Following a five-month pitch process, the German parent company, TUI AG, has split its European advertising business between the DDB network and the German agency Jung von Matt.
TUI UK's brands include the tour operator Thomson Holidays, Britannia Airways, the holiday retailer Lunn Poly and Skytours.
The pitch was run out of Germany under the auspices of the European marketing director, Michael Lambertz. The pitch originally included the UK incumbent, WCRS, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey Worldwide and Scholz & Friends, which were all dropped from the running in October.
Lambertz said that the German incumbent, Springer & Jacoby, had been asked to repitch for the entire European business but had declined the offer.
"There will be a collaboration of Jung von Matt and BMP DDB on an international level to define our communications strategy and overall idea. Then local agencies will develop local interpretations of campaign ideas," he said.
"WCRS hasn't lost the account because of the quality of the work, but because the international marketing and communications board wanted to define more of a network approach for a common brand personality interpreted into different markets."
BMP has been tasked to produce the first work for TUI UK to run in August to coincide with the summer holiday season. The agency will liaise with both Germany and TUI UK's marketing director, Hugh Edwards.
Edwards appointed WCRS, which already handled the Lunn Poly business, to the Thomson Holidays account last July. HHCL & Partners had been the incumbent.
Media planning and buying is handled by MediaCom in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, while Media Planning Group holds the business in the UK.
Lambertz said that current media arrangements would not be reviewed.
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