Carlson Marketing rebrand spells name clash with AIMIA
AIMIA logo
Aimia logo
Marketing services agency Carlson Marketing has changed its name to Aimia.
The agency now shares its name with the acronym for the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association.
The Carlson rebrand is a result of a global realignment with its Canadian parent company, formerly known as Groupe Aeroplan.
The company’s consumer facing brands Aeroplan, Nectar and Air Miles Middle East will remain unchanged, but its business to business brands will revert to Aimia.
AIMIA’s CEO John Butterworth was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
I’d say that once the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association speaks with its lawyers, the new “Aimia” will be getting a sternly worded letter and having to change their name to something else. It’s not as though they’re in an entirely different industry.
Shall we assume that the term ‘Cease and Desist’ means anything to them?
That gets an 11/10 for stupidity.
Clearly all the big news happens when I’m on holiday down the coast. Not sure if this counts though.
As an alternative to firing off legal salvos, we’ve opted to have a civilised conversation with the MD of the new AIMIA in Australia and we’ve both agreed to keep talking to each other to see if this really is going to be a problem. We’re the industry body for digital content, services and applications companies, they are a marketing services company. It’s not immediately obvious how this could be confusing. Nonetheless we’ll be keeping a close eye on how things unfold and we’ll respond to any concerns that AIMIA members might have.
I confess I did enjoy the response I got from their reception when I rang and announced myself as the CEO of AIMIA.yesterday. Reminds me of when I had a mate working at Butterworth’s the legl publishers and the mayhem that ensued every time I rang to speak to him.
So we now have AIMIA, AIMIA Foods (UK), the AIMIA hotel (Mallorca, Spain), the AIMIA Day Spa (Perth, WA) and we look forward to welcoming our newest AIMIA member company, um, AIMIA..
Unfortunately the AIMIA hotel does not offer discounts to AIMIA members, we asked them that a few years ago and they said no. Perhaps it had something to do with my Spanish language skills.
John Butterworth
CEO
AIMIA
Thanks John. We believe great leaders are measured by their response. We salute yours.
Richard Peake
Managing Director, Aimia
Good response John. Karl Schuester MD of the previously known Carlson would not have been so gracious I’m sure!
John I’ve never met you but with a response like that I can only imagine you are a very nice chap and a very good operator. Well done. I love seeing people handle things with creativity, flair, and intelligence.