, the excitement level is already high with the prospect of having a break and people are therefore more happy and eager to speak to retail staff and brand ambassadors, as they see it as part of the holiday experience. Being in a positive mood leads to impulse decisions and people are more open to discovering new brands they may not have otherwise considered.

Airports also offer the opportunity to target large groups of each sex going on holiday, such as stag and hen weekends.  These groups tend to be of a young, tech-savvy demographic with a high disposable income and little, if any, domestic responsibility. Likewise, a high proportion of professional couples seek refuge from their daily lives with city breaks and getaways in foreign lands. Other identified passenger groups include baby boomers who no longer have dependants and are enjoying rediscovering life with a higher disposable income and less responsibilities.

The above demographic profiles obviously focus on leisure travellers, but many airports also have an equally high proportion of people travelling for business purposes.

Airports offer unique opportunities for experiential activity as it is one of the only environments where you can be sure where consumers will be at any particular time, predict how long they will be there and where they will go next. It enables brands to be very specific in their targeting; from sampling festive related products to people going on holiday to Lapland, to giving them some home comforts on their return from a long-haul flight from Australia or creating an experiential activation for business passengers for a technology product.

Many air travellers over-index on buying core tech products, motors and media, and they tend to be early adopters of technology and are often influential within their network of friends and colleagues. Brands can therefore ensure the awareness of a specific product is raised within a specific geographical area, on a pre-defined route or time (e.g. first flights to all London airports in the morning).

Aside from airports, train stations have proven to be excellent locations for experiential and face-to-face marketing activity.

They have historically been used as sampling pods due to their high, consistent footfall; however, the recent trend has been to incorporate sample distribution with an experiential element to consolidate the brand messaging.

Lucozade Zero, for example, complemented a major sampling campaign last year targeting high footfall locations such as London King’s Cross Station by collaborating with fashion retailer Missguided and opening a ‘Zero to Pay’ nail bar, offering Lucozade Zero-inspired complimentary nail art (see picture). This not only increased brand awareness and trial with their target audience but also generated a social media buzz that would not have been possible with just pure sampling. Similarly, belVita installed a giant radio within a number of train stations at the end of 2017, offering commuters a live music performance and a sample of their recently launched soft filled belVita biscuits.

Train stations also offer a platform for PR launches and one-off events. Recently, a number of film PR stunts have taken place at central London train stations including an interactive mural for the film mother! and a shoe shining service for the latest Kingsman movie. Stations can also lend themselves well to specific seasonal or event activations, from Valentine’s Day promotions by tourist boards to a giant Thomas and Friend’s chocolate train over the Easter Weekend and a huge festive hamper activation by Waitrose looking to reach people travelling home for Christmas.

The latest technology is also being employed by many brands, with Augmented Reality being hugely popular, especially for products and services that are not necessarily that easy to get engage potential customers with.

Travel hubs have evolved from being places which people go to in order to to go somewhere else to become places where people want to spend time. The different mindsets of people, depending on their journey purpose, destination and travel means, enable brands to adopt a very targeted approach. All of these factors combined mean that although travel hubs were not necessarily considered for anything other than sampling stations previously, they are now increasingly popular for larger and more complex experiential campaigns today.

Andrew Bodwick is Head of Brand Experience at SpaceandPeople. The SpaceandPeople Group is a leading international destination media specialist, present in the UK, Germany and India, representing over 350 UK venues with a weekly footfall of over 45 million. The Group markets, sells and administers space in high footfall venues (including shopping centres, garden centres, retail parks and travel hubs), matching brands, promoters and retailers to the venues and footfalls that are right for them.

[1] Why Airports? Primesight

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Blackjack Promotions, which specialises in airport staffing, travel retail and experiential marketing, has seen massive growth in demand for market research services during 2017, as clients focus on understanding how passengers use airports and their feelings about the service they receive.

In recent months, Blackjack has been awarded new contracts or had existing contracts extended with a number of airports, including Stansted, London Luton Airport and Dubai – the world’s busiest international passenger airport.

Fiona Tindall, Head of Domestic Retail at Blackjack Promotions, says: “Airports can be incredibly challenging locations to carry out face-to-face research. Travellers can be tired, distracted and stressed, while there may be restrictions on how and where staff can deliver marketing activities and what they can say to people, particularly when you’re working air-side, beyond the security barriers.”

Blackjack has a large database of experienced brand ambassadors who are security cleared to work ‘airside’, in the areas beyond the security gates and passport control.

