Spafax

Spafax is an international content marketing agency that focuses on inflight magazines. Spafax was founded in London in 1985 and is now part of Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group PLC, in the tenthavenue division.[1]

The Spafax company logo.

Spafax has worked with airlines like Air Canada, British Airways, Emirates, American Airlines, LAN Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Virgin America as well as with luxury brands and government organizations like Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Mercedes Benz Canada and The Canadian Tourism Commission.

In addition to its client work, Spafax publishes a multiplatform magazine. Based in Montreal but international in scope, Sparksheet is editorially independent. Because of its unique business model, Sparksheet has been cited as an example of "branded journalism."[2] Sparksheet's content is written for a primarily business-to-business audience and focuses on topics like online publishing, design, luxury branding and marketing to the consumer in transit. Sparksheet currently boasts more than 100 contributors from around the world.

History

Spafax started as Bath Spa Factors in Bath, England in the 1930s as a garage servicing Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars. From there, they evolved into a parts distributor with a European network. In order to communicate with the sales force, Bath Spa Factors decided to take advantage of Betamax to create films with local talents, from there a film division was born. Spafax Television was one of the earliest customized programme producers that built up a blue chip client base that included the likes of Reuters and Marconi. And then, Duncan Hilleary, one of Spafax's earliest contributors, arrived on the scene in 1986 and pitched a plan for an airline network.

He and filmmaker Jeremy Hunter partnered with the newly named Spafax Airline Network resulted in a contract to produce advertising and video productions for British Airways. The video production, a monthly magazine-style programme called The World Traveller Show featuring different locations around the world, led to contracts with different airlines, including Singapore and Northwest.

In 1993, Hilleary pioneered the outsourcing of in-flight entertainment (IFE) to British Airways (BA) with a dedicated team located in a BA office in Buckingham Palace Road and re-launched BA's IFE with a new programming strategy, a new graphic identity and media brand. This new approach was also one of the first to offer tangible benefits to the airline in the form of substantial savings against the BA (IFE) budget. From 1995 to 2004, Spafax has expanded to Canada, Asia, South America, and the UAE. Spafax now has 8 offices worldwide from London to Dubai.

Operations

Spafax office locations:

  • London
  • Montreal
  • Toronto
  • Santiago
  • Orange County
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Dubai
  • Singapore
  • Frankfurt
  • New York City
  • Miami

Client List

Spafax Clients (in no particular order)

Air Canada Mercedes-Benz Canadian Tourism Commission MSN[3] Bell Canada [4]
Investors Group BainUltra Alaska Airlines Air Transport International Bombardier[5]
Virgin Atlantic Virgin America American Airlines Caribbean Airlines AeroMexico
Air Tahiti LAN Airlines Teatro Municipal de Santiago Fundación CAP Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Scandinavian Airlines British Airways
Swiss International Air Lines Royal Jordanian Airlines Egyptair
Sri Lankan Air America Media Air Mauritius
Asiana Airlines Korean Air China Airlines Singapore Airlines Malaysia Airlines
Air Mauritius

Services

Publishing

Part of Spafax's services include publishing. They specialize in custom publishing and have published many award-winning publications since its establishment. Here is a sample list of Spafax's publishing clients

enRoute Magazine [6] Bell Mobile[4] Mercedes Benz [7]
inLAN IG & Review Fairmont Magazine
Pure Canada [8] onAir HomeSpa [9]

As publishing becomes more digitized these days, Spafax now offers custom publishing for both online and offline production.

On May 14, 2009, Spafax announced a new partnership with Mercedes-Benz[7] and on September 22, 2009, Spafax agreed to a collaboration with MSN.ca by providing them with their award-winning travel content.[3]

Publications

Spafax is responsible for many publications for both online and offline such as enRoute Magazine,[6] inLAN, Fairmont, onAir, Pure Canada, HomeSpa, Royal Wings and many more. Spafax recently expanded its service to non-travel related brands such as Review for Investors Group, Mobile for Bell Canada and Santiago, Chile’s Teatro Municipal.

Entertainment

Spafax's main clients are airlines, which started the company. They offer custom in-flight entertainment and branding services to their clients; from publishing to in-flight entertainment media.

Media Sales

Advertising and media sales is part of Spafax's octopus of services. This aspect of their service is created to sell advertising.

Interactive

In lieu of current trends and digital development, customized digital branding is a part of the services offered by Spafax. Currently, a new branch of the company called Spafax Interactive has been established to meet the market needs. Types of services typically covered are web design, web development, social media marketing and communication, content strategy, internet marketing, content management, search engine optimization (SEO) and web publishing.

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References
  1. WPP Group acquires Spafax
  2. "What is branded journalism?".
  3. Spafax to Deliver Award-Winning Travel Content to MSN.ca
  4. Spafax Producing New Entertainment Magazine for Canada’s Leading Telecommunications Company
  5. Spafax wins contract to produce Bombardier magazine
  6. Air Canada and Spafax Canada Launches enRoute Magazine
  7. Spafax announces New Partnership with Mercedes Benz
  8. Pure Canada Travel-lifestyle magazine/ezine
  9. BainUltra Selects Spafax to Create Trendsetting Magazine
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