Strip for Charity

According to a press release from Ryanair, the airline, today (9 November) launched its 2011 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar, which it hopes will raise up to €100,000 for German charity “Tafel”, which provides food to people in need all over Germany, many of them children and teenagers suffering poverty and malnutrition.

The proceeds of Ryanair’s 2011 cabin crew calendar will bring the total raised by Ryanair’s sexy cabin crew to over €400,000 since the first calendar in 2008. The 2011 edition, which was shot in Fuerteventura in September, will raise up to €100,000 through the sale of 10,000 calendars onboard Ryanair flights, from www.ryanaircalendar.com or from Tafel Bundesverband in Germany for just €10.

Ryanair’s crew chose the German charity “Tafel”, after over 400 charities across Europe applied for the charity calendar partnership. This is the first year a German charity will receive the donation and follows strong sales of the 2010 cabin crew calendar in Germany, where over 30 percent of the 2010 cabin crew calendars were sold.

“Ryanair’s cabin crew stunners are delighted once again to strip off for charity and this year they’re doing it for the ‘Tafel’ charity in Germany. We hope that the 2011 Charity Calendar will raise up to €100,000 to help ‘Tafel’ deliver even more food to people in need throughout Germany,” Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary says, continuing:

“Every year the Ryanair cabin crew calendar is snapped up, especially in Germany where over 30% of the 2010 cabin crew calendars sold in just one month. Those who want to help ‘Tafel’ and bring a smile to someone’s face all year long can buy 2011’s hottest calendar onboard Ryanair flights, on Ryanair.com or from local Tafel centres.”

“We are delighted Ryanair’s cabin crew chose to partner with Tafel for the 2011 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar and we thank everyone at Ryanair on behalf of our 50,000 volunteers who deliver food every day to people in need throughout Germany. Ryanair’s 2011 Cabin Crew Calendar donation will help the Tafel deliver even more food to children and those who need it most and we encourage German passengers to buy even more Ryanair cabin crew calendars this year in the knowledge that every €10 they spend on the cabin crew calendar goes straight to Tafel,” says Tafel’s Chief Executive, Gerd Häuser.

Top photo: Detail from Ryanair’s 2011 calendar

Great places, great designs

They keep telling us not to judge the book by its cover, but we’re all mere humans, easily seduced by an inviting exterior, rendering appearances all the more important. Granted most people would be reluctant to revisit a restaurant if the impression made on a website corresponds poorly with the experience, once there, but wouldn’t it be fair to assume that an inviting place is more likely to deliver than one paying less heed to its appearance?

German design website Smashing Magazine recently ran a showcase of select restaurant and bar websites from around the world, included that of the French lounge Le 28Thiers (as seen above), which comes highly recommended. Please go have a look-see yourself. You might just get an idea or two!

Keeping the customer ‘appy

British Airways is keeping its customers ‘appy with a new app that allows customers to save time and check-in on their smartphones, according to a BA press release today.

Executive Club iPhone users can use the new app to display new Mobile Boarding Passes on their phones, which can be scanned at check-in to speed up and enhance the boarding process.

In addition, customers using Android and Blackberry devices will now be able to benefit from a version of the British Airways app. The app’s easy-to-use and stylish new interface also gives customers instant access to their Executive Club details and updates on flights.

Chris Davies, head of digital marketing, said: “Mobility and convenience is key for our customers, so that no matter where they are, they can turn to their mobile phones to find the very latest information about flights, check in times and even access boarding passes allowing them to stay one step ahead.”

The Mobile Boarding Pass feature for Executive Club iPhone users will be especially welcome for those customers unable to print off their own boarding cards when returning from overseas.

“It’s all about improving the customer experience. We’re committed to putting our customers in charge, making the British Airways’ travel experience even easier.”

British Airways was the first airline to develop an app for customers for the launch of the iPhone in the UK. Since then, over half a million customers have downloaded it from iTunes. The new app ensures customers have even greater functionality and have access to real flight information about their upcoming bookings, full integration with their Executive Club details and easily and smoothly guide customers through each stage of their flight process.