Tindall adds: “It’s vital that brand ambassadors working within the airport environment understand how travellers think and how to approach them in a way that reduces stress levels, rather than adding to them. Staff need much higher levels of diplomacy and general customer service skills than they would need, say, in a traditional retail environment, public space or festival or event.”

At Stansted, Blackjack staff worked over the summer (the airport’s busiest period), monitoring the quality of user experience, including queue lengths, passenger traffic flow, congestion points and other issues relevant to the journey through the terminal. This is the second year running Blackjack has delivered face-to-face research services at Stansted.

At Luton, Blackjack was appointed in 2016 to provide field agents to support an airport quality survey programme. London Luton Airport (LLA) constantly monitors all aspects of the passenger experience and was also keen to understand how passengers feel about its redevelopment programme, launched in 2016. That contract has now been extended for three years.

At Dubai, Blackjack was appointed to deliver research services during 2016 to understand more about the passenger experience and how they could improve passenger satisfaction. The data delivered by this initial programme was so useful that Dubai has extended it to run until May 2018, and has also added a ‘mystery shopping’ function.

For Dubai, Blackjack had to source multilingual research staff to cover 32 passenger interaction points across four terminals, 365 days a year. Staff have to have airside access. They input questionnaire responses onto tablets and upload the data in real time for Dubai Airports to access.

Blackjack Promotions is a leading staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist. A subsidiary of US company ABM Industries, a global provider of facilities management services, Blackjack is based at Heathrow, where it employs approximately 1,000 staff, in addition to its database of 8,000+ field staff. Blackjack is a member of the IPM agency.

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Tiffany is marking the launch of its new signature fragrance to the UK market with experiential activity in one of the busiest areas of Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

The campaign will allow passengers to personally experience the brand-new Tiffany perfume, crafted to reflect the diamonds for which the legendary jeweller is famous. The scent itself is described as ‘elegant and light’, with a bottle designed to reflect light and a cap showcasing a ring displaying the Tiffany & Co. hallmark.

Passengers will be able to test the fragrance at the stand. The diamond-inspired perfume bottle comes nestled in the famous Tiffany blue box and passengers will exclusively be able to have theirs engraved before it is then beautifully gift wrapped.

The site is located in Terminal 5 Departures, home to a range of prestigious and premium retailers, which means it should attract passengers actively seeking entertainment from high end brands such as Tiffany.

Tiffany designed the stand, which was manufactured and installed by Emerald House Associates. BlackJack Promotions is providing the staff.

With over 3,400 fragrances available to buy at Heathrow Airport and £122 million spent on scent alone in 2016, the experiential stand provides a unique and effective way for Tiffany to cut through and ensure the brand is front of mind when passengers are considering their fragrance purchases.

Tiffany’s campaign was booked by JCDecaux OneWorld through JCDecaux Airport and will run for one month at Heathrow Terminal 5. The experiential campaign is supported by bookings across digital screens in Terminal 5, Terminal 2 and across the Digital Totems in T5.

Steve Cox, Marketing Director for JCDecaux Airport, says: “An experiential site such as this provides the perfect platform to launch a new fragrance.  Tiffany has recreated the essence of their brand, and can both engage a highly receptive audience keen to spend on the product, and propagate their message far beyond the airport environment.”

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Former Managing Director of specialist experiential and staffing agency Blackjack Promotions, Sally Alington, has launched a new global consultancy, Ethos Farm, which aims to help companies transform their approach to the customer experience.

“Business leaders across the globe undervalue service. Yet it can deliver real differentiation in an increasingly commoditised world,” said Sally Alington, Founder and CEO, Ethos Farm. “Companies talk about having a customer-facing workforce but what’s actually needed is staff who fully understand the corporate values and business objectives. Only then can they deliver exceptional service levels that meet both customer and company needs.”

The idea behind the Ethos Farm name is about positively transforming attitudes and corporate cultures, supporting the development of a successful company ethos in which workforces become advocates of the company.

“We help organisations to do this by combining best practice in employee learning and training with the latest communications technologies to transform workforces into brand custodians,” Alington explained.

Alington has brought together a team of globally-recognised experts with in-depth understanding of the latest management practice and training theories, coupled with years of real-world experience at rolling out service improvement programmes for some of the world’s best-known companies, brands and organisations, including Heathrow and Dubai Airport, the BBC and Westfield, to name a few.

She says that at Ethos Farm’s heart is a unique ‘Customer Service Architecture and Engineering’ concept.

Architecture refers to the company’s Consultancy team, headed by Alington, which helps companies develop a blueprint for customer service to align workforces with their values and aspirations.

Engineering relates to the Learning Development and Technology teams, led by Josie Barton and Mat Garner respectively. These provide the building blocks to make the new service blueprint a reality and transform the customer experience.

