Boutros Boutros, Divisional SVP Emirates, awarded The Global Travel Marketing Personality of the Year 2012.

Brash Brands, PROS, Amadeus and Travel Technology Research recognised for their Travel Marketing Excellence. 

On Thursday evening at the Global Travel Marketing Forum held at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, Boutros Boutros, Divisional Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications at Emirates, was announced as the Travel Marketing Personality of the Year 2012.

In his speech praising Boutros, Duncan Alexander, Director at The Travel

Marketing Store, made reference to Michelangelo's famous quotation

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."

Duncan said, "I think this quotation epitomizes the culture and style of the leadership team at Emirates and of this individual. They set extremely high standards and goals and aim for them with passion. Boutros has been at the centre of something new and innovative and that is an ambition to create not just a great leading global brand but with it a cultural movement. They are seeking to build a lifestyle brand that ranks amongst the highest in the world".

Duncan congratulated Emirates and their Corporate Communications team in setting a new benchmark by developing a brand platform that is set to propel Emirate's brand value even further ahead of where it is today, and that is, according to Brand Finance, at the very top of the rankings for airlines.

On receiving the award Boutros said,

"It is a great honour to receive this award but of course it is only a reflection of the great creative spirit and hard work of our staff, our suppliers and the top management team of the airline who set the vision and mission for Emirates and that give our brand development such a strong focus".

The awards ceremony also contained four other categories

Duncan stated "it is time for a new definition of marketing. At its core the practice of marketing has the management of product and service delivery which is supported by four practitioner areas: the artists, the scientists the humanists and the technologists".

The "artists" operate in the field of communications, branding and advertising. They focus on moulding emotions to strengthen a brands loyal base of customers,staff and investors. The winners of this category were Brash Brands where Duncan made specific references to their role in the re-branding project of dnata and the level of staff engagement that took place.

The "scientists" deal in facts, measurement and analytics. They provide the evidence for decision support ranging from market research to complicated pricing systems. The winners of this category were PROS, a world leader in pricing and revenue management software across a wide variety of industries. PROS support over eighty world-class airlines including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian. This year PROS have been rolling out a new enhanced version of their airline origin and destination analytical tools.

The "humanist" category is about people and social interaction in a business environment. It's to do with all those that have direct contact with customers. This category is supported by a wide range of suppliers ranging from training companies, consulting firms and outsourced services such as call centres, PR agencies and social media monitoring businesses. The winners of this category were Travel Technology Research, a small business of 8 staff based in the UK.

This company specializes in helping airlines of all sizes and business models in selecting and contracting passenger management systems. Over this last year this small team have assisted a number of airlines with this process including Garuda-Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Oman Air, Southwest Airlines and Virgin Australia. Duncan referred to the work of Richard Clark one of the company's founders and owners "This is as much about a small business as it is about a personality. Over time Richard has established a highly effective approach for system selection that speeds up the procurement process, keeps the buyers interests firmly at the forefront and has suppliers on their toes".

The final category are the "technologists" who support the other practitioner areas but also provide marketing, sales and distribution platforms. The winners of this category were Amadeus. Duncan referred to their long term strategic thinking, their financial performance and their recent breakthrough contracts in the American market with Expedia and Southwest Airlines. 

ENDS