It will also provide improved flight information, a dedicated travel news section, FAQs, a Twitter news feed for iPhone users, and a link to the ba.com mobile website.

Functionality to allow customers to board using electronic boarding cards is being rolled out on both domestic and international routes.

For further details on, and downloading of, the application, please see http://www.britishairways.com/travel/iphone-app/public/en_gb

Downturn good for expansion

The Polish hospitality magazine Hotel Profit just announced its plans of expansion. From September 2009 it will be available also in English, and published in the entire CEE region.

For the last four years this hospitality B2B monthly was focused only on the Polish market, which is reasonably big, in an Eastern Europe scale, but the aim was to create media addressing issues of importance for the entire region, according to a press release issued by the company today.

One good example is VAT value, which is now lower than EU stipulated by regulation, and has to be increased during the next few months, which would certainly not help hoteliers in these difficult times. The best example is Lithuania, where the Government increased VAT from five percent to 19, causing serious problems for the domestic hospitality industry.

Poland is currently on the same track, and although the Ministry of Treasury declared there will be no change in VAT this year, there is widespread fear for 2010, as the change would be rather big, from current seven percent to 22.

Thanks to its partnership with renowned institutions, such as the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals, STR Global or International Spa Association, Hotel Profit is able to offer the highest class know-how, resources and professionalism.

Starting with September issue, Hotel Profit CEE will be distributed on-line to about 1500 professionals from Central Eastern Europe. After reaching a reasonable amount of subscribers, a printed, paid version of the magazine will be made available, too.

“The first idea about new opportunity came during last year’s International Hotel Conference in Rome,” recollects Daniel Lukaszewicz, Managing Director and co-founder of Concept Media, the publisher of Hotel Profit CEE. “We were talking to hospitality professionals and a lot of them were asking about the publication, which would cover hotel management related issues in the area,” he says in today’s press release.

Initially Hotel Profit CEE will be available in a digital flip-version, free of charge.

“We decided to go for an on-line publication, as it is more effective, easier to use and quickly delivered,” explains Dagmara Ziemiaszewska, Hotel Profit CEE’s editor-in-chief. “We hope to gain a reasonable amount of subscribers within a few months before preparing a printed version,” she adds.

What we already know for sure, is that part of the October edition will be printed, as Hotel Profit CEE will attend the International Hotel Conference in Venice, which the magazine is sponsoring. Magazine representatives will also take part in one of the discussion panels, focused on investment opportunities in the region’s hospitality business.

Concept Media, the Hotel Profit CEE publisher, also organises conferences and seminars addressing the Polish hospitality industry, but also considers organising an investment conference: Hospitality in Central Eastern Europe, which would be logical continuation of the company’s magazine expansion in new markets.

Prize for Obama campaign

LONDON, UK — In a Cannes first, the Obama for America presidential campaign, created by the Obama for America team, scooped the Grand Prix in both the Integrated and Titanium categories.

The Titanium category, which seeks to celebrate ideas that create a movement, also saw Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York and Droga5 scoop Titanium Lions for their Burger King, Oasis “dig out your soul” and “great schlep” campaigns respectively.

Read more at Brandrepublic.com

‘Brutally frank’ Saatchi book

LONDON, UK — The adland legend Charles Saatchi is to produce a new book answering 200 questions put to him by journalists, critics and members of the public.

According to the publisher Phaidon, the notoriously reclusive Saatchi will answer the questions “with brutal frankness”.

Read more at Campaignlive.co.uk

Social media = free ads?

TRAVELERS at the Liverpool Street Station in London were surprised one morning last January when several hundred commuters, rather than scurrying onto their trains, started dancing.

A day and a half later, the routine, captured by hidden cameras, showed up during a break in the reality television show “Celebrity Big Brother.” The seemingly spontaneous performance turned out to have been an advertising stunt for T-Mobile, a wireless telephone network that used it for a campaign built around the slogan “Life’s for Sharing.”

Read more at the NYT