Alington is a former Director of Retail and Experiential Services at OmniServ and Managing Director of staffing solutions and experiential marketing agency Blackjack Promotions. She has a deep knowledge of designing and implementing customer services solutions and brand ambassador training.

Josie Barton is former Head of Operations, Finance and Planning at the BBC. From building competency frameworks for British Airways to playing a key role in relocating 2,000 BBC staff to BBC Media City in Salford, Barton has 25 years’ experience of people and corporate development, including designing and managing apprenticeship strategies. She also helped set up the BBC’s first ever joint venture outside of the UK – the Media City in Abu Dhabi.

Mat Garner is former Operations and Customer Services Director of a 2,000-strong operation at Heathrow, ex-Head of Commercial for Manchester Airport Group and Passenger Services Director at Stansted Airport, and is highly experienced at designing and developing technology solutions that are built with the end-user in mind.

Ethos Farm Learning and Development is designed to inspire the highest levels of performance from teams using a range of next-generation training tools and techniques. These include specially developed ‘Performance Rooms’, where the Ethos Farm team can deliver immersive training experiences.

The latest state-of-the-art technology will play a vital role in supporting the efficient and effective delivery of Ethos Farm’s customer service design and development concepts. This includes both bespoke and ‘templated’ solutions to drive enhanced service levels and colleague engagement from frontline workforces, as well as providing data analysis to drive insights into staff behaviours and avoid service problems.

“Using a range of tools, we will guide clients and their teams to develop the insights and approaches that will ensure they stay close to their customers and are able to adapt and thrive in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world,” adds Alington. “Our role is simply to help clients find the unique formula that will inspire the highest levels of performance from their people.”

The fourth member of Ethos Farm’s founding team is Lauren Walsh, who heads up the company’s operation in the Americas, based out of New York. Walsh is former Global Head of Client Services at Blackjack Promotions, and was previously Travel Retail Regional Manager, L’Oréal Luxe UK for YSL and Biotherm.

The new venture has already secured backing from global facilities solutions provider ABM, with Andy Donnell, Group Managing Director of ABM UK, joining the company’s Board of Directors. ABM is the current parent company of Blackjack.

For UK clients, Ethos Farm is able to advise companies on the complexities of the new Apprenticeship Levy and will soon be accredited as an approved Apprentice Training Provider.

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German low-cost airline Eurowings, the State Tourist Board Baden-Württemberg, Europa-Park, and Stuttgart Airport have once again partnered to promote their destinations and brands in the UK via a Virtual Reality experiential activation at Westfield Stratford City.

Created by London based communications agency, collab-ed, the UK Summer campaign built on last year’s award-winning #nextstop campaign to once again encourage Londoners to discover the beautiful SouthWest of Germany via convenient Eurowings flights between London and Stuttgart Airport.

In 2016, Ed Euromaus, the mascot of Europa-Park, was welcomed by Londoners as they helped him find the #nextstop for his bus in a campaign also created by collab-ed. This year, Ed returned to take Londoners on a virtual reality journey to his home, Europa-Park, in Baden-Württemberg.

The 2017 campaign centred around a VR experiential activation in Westfield Stratford City where visitors could check-in to #FlyWithEd on board his special Eurowings plane to the Sunny Side of Germany; touching down in Stuttgart Airport to discover the Black Forest, before taking a rollercoaster ride through Europa-Park, Germany’s largest theme park.

Campaign seeding via social media continued the narrative from last years’ campaign whilst this year the reactions of visitors were videoed and shared across the campaign channels via the hashtag #FlyWithEd in order to drive social amplification.

Additional Out Of Home activity consisting of digital OOH throughout Westfield Stratford City and print OOH throughout Stratford International Station further promoted the VR experiential activation.

Visitors also had the opportunity to extend the experience via campaign gifting, with VR cardboards and a free digital download of the Coastiality app (App Store & Google Play) enabling the experience, and partner brands, to reach directly into the homes of an even wider audience.

“The response has been fantastic,” says Manuela Spröwitz, International Marketing Manager at Eurowings. “The 360° video is a great tool to inspire visitors to travel with Eurowings to Europa-Park and the region. We are really happy to increase the awareness of our flight offers with this innovative and exciting flying experience – on ground!”

“It’s been great to be able to build on last year’s success and really take this story to the next level”, says Nichola Kirkman, Creative Director of collab-ed. “This year’s campaign has been tremendously well received by Londoners and is yet another indicator to us that audiences are increasingly receptive to innovative marketing and being reached in more meaningful and powerful ways.”

