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According to ISM Boston‘s website, Gary Leopold, their CEO, “not only eats, sleeps and breathes travel, he knows it from the client side.” After having a conversation with him, one would appreciate the completeness of the sentence – and the man.

Not only has Gary led ISM Boston – a niche travel marketing firm – for almost 25 years, he has also been involved in the strategic planning for all accounts, one of them being Emirates Airline. ISM Boston recently won the Emirates account for North America after a review. He was gracious enough to speak to us about the unique challenges faced by airline brands and how they can succeed – both in the US and abroad.

In essence, Gary feels that airlines need to give autonomy to marketing agencies and push them to innovate – like Emirates does. Over the five years ISM Boston has had the Emirates account, they seem to have surpassed their own expectations on the quality of work produced for Emirates.

When asked …

Recently, there has been a surge in online betting on an interesting issue – which would be the next airline to go bust? Below is a screenshot of one of those sites. From the odds, we can tell that FlyGlobespan and SkyEurope are the most likely to go bust very soon, and British Airways and Lufthansa are the commercial airlines least likely to go bust.

So, does that mean that airlines with stronger brands less likely to go bankrupt? It’s a lot about consumer perception and brand equity. Let’s discuss, and hopefully, we’ll reach a conclusion that derives a relationship between betting odds and brand equity!