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Ballantine’s Hard Fired whisky variant – matured in charred American oak barrels – has introduced multisensory charred bars to Paris airports to highlight the bespoke distillation process.

The Ballantine’s Hard Fired multisensory bar will be a new engagement launching in the travel retail environment, giving passengers the opportunity to ‘fire up’ their journey with a taste of whisky while sitting at a bespoke charred bar, smelling hints of wood smoke and vanilla.

Passengers are also being offered the opportunity to ‘fire up’ their mobile devices for free via charging points built into the bars.

Brand activation agency ignis worked with Ballantine’s to develop a bar that appears to have been constructed from the charred wood of the whisky barrels, which has gone live across airports in Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly and Nice airports.

The double charred barrels will feature in each activation to highlight the unique way in which the smoky taste of Ballantine’s Hard Fired develops during its resting phase.

Emily Ho-Ng, Brand Manager at Pernod Ricard Travel Retail EMEA, says: “The activation not only explains the process behind Ballantine’s Hard Fired, but also instils an emotional connection with the brand through the drama it brings to Paris and Nice.”

ignis is a multi-award winning independent brand activation agency based in Fulham. Over its 29-year history it has worked for clients including Jameson Whiskey, Sheraton Hotels, Fuller’s, Betfair and Cuticura.

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Blackjack Promotions, a leading UK and European provider of brand ambassadors and travel retail and customer service specialists in airports, has acquired Irish company Casey Recruitment, based just outside Dublin.

Founded in 1998 by Managing Director Mary Kelly, Casey Recruitment is Ireland’s leading provider of temporary and permanent staff to Ireland’s retail industry, with a particular focus on luxury brands and the travel retail sector. Current clients include L’Oréal, William Grant & Sons and Estee Lauder.

Following the completion of the deal on December 31st 2016, Casey Recruitment is undergoing a rebrand to Blackjack Ireland and will be led by Norma Murphy as Head of Blackjack Ireland.

The acquisition marks a significant step in Blackjack’s European expansion plans by extending its reach into Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.

“We are a dynamic and ambitious business, constantly focused on growth and expansion by providing elevated service levels and innovation for our clients,” said Sally Alington, Managing Director, Blackjack Promotions and Director of Retail & Experiential Services for Blackjack’s parent, OmniServ, an ABM Company. “This latest acquisition presents a really exciting opportunity for us to develop ABM and Blackjack’s presence in Ireland, as well continue to build upon existing excellent relationships with Aer Rianta, DAA and Heinemann.”

Mary Kelly, Managing Director, Casey Recruitment, says: “It was very important to me that the business we built up over the years with our wonderful staff and premium clients would continue to develop and flourish. I have known Sally and Blackjack for many years and am confident of great things to come. My staff are looking forward to a bright future ahead with lots of opportunities. Our clients can be assured of continued excellent results with Blackjack offering their vast expertise in the customer services industry.”

Casey Recruitment was the sole Irish member of the Airport Promotions Agencies network (of which Blackjack is also a member), an association of retail solutions companies which collectively provide staffing to over 80 Airports across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Blackjack MD Sally Alington is joint-chairman of the APA. Blackjack is also a member of UK marketing industry trade body, the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM).

The Casey Recruitment acquisition comes on the back of a hugely successful year for Blackjack in 2016, which has seen its travel retail sector income increase by +40% YOY.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Blackjack Promotions is the leading staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist, with operations in the UK and the Middle East. Its core service offering falls under three headings: travel retail, experiential and logistics. It also works hand-in-hand with agency partners and media owners using its experiential expertise to bring brands and briefs to life.

The company was founded in 1995 and acquired by OmniServ Limited, the European division of Air Serv Corporation, owned by ABM, in 2013. Blackjack is a member of the Airport Promotion Agencies (APA), of which Blackjack MD Sally Alington is joint-chairman, and the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM).

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Andy DeVito of Blackjack Promotions has some timely advice on Christmas-related marketing

The Christmas period is all about tradition. The supermarket aisles filled with gifts and decorations, the Christmas TV ad battle and the traditional headlines about this year’s ‘Winter Blunderland’ Christmas-themed event.

Muddy fields rather than pristine snow; elves who are drunk, abusive or smoking; a ‘Polar Express’ which costs more, mile for mile, than the Orient Express; and a Santa experience which is more grotty than Grotto.

Year in, year out, the media reports on the heartbreak of those punters who have forked out £150 for a family ticket to feed carrots to a sad donkey wearing fake antlers before their 30 seconds with a Bad Santa. It seems like no matter how many disastrous Christmas theme parks are exposed every year, some people never learn.

I’m not just talking about consumers here: there are lessons that all of us who work in the experiential industry could do with taking to heart.

Here are just a few of them…

Location, Location, Location

There are very good reasons why the best Christmas experiential activations tend to take place in big department stores, shopping malls and transit hubs, not muddy fields outside Milton Keynes.

For one thing, it makes commercial sense, particularly for big brands. If you set up your extravaganza in a location which is going to see major footfall, particularly consumers in a shopping frame of mind, then it will directly impact sales.

It’s not just about how people get there or what state of mind they’ll be in when they arrive; it’s also about having enough space and resources on hand to deliver a great activation. Take shopping malls – they are already effectively retail theatres, with the infrastructure to allow you to deploy giant sleighs and chorus lines of dancing teddy bears.

Train stations and airports are other excellent places to run Christmas-themed events. Again, they have great facilities, good theatre-like spaces, doors and lifts which can handle large items of equipment, and lots of people who are going to spend the time waiting for their train or flight browsing the retail outlets.

Santa’s Little Helpers

Elves are supposed to be magical creatures who sing and dance as they make toys for good children. They’re not supposed to reek of cigarettes and booze, and they’re expected to be happy and cheerful no matter what the situation – not surly and abusive. The same applies to Santa himself, only more so.

If you think about it, though, professional, well-trained brand ambassadors are a key ingredient in the success of any activation, whether it’s a Christmas special, a Halloween Fright Night, an Easter Egg Hunt or sampling in a supermarket carpark.

The clue is in the job title: Brand Ambassadors. They represent the brand, which means they have to exemplify its values. Make sure the staff you deploy have been fully trained in all aspects of the brand and the product they will be promoting.

Check any requirements for staff with special skills – tech people, gymnasts and the like. And if there is going to be any contact with children, then make sure your ambassadors are CRB checked.

The true meaning of Christmas

One final point. Christmas is now a massive commercial opportunity and the biggest sales period of the year. But there are still plenty of people for whom Christmas has obvious religious overtones. That includes Christians but also people of other faiths.

Do not offend people by misusing religious symbols, by appearing to hijack the story of the Nativity to drive profit or by assuming that everyone you have contact with will be familiar with the story of Jesus’s birth.

You can still tap-in to the general feelings of goodwill that Christmas evokes in most people – just look at the current crop of Christmas ads. But whatever you do needs to be on-brand and genuine, not tawdry tat.

Andy DeVito is Account Director – Experiential at Blackjack Promotions, which provides leading staffing solutions, travel retail and specialist experiential services in the UK and the Middle East. Its core service offering falls under three headings: travel retail, experiential and logistics. It also works hand-in-hand with agency partners and media owners using its experiential expertise to bring brands and briefs to life. Blackjack is a member of the Airport Promotion Agencies (APA), of which Blackjack MD Sally Alington is joint-chairman, and the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM).

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Blackjack Promotions, which specialises in airport staffing, travel retail and experiential marketing, has appointed Andy DeVito as Account Director to help the agency drive forward its plans to offer clients an ‘end-to-end’ service encompassing strategy and planning, creative, production, logistics, staffing and post-campaign analytics.

DeVito, 33, returns to Blackjack from specialist events, experiential and retail production house Bluedog Productions, where, since 2014, he has been Airport Specialist and Head of Global Travel Retail, delivering event and experiential activations and retail builds in numerous international territories for clients including Bacardi, Remy Martin and Stolichnaya.

Prior to Bluedog, he spent four years working at Blackjack, where he ended up spending a year as Bacardi Brand Ambassador, helping switch the brand from short term tactical activations in global duty free to a rolling ‘always on’ strategy.

In his newly-created role at Blackjack, DeVito will focus on improving the integration of the creative, design, planning and logistics services that the agency provides in addition to its award-winning staffing service. He will report to Ian Priestman, Blackjack’s Head of Experiential.

Priestman added that many larger clients are increasingly looking to consolidate their marketing spend with full service agencies which also have international reach. Blackjack already delivers campaigns across Europe and the Middle East, with an established operation out of Dubai Airport.

Blackjack Promotions is a leading staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist, with operations in the UK and the Middle East. The company was founded in 1995 and acquired by OmniServ Limited, the European division of Air Serv Corporation, owned by ABM, in 2013. Blackjack also has an office in Dubai where it operates under the trading name Air Serv Hospitality Services MENA.

Blackjack is a member of the Airport Promotion Agencies (APA), of which Blackjack MD Sally Alington is joint-chairman, and the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM).

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